Need someone to stamp plans ASAP

[Michael Davis]

My partners and I are working on our first flip in Dekalb County and we have run into permitting hell. The house is a 3/1, just over 1000 square feet, and we are planning to make it a 3/2 by adding a master bathroom to the back of the house into the back yard. I hired a surveyor to do a site plan, which he did and which he stamped. I then hired an architect (or at least I thought it was an architect) to use the CAD file from the surveyor to draw the proposed addition to the house by using the surveyor's site plan. His final drawing had no stamp but had the addition. I gave the drawing to my contractor to file for the permit. After a few weeks of hearing nothing, we hired a permit expediter, who says we can get our permit on Monday. Now, the expediter says they will only approve stamped plans. I asked the architect to stamp the plans so we can get the permit and he responded that he can't stamp the plans, and they shouldn't need them because we can submit the stamped site plan from the surveyor and his drawing together. I relay this to the contractor, who relays it to the expediter. Now the expediter comes back and says no, we have to have a plan stamped that has the addition drawn on it. I asked the surveyor if he would stamp the drawing that the architect did from his site plan. He says no because he didn't do the drawing, and asks why the architect won't stamp his own plans. Good question but, possible pending lawsuit aside (I am an attorney), what do we do now to get this permit? Can an architect just look at the plan the other "architect" did and stamp it? I don't want to pay for yet another architect. It is such an incredibly simple addition it makes no sense that this is so complicated. The drawings just have the site plan with the house and show a little box on the back where the addition will be. Any advice is appreciated.

[Sean Walton]

An architect cannot stamp another person's drawings. They need to be done by or under the supervision of the architect stamping.

It is against the law in most if not all states to market or represent yourself as an architect without being licensed.

I don't know about your jurisdiction but in some places if it is all a single story, single family home you shouldn't need an architect to have done the drawings. Does the design change load bearing walls? However if his titleblock says architect and he represents himself as an architect at least in California you need to stamp and sign the drawings regardless of if the building type requires an architect. E.g if an architect produces an interior design set of drawings anyone off the street could submit they would be required to stamp and sign them anyway.

You could try hiring a structural engineer to do structural drawings for the house