Architect or Civil Engineer
Costa Rica laws say that all construction plans have to be approved and signed by a member of the Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y de Arquitectos (CFIA) de Costa Rica and that may be either an Architect or Civil Engineer.
The Colegio also sets the minimum fees that they charge. Here is a summary taken off the official CFIA contract.
Save Money with CRPlans: There are options to paying these excessive fees. One is to use CRPlans Discount Architect. They have a Design Fee Comparison Calculator that shows their fees and the fees an Architect is required to charge.
ALWAYS insist on a written contract, even if it just to prepare an estimate. I have had two different Architects start off on great terms and then when they found out that I selected a different person then tried to claim that I owed them for their work. I prevailed because there was no written contract but I now insist that any professional that is preparing a proposal sign a simple letter stating that they are not charging for the proposal effort.
Another word of caution: CFIA has a dispute resolution process that they promote for their members. To me it is very misleading and fortunately my attorney explained why I don’t want to use it in the above situations. If you agree to the dispute resolution process, you have automatically agreed that you must pay something, the resolution process is just to determine how much you have to pay! This is just another reminder of who controls CFIA.
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