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

winterlover

Bear in mind in all this that I am actually the finance manager of the firm I work for so I know full well what his usual rates are, hence why I knew exactly what to expect as a worse case scenario when I offered to pay. His charges are greater than his usual rates ! This Is why I’m annoyed 

Falafels

Mickey666 said:

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
 

My point exactly....

Comms69

Happy to do it for £50, but i wouldn't if i was you....

winterlover

Some of you are clearly missing the point. I was and am happy to pay for a service. His service was done as a “side” to a service he was providing for the company that I work for. We have an existing “relationship” He told me he’d do me a favour or I would have happily paid someone local the going rate. I am not a skin flint. I charge a fair amount for my professional services too. 

I feel peed off that he has moved the goal post. Had he said beforehand that it would cost me £500 I would have researched more local firms and got comparisons. I had his “usual rates” for the work and mileage in mind. Not double the “usual” 
He also wants it in cash, therefore will not be paying any tax on it. I also didn’t get the usual standard of work. I got a hand written quick calculation on a A4 piece of paper. For £500 I want the real deal. 

All my comments are based on a several year long friendly working relationship with the guy. 

Comms69

winterlover said:

Some of you are clearly missing the point. I was and am happy to pay for a service. His service was done as a “side” to a service he was providing for the company that I work for. We have an existing “relationship” He told me he’d do me a favour or I would have happily paid someone local the going rate. I am not a skin flint. I charge a fair amount for my professional services too. 

I feel peed off that he has moved the goal post. Had he said beforehand that it would cost me £500 I would have researched more local firms and got comparisons. I had his “usual rates” for the work and mileage in mind. Not double the “usual” 
He also wants it in cash, therefore will not be paying any tax on it. I also didn’t get the usual standard of work. I got a hand written quick calculation on a A4 piece of paper. For £500 I want the real deal. 

All my comments are based on a several year long friendly working relationship with the guy. 

Maybe he charges £3k for the 'real deal'?

You're comparing apples and oranges. He gets regular work from your employer. He take a hit on the hourly rate, in exchange for regular income. (like literally anyone with a job!)

As a one off, with no further work to come, of course he's going to charge top dollar.

ElephantBoy57

winterlover said:

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 cannot have much local work if he is travelling 80 miles, he may have lost work due to COVID and be hard-up.

Grumpy_chap

winterlover said:

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!!

Sounds really cheap to me.
You turned down the "favour" (why?)
There are only three ways this can be done:

• As a "favour" - no paid - no professional indemnity either
• Paid at market rate with all the protections that brings.  The PI insurance simply won't cover him for work that is not at market rate.
• Formal "pro-bono" agreement for a registered charity - that clearly is not applicable here.

I think you got an absolute bargain at £500!  Be grateful.

winterlover

Funny cos the electrician, plumber, and decorator all charged “mates” rates. All of which also have a long standing relationship with the business. 

My boss is also quite shocked 

Live and learn I guess but most certainly will not take people on their “word” from now onwards. 

But regardless of rate, I still think he’s done me over and I will tell him so 
Thanks all for taking time to comment 

blue_max_3

winterlover said:

Funny cos the electrician, plumber, and decorator all charged “mates” rates. All of which also have a long standing relationship with the business. 

My boss is also quite shocked 

Live and learn I guess but most certainly will not take people on their “word” from now onwards. 

But regardless of rate, I still think he’s done me over and I will tell him so 
Thanks all for taking time to comment 

It's all how you handle this. Have a word and say you were expecting a couple of hundred and so was your boss and wait for the reaction. Don't speak. Let him stew. I'm sure you can come to a compromise.

NameUnavailable

Well you did insist on paying, but forgot to ask for an idea of cost first.

Always an awkward thing when you get people you know of friends of friends involved in this way, you think they're going to do you a bit of a favour (and proabably are) but many people think it feels wrong to discuss money. Forget that, it's business at the end of the day and you should always ask what it's going to cost, it's far more awkward to be in the position you're in now.