AS&R Consultants, LLC

Mr. Lal was 10-15 minutes late to the appointment and when he came he didn't seem to have a good grasp of the task that he was hired to do. When the Seller's agent showed him into the closet with the pull down stairs that led to the attic to look at the truss cords, he made her pull down the stairs instead of doing it himself. He then went up the attic stairs but instead of going up in the attic to inspect the issue in detail he remained on the stairs for unknown reasons although it was impossible to assess the situation from that angle. I was up on the attic and I asked him to come up but he refused saying that "his shoes were slippery". He took a few minutes to look around the attic and (in broken English) said "everything looks ok - they install attic stairs like that all the time". When I said that it wasn't the issue and he was hired to look at the cut trusses he said that all trusses were intact (although the home inspector showed us cut trusses). When I asked him to substantiate his assessment he became very agitated and started telling me that he has years of experience and he built "hundreds of houses" without really telling me what I needed. We had some back and forth and he seemed to be completely ignorant on the subject matter as he wasn't able to give me a definitive answer on any of my questions. Overall, this was a very unpleasant experience and I'm just puzzled as to how people like Mr. Lal are able to obtain their licenses as he didn't seem to have a basic knowledge of roof structures.

Guy is clearly too old to still be working. Complains, fights you on every decision, doesnt speak coherently, frequently forgets things you told him, nickel and dimes you every which way...Worst architect I have ever worked with. May seem cheap at first, but will end up costing you 2x as much as a dependable architect in the long run. I strongly suggest not working with Raj.

After the location survey was complete, we were told by Rajendra Lal, the owner of the company, that his friends in the zoning office told him that we would need a Topographic survey for a special permit and this $2800.00 item was added to the contract. Once this was completed and paid for, the county said we were given improper information and this survey was not needed for our type of special permit application. The first two sets of plans were not accepted by the county permit office due to errors in the engineering. After more than 4 months time and more expensive line items added to the contract, a final set of plans was submitted without our having time to review them, and they were accepted and a permit issued. Our contractor and subcontractors reviewed the plans, and we were told that the addition could not be built as drawn. To our knowledge, no measurements were ever done by the engineer or the architect. The foundation and beam supports had been so badly engineered that the original main load bearing masonry wall of the house would be greatly undermined and weakened. The plans did not include complete framing details, and did not address lining up and attaching the addition to the original second floor of the house. There would have been a large gap in the roof. The plan included a stairwell that did not line up vertically top to bottom, so that part of it was inside a bedroom wall! Every price had to be negotiated by haggling, starting thousands of dollars higher than was finally agreed upon. We have now hired a replacement building designer, who has provided us with a very complete, structurally sound and build-able set of plans for less money and it only took 8 weeks from his 9 hour day spent measuring our house to having a building permit issued on the first plan submission at the original contract price. I would not recommend AS&R Consultants to anyone.