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

Jeepers_Creepers

5 years ago sis-in-law bought an end of terrace house and immediately wanted the kitchen/sitting room wall opened up. 

It was structural - solid block - and when she applied for the building cert I asked the BCO if he could recommend an SE for the calcs. He couldn't 'recommend' any - he wasn't allowed to - but he could 'name' a couple he knew were in the area...

Anyhoo, called one up - he came out, spent 30 minutes looking upstairs and down, took a few measurements, and then hung around for a nice chat about what sort of joist I'd prefer, steel or timber, outlining the pros and cons of each and what would be required to protect each type. He then sent through his calcs and dimensions with all options included.   

It was around £100. 

theoretica

Get an unconnected friend to ask him to quote for a one off piece of work?  As others have said the rate for a single job is often much higher than that for a regular income and you did insist on paying him without any specification of what.

You aren't actually coming across well to me if you make a habit of taking advantage of your employer's contractors in this way - using your employment for personal gain is very frowned upon by my employer.  The suggestion to name drop your boss appals me - there should be no hint of demanding a better personal price or it will affect the company's contracting decisions.

thearchitect

The cost is reasonable.

Grumpy_chap

Maybe the OP has not understood that an Engineer, in this context, is a highly qualified and experienced Professional operating on a par with Lawyers and Doctors.  This BBC article shows that Professional Engineers are well rewarded. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-41693230

Perhaps the OP was thinking more of an "engineer" in the context of a photocopy engineer or similar, which is really a Technician, and less well rewarded.

steve866

Have you raised your concerns with him? The calculations cost may well be fair, but I’m not sure how he is justifying £120 for fuel for a 160 mile round trip, which would cost roughly £20-25 in fuel or £72 include car deprecation, especially as he said he would tag it to the back of the job 2 miles away. I would try and get the fuel cost removed and then learn from the experience. 

Grumpy_chap

Does the £500 charged include VAT?  That means the fee is only £420.

steve866

Grumpy_chap said:

Does the £500 charged include VAT?  That means the fee is only £420.

I would assume the ‘deal for cash’ means no VAT and the income won’t be declared. 

saajan_12

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 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" 

The issue is there was no meeting of minds: 

• engineer offered to visit for free / just charge for 2 miles
• you offered to pay for the visit / pay what you owe

Not sure you can enforce / hold him to his offer and not your offer, which presumably meant the normal charges for the visit. 

Definitely ask for a breakdown and how it compares to what that engineer would "usually" charge. But not sure youc can force it down to mates rates. 

winterlover

theoretica said:

Get an unconnected friend to ask him to quote for a one off piece of work?  As others have said the rate for a single job is often much higher than that for a regular income and you did insist on paying him without any specification of what.

You aren't actually coming across well to me if you make a habit of taking advantage of your employer's contractors in this way - using your employment for personal gain is very frowned upon by my employer.  The suggestion to name drop your boss appals me - there should be no hint of demanding a better personal price or it will affect the company's contracting decisions.

It's a small family business and my boss encourages us employees to use the contractors/contacts etc. I've worked for my boss for almost two decades....I don't think it's seen as taking advantage and I certainly do not "demand" better prices. Not sure in my posts here where I have given that impression

winterlover

To update anyone who is interested, after a discussion, he agreed that the £500 was unfair and we settled on £380. (Removing the travel costs) He asked for "cash" but I told him I would prefer to do it by bank transfer. He was quite insistent on cash but I at this stage felt it better to have a "trail" of the money changing hands. He then said he would give me "an account" to pay it into. All these days later and he still has not provided the bank details so is yet to be paid.