Unprofessional work ethic and delaying of plans

My husband and I met with Jody van Heerden in July of 2014 with a brief of our architectural requirements. In August 2014 we paid his deposit to commence work. since then its been one delay after the other. By March of 2015 we paid him the final balance which in total for the plans was over R54000.00. By June of 2015 we gave him the go ahead to submit the plans to the Municipality. 8 months later and we do not have approved plans. In December 2015 we were told that the plans was with the municipality. In Feb 2016 when we did not hear from them we enquired with the municipality who advised thAt it was not submitted in Dec and that the last submission was in Nov 2015 and was sent back to them for amendments. We then spoke to Munsif at JVH architechts who advised us that the plans was submitted but could not provide any names or email add of the people he sent it to. We then requested an update via email on the 15/02/2016 and have not had a response neither are they taking our calls. We were hoping to have moved into our new house by now and these delays has impacted us hugely financially due to the rising cost of building materials.