TINTO Architecture Ltd

We fell for a fantastic sales pitch in July 2020. Disappointingly, little of that came to fruition. It was evident that the site survey was substandard as we received numerous requests about various elements that should have been captured during the survey (including the requirement for me to carry out dimensional checks). There was no concept of keeping within the agreed project budget, regardless of how many times queried. That became evident in December 2020, when we had the privilege of paying a Quantity Surveyor £900 to inform us that the architect had provided us with plans and planning permission for a build that was estimated to be more than double the agreed budget. Needless to say we had to start again, with a build delay of 12 months and a subsequent significant increase in material costs. Over the last 6 months of the design stage (2nd time round), all communications were managed through emails. Not one face to face or Teams meeting. We had to constantly ask for the progression of the visualisation of the external finish options and we were informed that cladding samples would be obtained by Tinto which we tired of waiting for and obtained ourselves. We also had to rely on our builder to come up with a solution to an imposing structural beam within the design. Once final payment was made for the design services carried out, Tinto showed no further interest in how the project progressed. We are extremely pleased with our extension but credit must go to our builder not Tinto Architecture.

This company let us down in the project management of our build. The result was a delayed start along with the build going beyond the contract end date of early November 2019. There was very little communication with us unless we initiated it and we did not feel that the architect following up on work scope delays or was supporting us with the build.