Architectural Fees Question

el sorcerino

So we are applying for planning on a partially built house which the current planning permission has expired on. We had been given permission last year to take over the current P.P but that's no longer possible after a long and winding legal road.

We tried unsuccessfully to get planning on a family site a few times over the past five years. We hired an architect who quoted us 1000 euro initially. Which was quite cheap we thought. The price was roughly the same second time round.

We gave up on that site and pursued another site. When we got the architect involved again he charged us 1200 euro but then handed us a bill of 2500 euro, at which point we reminded him of the agreed price and he was apologetic and said he forgot, which I believed without a second thought. We didn't apply for planning there as we were told we would be refused and instead are buying a site with a partially built house. We were given the green light by the council to take over but that P.P has now expired

Our architect charged us 1200 euro last month for his services in trying to get things done with the existing P.P. This was charged based on surveys/designs/drawings etc. There was no application required and all the drawings etc were already existing from the old application.

This month he has another bill of 1100 euro for us which is based on 500 euro of planning fees to local authority and 400 euro of surveys/designs/drawings. We thought the cost for a planning application was 60 euro from previous applications we've made and the drawings are the very drawings we were using last month, which I drew and designed anyway!

My questions to those in the know are...
1. Have new costs been introduced by county councils in relation to planning application fees recently? and
2. Are we being overcharged for his general services.

Gumbo

el sorcerino wrote: »

So we are applying for planning on a partially built house which the current planning permission has expired on. We had been given permission last year to take over the current P.P but that's no longer possible after a long and winding legal road.

We tried unsuccessfully to get planning on a family site a few times over the past five years. We hired an architect who quoted us 1000 euro initially. Which was quite cheap we thought. The price was roughly the same second time round.

We gave up on that site and pursued another site. When we got the architect involved again he charged us 1200 euro but then handed us a bill of 2500 euro, at which point we reminded him of the agreed price and he was apologetic and said he forgot, which I believed without a second thought. We didn't apply for planning there as we were told we would be refused and instead are buying a site with a partially built house. We were given the green light by the council to take over but that P.P has now expired

Our architect charged us 1200 euro last month for his services in trying to get things done with the existing P.P. This was charged based on surveys/designs/drawings etc. There was no application required and all the drawings etc were already existing from the old application.

This month he has another bill of 1100 euro for us which is based on 500 euro of planning fees to local authority and 400 euro of surveys/designs/drawings. We thought the cost for a planning application was 60 euro from previous applications we've made and the drawings are the very drawings we were using last month, which I drew and designed anyway!

My questions to those in the know are...
1. Have new costs been introduced by county councils in relation to planning application fees recently? and
2. Are we being overcharged for his general services.

You need a breakdown of costs :

1. Could include newspaper notice, OSi Maps, Lamination of Site Notice, Printing of Drawings etc

2. Depends on the brief of the project and the agreed engagement between the 2 of you tbh.

mickdw

Is this a retain and complete application - that could drive the fee up to the amounts mentioned

Drift

It's very unlikely he's making up the local authority fees.

If you are in any doubt ask him for the receipt.

As mickdw says if there was any element of retention in the planning application completed it will drive the local authority fees up substantially.

sydthebeat

the fees to retain and complete a half finished house is

€60 x 3 to retain
+
€60 to complete

= €240

put newspaper fee and maps etc and you could very well be close to €500

sydthebeat

When we got the architect involved again he charged us 1200 euro but then handed us a bill of 2500 euro, at which point we reminded him of the agreed price and he was apologetic and said he forgot, which I believed without a second thought. We didn't apply for planning there as we were told we would be refused

you paid him €1200 to prepare an application and THEN did your due diligence where you found out youd be refused??

how did that come about as it makes no sense.

el sorcerino

Thanks for the reply's everybody.

RORY O CONNOR

Ask for a breakdown of the costs: Newspaper ad, drawings, application fees, planning pack fro OSI,