Why does cheap documentation ultimately cost you more?

• Council fees will be higher for the consent due to increased RFIs (requests for information) asked of the designer as information is missing from the cheap drawings.
• Council will delay the Building Consent being approved while they wait for your designer to provide RFI answers & change the documentation which could hold up your builder starting work.
• Cheap drawings have minimal details for the builder & sub trades to work off. This costs time delays & additional costs due to mistakes made during building because of a lack of detail on drawings & documents where it matters.
• Cheap drawings are not value engineered for cost effectiveness. They are rushed & the easiest option (often the mosty expensive) or product specified rather than the best most cost effective product or detail.
• Cheap drawings are often not well thought through & the detailing often doesn't work or it is a messy or poor solution. This can lead to leaks, time delays & a builder having to come up with his own details to replace the poor details on the drawings. This in turn puts the builder & subtrades & effectively everyone involved at risk (especially you) which is unecessaary.
• The likelihood of a leaky home is much higher with cheap drawings & this can end out costing you a huge amount of time, money & aggrevation to fix.
• Cheap designers often do not carry Professional Indemnity Insurance nor belong to a Professional Organisation such as ADNZ. PI insurance is there to protect a client, not just the designer carrying the insurance. So if your designer has no PI Insurance, it will be more difficult to get money out of him if something goes wrong & you need to make a claim against him. Memberships to a professional organisation also helps ensure accountability of the designer.
• The final value of your building will be lower as the design quality & visual appeal of it will be lower.

In summary, a cheap designer, drawings & documentation are just not worth the risk. A bulding is the largest asset you will probably ever own, so why take the risk?

So if you want peace of mind, spend a little extra to do it once & do it right with good quality well thought through & detailed design documentation prepared by a design professional of good repute, operating responsibly, with suitable PI Insurance & professional memberships.