Structural Engineer Fees- I am just amazed at the blatant mickey take of some folk

winterlover

Enlisted the help of a structural engineer whom I have a working relationship with. He does a fair bit of work for my Employer who is Developer. He is based around 80 miles from my home, but said he'd visit my property on the back of a site visit with my Employer just 2 miles away, so as to save me the mileage costs. He also said he wouldn't charge for his visit, but I said I wanted to pay! He came and met us, stayed for an hour and then went away. Couple weeks later he gave us a drawing and some hand written calculations. This is for an internal wall removal. We said, "let us know what we owe you" 
Today, around two weeks after we received the calculations, he's phoned and asked for £500 (cash deal) £380 for the calcs etc and £120 for fuel! I have to say I am totally shocked!! I checked his last invoice to my employer and it is broken down to £80 per hour for his time and £90 a visit for mileage etc. I estimate it would take him and hour, or two max for drawings etc, he spent an hour with us. So based on the usual charge out rate we are at £160-240 without fuel. But then add on the £90 (which I don't want to pay as he was already visiting my employer and will no doubt charge him the very same) we would be at £250-£330. And he thinks he's doing a deal for cash!!! Unbelievable being as he was going to do us a favour based on  the relationship with my boss!
I mean, what is the normal cost of this type of thing from a structural engineer. I was led to believe it was around £350-400 inc VAT

MovingForwards

Can't comment on his overall price, but will say when there's regular business coming from someone it does tend to be cheaper. As a one-off, like yours would be, you can't expect a discount.

RelievedSheff

The consulting engineers I work for don't do jobs for less than £500. It isn't worth it.

coachman12

Sounds plain chicanery to me, winterlover. He sounds like he might have a second career as a dentist------the other pullers of vast amounts of money for little work. I share your views and I would set out all the circumstances in a letter, similar to your post above and ask him if he has forgotten what he'd agreed earlier. There's an outside chance his secretary/wife/manager has sent you the letter and charges -------slim, I know, but worth a shot ? Good luck winterlover---and keep safe during this most dangerous winter that any of us are ever likely to see.

winterlover

@MovingForwards I wouldn’t have expected a discount had he not suggested that we could forego the mileage by scheduling his visit when he was in my town anyway, and the fact that he initially said “I won’t charge you for it” 

Falafels

With professionals like this, although you are paying what sounds like a huge sum for what you estimate to be just a couple of hours work, what you’re actually paying for is all the training, studying and experience which means that they can produce a report, drawings etc in only a couple of hours. They also have to be pretty sure they’ve got it right, too!

Asking someone to take on this kind of responsibility - a building failing can have catastrophic consequences for which they will then be liable - is never going to come cheap!

winterlover

@Falafels
where in my post did I say I expected it to come cheap? I simply am saying that in comparison to what my boss is paying, this is a mickey take. I asked him to do it on the basis that we had a pre existing relationship and he offered to do it at a discount or favour 

coachman12

Falafels said:

With professionals like this, although you are paying what sounds like a huge sum for what you estimate to be just a couple of hours work, what you’re actually paying for is all the training, studying and experience which means that they can produce a report, drawings etc in only a couple of hours. They also have to be pretty sure they’ve got it right, too!

Asking someone to take on this kind of responsibility - a building failing can have catastrophic consequences for which they will then be liable - is never going to come cheap!

I disagree. First, consultant doctors ( more trained than any profession around) charge as little as £120 for half an hour and sometimes for an hour. Second, winterlover had a verbal arrangement with this engineer, and the engineer needs to be reminded. As I said before, iof he receives a letter reminding him, it may have some effect----and especially if his invoice was calculated on his usual rates by his secretary who had no idea of the particular circumstances in this case ( and the engineer probably never sees the actual invoice at all). So why not try the approach I suggested ?
Good luck.

Falafels

Hang on... you said you wanted to pay for the visit and he took you at your word! Of course a one-off job is going to be more expensive than a continuing, regular source of work. (Think of the latter as a bulk buy, if you like). From the way your post reads, he initially offered do do you a favour and you declined, insisting that you wanted to pay.

It sounds as though you made a throwaway remark, and didn’t intend him to take it seriously - but he has.

blue_max_3

You won't believe the times this happens. I had to refuse a tradesman who kept offering to 'look after me', rather than give a price. Once the job is done, there is little room for discussion. 

Mickey666

Reminds me of the old joke about a factory in which the production line broke down.  The boss told his production manager to get it fixed ASAP whatever the cost.  The manager hired a troubleshooting expert who immediately came to the factory, spent half an hour looking around all the complex machinery then took a rubber hammer from his toolbox and gave a valve a sharp whack, whereupon the entire production line started working again.

The manager was pleased, his boss was pleased as it had saved him tens of thousands in potentially lost production.

The next day an invoice for £5000 arrived and the boss was furious at the price for less than one hour on site.  He told his manager to get a full breakdown and justification of the costs.  An itemised invoice duly arrived and stated:  
1 - hitting valve with a hammer - £50
2 - KNOWING which valve to hit - £4950