jno Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 Got an architect’s quote for taking me through to full planning app that’s reasonable in most respects. However, they want to charge me a fair amount for soliciting each survey (topo, measured building, eco as a minimum as a minimum at this stage). I’ve email/called all of these various surveying professionals myself to get quotes for my particular plot, all of which I’m happy with. My question is, what value is my architect going to add by tracking down these quotes and instructing the work themselves? To my mind, my plot isn’t that special or complicated, so I can’t see what’s wrong with having surveyors show up and get on with it. But perhaps I’m wrong and some oversight from an architect is required. I’m being a bit pedantic, as these soliciting costs are small in the grand scheme of things and I’m very happy to pay for professionals to do things I can’t. But I’m also trying to be pretty tight on all costs to stop the total ticking up and up… Together with shopping around surveyors and avoiding soliciting fees, I think I could avoid over 1k of costs. Any experiences or suggestions on this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_r_sole Posted December 23, 2021 Share Posted December 23, 2021 If you want to commission them yourself then just do it and supply the information to the architect. Bear in mind that any missing information or difference in what's needed for to complete the design will be your cost and responsibility, we generally get quotes from surveyors for our clients because we have a lot of experience in knowing what we need to satisfy a local authority or what would be useful later in the process to avoid redoing/adding more information to surveys later and most of our clients might not understand the difference in scope of services so just look at the bottom line costs... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevilDamo Posted December 23, 2021 Share Posted December 23, 2021 Save now, spend later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andehh Posted December 23, 2021 Share Posted December 23, 2021 6 hours ago, the_r_sole said: If you want to commission them yourself then just do it and supply the information to the architect. Bear in mind that any missing information or difference in what's needed for to complete the design will be your cost and responsibility, we generally get quotes from surveyors for our clients because we have a lot of experience in knowing what we need to satisfy a local authority or what would be useful later in the process to avoid redoing/adding more information to surveys later and most of our clients might not understand the difference in scope of services so just look at the bottom line costs... Pretty much this! If you can afford the time shop around for the cheapest & have the fallback of if cheapie quote misses something or isn't clear & clarification is required then it'll cost you a couple of weeks & top up fee potentially. We used architects recommendations, knowing they were generally more expensive then my Google-fu could find... But all were known good quality, user friendly & got us through planning 1st time. Bat's, trees, highway hurdles & all!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted December 23, 2021 Share Posted December 23, 2021 Is your architect proposing to use a Quantity Surveyor to work out the likely build cost? If so then it might be reasonable to charge something to provide the information and support the QS needs. But the QS isn't cheap and if this is done at all its normally done later when more detailed drawings have been made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nod Posted December 23, 2021 Share Posted December 23, 2021 9 hours ago, jno said: Got an architect’s quote for taking me through to full planning app that’s reasonable in most respects. However, they want to charge me a fair amount for soliciting each survey (topo, measured building, eco as a minimum as a minimum at this stage). I’ve email/called all of these various surveying professionals myself to get quotes for my particular plot, all of which I’m happy with. My question is, what value is my architect going to add by tracking down these quotes and instructing the work themselves? To my mind, my plot isn’t that special or complicated, so I can’t see what’s wrong with having surveyors show up and get on with it. But perhaps I’m wrong and some oversight from an architect is required. I’m being a bit pedantic, as these soliciting costs are small in the grand scheme of things and I’m very happy to pay for professionals to do things I can’t. But I’m also trying to be pretty tight on all costs to stop the total ticking up and up… Together with shopping around surveyors and avoiding soliciting fees, I think I could avoid over 1k of costs. Any experiences or suggestions on this? Unfortunately everyone needs paying for there time Architects are no different If you can arrange the surveys yourself You are better off doing so Same goes for builders and trades Most seem to think Architechts have an extensive pool of builders and trades to pull from They don’t They simply pick up th phone and see who’s available Which is pretty much what all the building companies are doing at the moment There great saving to be made Even at this early stage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToughButterCup Posted December 23, 2021 Share Posted December 23, 2021 9 hours ago, jno said: ... I’m being a bit pedantic, ... Change that word slightly to picky , then that's exactly what's needed. Attention to detail. Everything to be said in favour of that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceverge Posted December 23, 2021 Share Posted December 23, 2021 Pick up the phone to your architect and ask. They may be more than happy to offload the donkey work of sourcing other contractors or may have a hit list of who to avoid. Alternatively they may give you good reasons why using their preferred suppliers will make the path quicker smoother and cheaper overall. Either way it's no harm to remind everyone there's a budget to be worked to. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jno Posted January 30, 2022 Author Share Posted January 30, 2022 Thanks for the input. Fair points on either side! As it turned out, I'll likely do a bit of both of what has been suggested here. Search and instruct my own consultants for the less specific, tick-box surveying (eco, flood risk assessement) and coordinate with the architect for the bits that might require a more specific knowldge of the proposed build (topo, ground survey). Few £'s saved hopefully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlieKLP Posted January 30, 2022 Share Posted January 30, 2022 That sounds like the best idea definitely. It really irritates me when someone commissions a tooo and they miss out the important things because the company was cheaper. though technically you could just ask the architects what they need from the topo first and get around that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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