Who owns the plans? That’s complicated. (You paid for the design service, not the plan.)

Who owns the plans?

Typically, homeowners who hire a designer expect to "own" the plans for their new home or accessory dwelling. But that’s not exactly how it works.

Any set of plans comes with liability and copyright issues. We’ll explain these issues and how the industry standard works.

In reality, the owner has the right to build the project while the designer owns the copyright on the plans.

First, we'll share an infuriating scenario: Occasionally, an owner hires a designer, they progress through a certain amount of design work, and the relationship or project is just not working out for whatever reason. The owner decides to fire the designer, and the designer says, "This is my design. You can't use it in any way."

The owner's mind is blown! Imagine you just paid thousands or tens of thousands of dollars for someone to work for you, and then they tell you that they "own" what you paid them to do. That's not how typical employer/employee relationships work.

While a nightmare, this is a communication error that can be easily mitigated, and it is the designer's responsibility to explain why the plans are copyrighted. Most importantly, what you want as an owner is typically the right to build your project. This is what you get with New Avenue. Many (but not all, and not even most) designers follow this practice too.

There is a nuance with plans that is similar to buying a book or movie. When you buy a book, you can read it and keep it on your bookshelf. However, you can't edit it or start making copies to sell. In our case study, you have the right to use the documents created by the designer for your specific project in the same way as you can read a book that is copyrighted by its author. This is similar to having the right to buy and use any copyrighted material.

You can stop working with your designer, you can hire another designer, or you can hire your own contractor to complete the project, and in each scenario you may use the plans. There are two big limitations though:

1. You don't have the right to replicate the designs or use them to build another home on another site. There are several reasons for this:
   - There are always specific site conditions that need to be considered by the designer for plans to be safe to use.
   - An additional project increases the legal liability of the designer, so it is not allowed.
   - You did not pay for the vast majority of the "details" in the plans. Details are often times dozens of intricate drawings that show how to assemble a part of the project. These are crafted over decades and are used over and over again on a designer’s projects. Since you, as the owner, did not pay for the years of development to make them, you don't own the right to use them or copy them.

2. You don't have the right to use incomplete plans to build the home because this creates liability for the designer who created the plans. For example, you can pay to just sketch up a floorplan in the Schematic Design phase (Phase II in our process) and then stop. You can then use these completed Phase II documents (i.e., the floor plan and design) to work with another designer. But you can't get halfway through the construction documents, fire the designer, and try to build the home with an incomplete set of drawings. This also creates liability as mistakes inevitably occur, and it could lead to lawsuits.

In conclusion, you can stop working on your plans, keep the portion of the work that is completed, and use the plans for the one project that they are for. If you want to finish an incomplete set of plans, you typically start all over with a new designer. However, you may be able to sign a release from the original designer, who then allows the new designer to finish the plans. This involves a release agreement that releases the first designer from the liability that the new designer will assume. Then you can continue the plans from that point forward.