Architect wants extra for 'working drawings'

jamummy

Us and our terraced neighbours want ground floor extensions doing within permitted development dimensions.

The architect had already submitted our neighbour's plans so agreed to do our plans for £500 plus the £86 council fee. It's basically a copy and paste job on the architect's part.

He sent us the drawings and they include no dimensions at all, no angles for the pitch roof, except the 3m out from the house that we know already. He's now saying working drawings (ie with more detail for the builder) will be another £250, but that a competent builder should be able to work with what he's done.

Have I been had? I did ask him if the £500 would cover all the drawings we would need but didn't actually get anything in writing, doh.

Doozergirl

Architects drawings are to scale. Any builder with a scale rule and a protractor can work off them. It's a permitted development extension. You shouldn't even need drawings for planning.

teneighty

I assume they are applying for a Lawful Development Certificate so only basic dimensions are required to establish that the extension falls within permitted development. So height, length, width is about all you need. Given your circumstances and assuming it is a simple extension, £500 sounds reasonable to prepare simple Planning Drawings. I would suggest that these are usually far too simple for builders to use to prepare accurate quotes.


If you want more detailed drawings suitable for Building Regulations with additional construction details that can be used by builders to prepare quotes then an additional £250 also seems reasonable if rather low.


The worrying thing is that the "architect" did not explain all this to you beforehand and detailed it in his written fee quote/instruction document. That is not the practice of a registered architect or a qualified professional architectural designer. I suspect your "architect" is not a qualified professional.