Fair architect fees
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KJC76
Posts: 1 Newbie
Advice needed please.
We have taken on the services of an architect for a single storey extension & front porch. When we had our initial meeting to discuss our plans we informed them of our total build budget to which we were told would be a sufficient amount for what we required.
We started the process & used the architects for drawings, planning permission, building warrant (we're in Scotland) & then tender. We had stage gated payments & were happy with the services received up to the tender process.
The tenders received were 3x our total budget!! When we questioned this with our architect they told us we had a budget twice what we had specified. However the invoices we have paid have all been a percentage of our original budget. We now have the last invoice for the tender aspects at a percentage of the lowest tender value.
Our question is do we have grounds to reject this invoice in that we wouldn't have even gone through planning if the cost of the build was at the tender price & we feel that the architects should have been honest with us at the beginning of our budget was unrealistic?
Can anyone offer any advice please?
We have taken on the services of an architect for a single storey extension & front porch. When we had our initial meeting to discuss our plans we informed them of our total build budget to which we were told would be a sufficient amount for what we required.
We started the process & used the architects for drawings, planning permission, building warrant (we're in Scotland) & then tender. We had stage gated payments & were happy with the services received up to the tender process.
The tenders received were 3x our total budget!! When we questioned this with our architect they told us we had a budget twice what we had specified. However the invoices we have paid have all been a percentage of our original budget. We now have the last invoice for the tender aspects at a percentage of the lowest tender value.
Our question is do we have grounds to reject this invoice in that we wouldn't have even gone through planning if the cost of the build was at the tender price & we feel that the architects should have been honest with us at the beginning of our budget was unrealistic?
Can anyone offer any advice please?
0
Comments
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if you can demonstrate that you were being charged on the basis of a different budget, then yes, I'm sure you could; or at least only pay based on the same terms. Have you got it weitten down anywhere - either the budget or the terms?
Out of interest, what was your budget and what square footage were your extensions? It would be relatively easy for those with experience to know if they correlate.Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
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Did you appoint them using the standard rias agreement?
Tbh I'm surprised they didn't tell you that they aren't cost experts and you should use a qs if cost certainty is necessary - it's usually the first discussion!
We've seen some huge increases for tenders coming back recently - usually nothing under 1900/2k per m2 but we also had one where three tenders came back and one of them was double the others.
Have you added things in like a stove/wet room etc that can be easily omitted? It's absolutely normal to go through a cost savings excercise with the preferred builders.
How close were the figures reported?0
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