the_r_sole

that is absolutely awful service! Planning applications should be checked on receipt and validated at that point - it is still possible that a planning officer can ask for more information or clarification, there is no need whatsoever to invalidate an application at this stage. If I was your architect I'd be on the phone to the head of planning right now ?

what happens if you put the windows and doors in at 1.2? the thing is, the SAP rating doesn't matter for your planning condition, you just need to show the percentage improvement over the TER

All of it could be upped (or downed!) quite easily, what construction are you using? Windows and doors would give you the biggest bang for buck upgrade, do you have any fixed panes or anything? easy/cheap to put them as triple glazed...

do you not have an architect/designer talking you through the options for the energy performance? your fabric u-values aren't great at all, sometimes adding a woodburner as secondary heating can get you a bit of a bump, as can tweaking the air tightness... but you really need to be looking at some kind of heat pump to get the target. One that surprised me recently was waste water heat recovery, that's something I'm going to put in everywhere from now on!!

In that case they would just ask for additional information, ask you to withdraw the application or refuse it on the basis of insufficient/inaccurate information. I've never heard of an application being made invalid in the week before a determination deadline (but nothing surprises me anymore with planning officers)

That's awful, what was the reason for non validation? See if you can find and screenshot a previous version of the application on the portal (guy in our office tracks changes on every application which has given us some interesting insights...)

In answer to the op, m2 pricing is a very, very blunt tool for pricing. There are far too many variables for it to give you a meaningful cost estimate. Generally it's cheaper to build a smaller footprint with more floors You look like you're fairly well on with things so why not get a qs to give you a budget cost?

Looks well done, it's kinda strange to have that in the middle then two really simple rectangular boxes either side. Absolutely incredible view too! Amazing what some will come up with when you don't have the same restrictive planning departments trying to make everything "in keeping"

That's interesting, be good to see the Raft Design paper if you have it handy... It's good to hear about engineers who think through the implications of their design (we have different engineers for different projects depending on how much thinking is involved!) Shame they aren't SER certified

A builder saying too much insulation and doesn't like warm roofs is a bit worrying if you want a well insulated loft conversion with a warm roof...

You have to have a proper appointment yeah, but you can work on an agreed hourly rate or some other method of calculating fees (it just has to be detailed and agreed on appointment) but it is amazing the very loose interpretations I've seen of "appointments" ?

so you've done a load of work and don't know what their invoice is going to be? For that amount of work (without me seeing it or knowing how much back and forth) you could be 2400+ easily (4/5 days)

Out of interest, how did you end up with them?!

They don't necessarily have to be local, but sometimes local knowledge and experience of particular building standards departments can be useful in my experience! You definitely want a scottish engineer for scotland, and one who is able to issue an SER certificate

I reckon the builder's been sacked a few times from there tbh! ?

did they quote for Site Investigation in their proposals? Seems strange to reduce the scope and not the costs, they will still have to interpret the si report etc but if they're not physically going to site that's a strange one... The fees for warrant vary a lot depending on the design so it's a bit of a finger in the air question there! We usually get three quotes for clients from structural engineers so that they can compare the costs and timescales before making a decision - How far north are you? I'd have a look at your local building standards portal and see who's the providing the SER certificates round about, although engineers seem to cover huge areas!

Without a house designed you're looking at a day really (we do a PPP application as a fixed fee thing for individual houses but I've not seen that very often) It does depend a little on what your local authority want to see and also the nature of a site, and if you're in a conservation area or some other controlled zone might mean you can't submit an outline application...

Why would you go for outline planning rather than detailed? You can get away without a huge amount of detail for outline planning

That's still confusing. Did the scope you agreed with the architect include a basement?! If not you have significantly changed the scope of their work and they might not have sufficient insurance to cover the project as basements have extra risks associated with them. I appreciate that the footprint of the building hasn't changed but the floor area has... what you're saying is like, well its the same size of building I've just added 18 floors on top so it's not really got any bigger... ?

Either you have added a basement into the scope of works or you haven't and it's always been part of what the architect has quoted for. If they haven't quoted for it, you should have them double check that they can still say they are properly insured for works involving a basement. you've said in one post that the floor area has increase to around 650m2 but then you've said that it's always been in the scope of work...

so you haven't added any floor area to what they quoted for?! confusing...

but did it include a basement at that stage?

Architects are required to have appropriate insurance in place, it's determined in the code of conduct. Our premium doubled this year for the same level of cover and that was without the cover for basements!

and also make sure your architect has appropriate PI cover for basements! this year there are a lot of caveats in renewals...

definitely check what's happening to the fee by adding that much area - all of my appointments state that the fee is updated as we go if it's based on a square meter rate...