JamesM

Are you 100% sure you won't be going lower than your neighbor's foundations? Any surveyor should be able to tell you the likely foundations on your neighbor's house. I imagine you know your foundation design already i.e. depth?

I had the unfortunate position of my Architect going into administration so have just hired a replacement only a two weeks ago. As people have mentioned, architects vary their prices in 3 main ways: Hourly, Fixed and % build cost (or a mixture of any combination). Mine is generally a a straightforward build of a small 3 bedroom detached house made with traditional brick and block. I was quoted £8k-30k from various architects. They all included planning, building regs, tender and contract administration. Tender and Contract administration is certainly not needed if you are project managing your own project and does take up a considerable amount of the cost.

I am currently in the BC stage so am waiting for the pre-construction approval to be granted. Once this is done, then I will apply for my mortgage. I too also had a DIP through Buildstore but complications with my project meant the project cost shot up 50k so I will have to "re-apply". The main required the mortgage company requires (which is blocking me fro making the application now) is the Building Control approval. Insurance and Warranties can be organised simultaneously (from my understanding) and are not needed in order to get a formal offer from a lender.

I was looking at something for parcel deliveries too while away from home and saw https://www.smartparcelbox.com/ but Jeremy Hariss's https://www.brizebox.com/ looks like a better bet and more secure

I have actually ended up using a few structural engineers for helping with my project (normal 3 bedroom detach house made from brick and block). There are a few complexities in that there are trees near by and it is in a flood zone 3, so the foundations are either 2.5m deep trench or piling. I had many quotes ranging from £1000-5000. Just ensure it includes a full structural calculation package i.e. superstructure, foundation, etc. The quotes also include one sit visit before doing the calculations and one visit onsite. Some may have had 3 sit visits in total.

Hi All, I’m currently looking to get land (Garden) from my friend from his current property and am aware I need to get a Solicitor involved to help with the transfer/split of land. This will result in a new registration to Land registry. To confirm, I imagine a Solicitor isn’t capable of creating the Land Registry compliant plan, so I will need to involve a Boundary Surveyor to draw up the title plan and boundaries, including any rights of way? Many thanks,

Hi All, I'm currently looking to buy a friend's plot (land next to his property) and have been checking with the service providers if there is anything under the plot, however this seems to be tricky. It seems to be mixed with free services or paid for searches. I have obtained a free map from National Grid, Affitnity Water which shows the gas and water apparatus in my area and also a report from the linesearchbeforeudig website. However these generally only show mains pipes on the road and not on the plot of land itself. Thames water have also confirmed there are no assets of theirs in the plot area. As i'm trying to be prudent, I know I can either: 1) hire a solicitor to carry out searches which can range up to £600 for a full utilities search. 2) hire a surveyor to carry out a full Underground utilities survey using Ground Penetrating Radar which can range around £1000 Does anyone have any advice on the best way to obtain services information before starting the design process? Did you carry out utilities survey (or anything else?) before investing money into an architect and planning fees? My main aim is to find any potential risks as early as possible. Many thanks for your help.