My solicitor engaged an engineer (of their choice without giving me an option) to certify our property for sale. Anyway long story short - we ended up applying for retention permission for septic tank, wastewater treatment unit, shed etc before the property could be sold.
Two years after this process started, issues are sorted and property sold. Just the engineer bill seems astronomical - I was issued an original bill of €3,850 but when I tried to settle up this bill (and asked if he was willing to come down in price) he came back and said the actual amount owed is €5,055. No new bill was issued, I wasn't informed of any additional work that was going to add to the bill.
I'm not trying to duck out of paying him but this seems excessive.
Is this a normal fee for retention permission?
And can he increase the price like that without letting me know?
Am I in a position to negotiate?
Meeting with him and the solicitor on Monday at 12 to go through the charges. I got an email breakdown which seems like he's just made up figures.
Breakdown is:
Original fees:
Expenses re: Os maps, advertisement, planning retention fee, site note - €200
Planning fees incl. Site visits (20? over 5 days to do percolation, site suitabilty, travel, postage expenses - €2,700
Telephone expenses €200
= €3,150 plus vat (€3,874.50)
Dealing with additional planning information request - €565.50
Fees applicable for the various mapping, checking boundaries and all the work that was done pre planning, fees for this which were not included originally - €500.00 plus vat €615.00
Grand total €5055 approx
Two years after this process started, issues are sorted and property sold. Just the engineer bill seems astronomical - I was issued an original bill of €3,850 but when I tried to settle up this bill (and asked if he was willing to come down in price) he came back and said the actual amount owed is €5,055. No new bill was issued, I wasn't informed of any additional work that was going to add to the bill.
I'm not trying to duck out of paying him but this seems excessive.
Is this a normal fee for retention permission?
And can he increase the price like that without letting me know?
Am I in a position to negotiate?
Meeting with him and the solicitor on Monday at 12 to go through the charges. I got an email breakdown which seems like he's just made up figures.
Breakdown is:
Original fees:
Expenses re: Os maps, advertisement, planning retention fee, site note - €200
Planning fees incl. Site visits (20? over 5 days to do percolation, site suitabilty, travel, postage expenses - €2,700
Telephone expenses €200
= €3,150 plus vat (€3,874.50)
Dealing with additional planning information request - €565.50
Fees applicable for the various mapping, checking boundaries and all the work that was done pre planning, fees for this which were not included originally - €500.00 plus vat €615.00
Grand total €5055 approx