Complaint Review: Avoid Phase One Design aka Phase 1 Design in Calgary and Vancouver aka Kathy Yuen and her team. - Calgary Alberta

Avoid Phase One Design or Phase 1 Design in Calgary and Vancouver and Kathy Yuen.

Prior to contracting Phase One Design to design our new home, we were provided with a pricing proposal for each stage of the design process, along with a timeline for completion of the drawings and start date to begin construction. We provided a retainer for them to start on January 26th, 2022 and we were told that we would have all drawings and permits in place to commence in build in July or August of the same year. This timeline was consistent with other firms, so we were not concerned, at the time.

Prior to the initial in-person meeting in February of 2022 we exchanged brief communication via email in terms of our build budget, design preferences, room requirements as well as overall size requirements. We provided a detailed list of requirements and were told that there were no issues that the design and build could be completed on budget.

Fast forward to May 2022 when we had our first meeting at Phase 1’s office to view, for the first time, our exterior home design and first draft of layout inside of the. Although already behind schedule, we were, overall quite happy as the exterior was exactly what we wanted but the interior required quite a bit more work as room sizes were either too small, or too large and had a lot of wasted space. We provided a size range of 4,100 – 4,300 square feet, where this initial proposal was 4,600 square feet and we felt that this could still work within our budget. After the meeting, we took a drawing package home to review, and met with our builder. He marked up the drawings and sent them back to Phase One for revisions and requested exterior elevations of the sides and rear of home to begin obtaining quotes from various trades. Several weeks later, we were back at Phase 1’s office to review the revisions, this time along with our builder. We were beyond disappointed as they presented drawings of the layout that did not take any requests into account from our builder and the size increased to 5,100 square feet. Very basic elevation drawings were provided and were not consistent with the interior layout, as windows and other areas were not shown. We relayed the concerns immediately. This was a 3 hour meeting and overall a waste of time. Phase 1 apologized for the miscommunication and stated that the drawings would be revised ASAP. Fast forward to July when I began following up as we were not seeing ANY progress which delayed our building process. It was not until mid August that we were able to meet again to review the revised set of drawings. Once again, there were concerns as the interior size had not increased to 5,600 square feet, roughly 25% larger than our requirement, and issues with room sizes came into play. For a home of this size, most rooms were small, and there was a substantial amount of wasted space. We felt as though someone quite junior was drafting our drawings. On top of this, changes were made to various rooms when not needed to be made. When being billed at $160+ an hour, this was very concerning.

After THREE in person design review meetings, we were not at all anywhere near completion, and they have not even started the layout design for the basement. Rather than waste everyone’s time to keep having to meet at their office, we all agreed to send email requests for revisions. I relayed my strong disappointment to Phase 1 in October as we were in the 10th month of design and they were delaying our revisions. We were promised a competition of the design drawings by end of October and I even hired our interior designer to assist with the layout, as we lost faith in Phase 1 it was clear that they were struggling.

We now began to receive emails from Phase 1 accounting stating that we owe additional funds to keep the process going. I relayed that we should be paid up to date, as the first stage of the design proposal was to be between $13,365 on the low end and $15,510 on the high end, as per their proposal. She explained that they were at 207 hours to date, AFTER crediting me for $6,000 for changes that were made and billed without request. You would think that the company would be advising that were slightly over the proposed cost, let alone more than double, without a single communication until I inquired. We have paid $23,339.35 up until September 14th, not knowing that all of this time all of the hours were solely directed to the first stage which puts us at over double the proposed amount, drawings that were 70% completed and at least a 9-10 month delay on construction at this point if we continued with them. On Thursday, November 9th, I requested a complete billing schedule of time spent on our project and requested to meet in person. An in-person meeting was set for Wednesday, November 16th with the Phase 1 team at their office. Between November 9th and 16th, I meet with my builder and interior designer. They both showed significant concern in Phase 1’s abilities to deliver a drawing package that would be completed without further errors and delays.

On November 16th I came into the meeting at Phase 1 expected to clear up the accounting issue, as we were overcharged $7,829.00 and even charged HST on a previous invoice, which was not credited back to us. Kathy Yuen, the principal of Phase 1, was the only one present at the meeting. Their office was full of empty cubicles and looked at though they might be moving or closing. Kathy did not provide any billing schedules, made no excuses but blamed us for the delays. At this time, I made the executive decision to terminate their services and went over reasons why.

1.   Significant delays

2.   Lack of knowledge

3.   Overbilling

I requested for all of our files to be sent over to be forward to the new firm that we will hire to finish the design phase and they are ignoring my request until they receive more money from me! It took over 2 weeks to receive a billing breakdown, which, if tracked in their system, could have been done instantaneously. I feel that they created a false log book. This is a shame as we started the process with nothing but excitement in designing our forever home, and now have lost all interest.

Aside from the delays to commence constructions, there are numerous carrying costs incurred from our build loan, and the land. This matter will now be resolved in court as Kathy Yuen is not responding to my emails, nor providing drawings to send to the new architect firm that we contracted.

I have attached email communication stating the hours spent to date in October on our process, total amount paid to Phase 1, along with a copy of their original proposal with pricing.

I thank you in advance for your assistance.