If my contract w/ my architect (AIA Document B141 article 7 section 7.1) says 'claims, disputes, or other matters in question...arising out of or relating to this agreement or breach therof shall be...decided by...arbitration association...' can you tell me if that includes a case where the local licensing board has found my architect incompetent and the local engineering board has found him fraudulent sinece he is saying he is an engineer without a license? Is that 'breach of contract'? or does this actually fall outside the realm of the contract and so we don't have to bother with arbitration for this?

we have found the home design he made for us to have glaring miscalculations (such as he thinks there are 27 sq feet in a square yard) and lack necessary details in engineering plans (no rebar schedule drawn for an ICF construction where we have large glass areas to span) and an engineered truss he designed that we found out isn't unsafe but is massively larger, more expensive than needed (he overcompensated since he didn't really know what he was doing) and several fraudulent calculations in a cost scedule he made for us where for example he doesn't count the # or sizes of windows correctly and uses again his 'new math' of 27 sq ft per sq yard. So we are way over budget after we make the necessary corrections. Even if we do get all the changes made to his plans from a qualified architect to make it pass for a permit. Our damages now include medical problems directly caused by the stress we've been under and he insists we owe him $ for a bogus take off list he made for us and said he spent 22 hours on it (he kept our retainer for part of it) and we worry he might attack our credit rating, which up to now has been spotless and we are in midst of going for a home mortgage.

If we do not have to go to arbitration if this falls outside 'breach of contract,' can we write a demand letter to his liability insurance carrier (if he has one) or must we take him to small claims court?