Top designer in bc . I have finished the whole house design by him at 124 A street near 60 Ave surrey bc

Raymond Bonter Designer Ltd was directly responsible for an approximate 18-month delay in getting a building permit for our home, and since that kind of delay for a family with 2 young children represents a lot of hardship, money, stress, etc, I thought it necessary to share so others don't hire this firm and possibly suffer the same misfortune. When we hired Bonter, the very first step was for them to perform a 'zoning analysis.' This is detailed clearly in their contract, and they charged $1,000 for this service. The contract also said no drawings would be prepared unless Bonter confirmed that the work in question was 'fully known to be allowed by the Authority Having Jurisdiction.' Fast forward to June 2021 when our builder takes our plans to the City of Surrey to submit our building permit and is advised that our property falls within a Sensitive Ecosystem Development Permit (SEDP) area, which meant an SEDP application was required before applying for a building permit. This required an Environmental Development Plan submitted by a Qualified Environmental Professional. The SEDP application also needed a site plan, and a RAPR report, which is reviewed by provincial authorities. The SEDP takes a minimum of 6 months, and only after the RAPR report is reviewed by the province which is another 3-4 months. It's at this point that we realized Bonter completely failed to do the proper zoning analysis, and after paying them over $14,000 to design a home, they could not even be sure that it could be built. We had moved on to another designer since we also didn't like their design but did not have the new designer do a full zoning analysis since we had already paid Bonter to do this. Had Bonter done this properly when we started the project with them in 2019, the SEDP process would have been completed by June 2021 when our plans were ready to submit. Instead, it's now August 2022 and we still are waiting for the completion of the SEDP. During that time, we've incurred tens of thousands of dollars in costs that are a direct result of Bonter's negligence. The more unbelievable part is that when we went back to Bonter to discuss reimbursement of some of our fees paid, they started making all sorts of blatant excuses. They first stated that the SEDP requirements were not in place when they started our design in 2019. Their reply was sent to the City of Surrey who responded that they were in place since 2016. Bonter then replied that even if they may have been in place in 2016, they were not shown on the City website. The City replied to this complaint with archived web pages that showed very clearly that step #4 in the 'BEFORE YOU BEGIN' instructions, is to 'Check if you are located in Development permit areas, or environmental protection areas.' This could not have been simpler and easier to determine, yet it seems evident Bonter did not even make the most minimal effort to review this. We had requested a very fair reimbursement of $5,000 of the $14,000 paid to them, knowing that was the maximum amount you can sue for in small claims, as we did not want the added stress and hassle of suing in Superior Court. Instead of owning up to a massive oversight and resolving it, Bonter choose to pay their insurance company $2,500 to fight the claim (and submitted this as an expense to the court that they wanted us to be responsible for). Bonter then tried to claim in the proceedings that it was my builder's job to determine the zoning, or myself, etc., despite the fact they were the only ones paid to do this work. The court adjudicator determined that Bonter had an explicit contractual duty to confirm the zoning requirements and that Bonter breached our contract and was responsible for damages. Unfortunately, the maximum damages that could be awarded in the small claims court was $5,000, but based on the adjudicator's reasonings, the total damages would have been, at minimum, more than the full sum of fees we paid Bonter. Even after the court made their decision and payment order, we then received an email from the Lawyer representing Bonter and/or their insurance company, demanding that a release and confidentiality agreement be signed before they would send payment. This is not required when a court issues a decision and orders payment (their lawyer called it a settlement agreement when it was nothing of the kind) and it really makes me wonder how many other Bonter clients have gone through this same ordeal and kept their mouths shut because of their lawyers demand that these unnecessary agreements be signed before the court ordered payment is sent? read more

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