Who Owns the Plans

It is helpful when you can maintain a friendly relationship with your client but you have to be careful not to harm your professional responsibility. At the job site after performing some of the tasks and showing the homeowner how to do a portion of the work, I was asked if he could give his set of plains to a coworker who owned a property that he also wanted to add an ADU on. I told him he could give his set of plans to anyone he liked but that they would not do his coworker any good. I explained to him that his set of plans were his but they were only plans to build on his property. Soil conditions effect the plans. City ordinances effect the plans. The city’s plan checkers effect the plans and in the set of plans there are item which need to be changed and adapted for the new build.

He asked me what he paid for when he paid for the plans. I told him you paid for the right to use those plans to build an ADU on your property but the plans themselves were the intellectual property of the architect. I then went on to explain that if his coworker wished to use the plans as a base point the way to go about it would be to schedule a meeting with the architect and see if it were possible to adapt the plans to fit his property. I told him his coworker would get the plans at a discount if the only changes to them was the plot plan and minor adaptations.

I do not believe that either guy was trying to get over or to take advantage of anyone they simply didn’t understand who owned the plans in general. Tomorrow the coworker is supposed to come to the job-site to meet with me and I will do my best to guide him to where he can obtain a set of plans at a reduced cost that is usable for his property. Because of some of the questions he asked while I was talking over the phone with him I thick he is interviewing me for the contractor position. What some people may not understand I will also be interviewing him for the client position. You hear that correctly there are people and projects that I do not wish to have. I have written on the 80/20 rule where 80 percent of your income comes from 20 percent of you clients. I am trying to get to a 40/ 60 rule and if I get there, I will strive for a 50/50 rule but there are people who demand much to much of your time when you take on the project for them. I do not come over and feed pets for most people under most circumstances. I build property values. I help people find the buyer or their next real estate property.

I do little things to take care of my clients. I explain the home building process and will help them how to do certain task. I will discuss how to maintain a home and if while I ‘m on a project something goes out that is unrelated to my project I will offer to oversee the problem for them, but I do so by the book. I pull the needed permits and I get the change order or new contract. Once the project starts, I do my best to keep things running smoothly for me and my client. There is a bit of give and take that goes with the project but there are lines you cannot cross. This does not mean you act cruelly; it means sometimes you need to lose a little time and explain the way things work. I have used that architect for over 30 years and I owe him the courtesy which I expect him to show me.  The home owner now understands that when he builds that ADU on the other side of his property he will need to get a new set of plans but that the new set may use the same basic building plans as the ones I am build his ADU off of. There are five additional people who wish to have me come and talk with them about building a similar ADU for them but I am careful to let them know that we need to contact the architect to get a working set of plans for their property if they want their ADU to be the same one I am building.

Note: Images on this blog site are from a free source or taken by the author. No image or group of photos is intended to represent the people the author serves. The author does not care about Race (that is a politically correct term that he does not like because we are all of the same Race, the Human Race. He prefers the term ethnicity, color, religion, sex, gender, marital status, disability, genetic information, national origin, source of income, Veteran or military status, ancestry, citizenship, primary language or immigration status.) He is a service provider for all people. We will all rise together when we band together and help one another. Joseph Erwin is a Real Estate Broker, DRE # O2131799, and a CA general contractor # B 696662. He’s a member of the CRMLS and The East Valley Association of Realtors located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California.