Architect fee

G

glueless

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Hi,
My sister engaged an Architect to draw up plans for two houses on her land and submit to the local council. Both houses would be around 2,500 sq.ft. He is asking a fee of 21,000 euro. CAn anyone tell me if this could be right. Sounds incredibly high to me. Is there anywhere she can find out what sort of money is normal for this sort of work?
 
Has the work been completed or is this his up-front estimate? She could always shop around with a couple of other architects.
 
This is madness. I recently had plans for a house done for 1200, and thats expensive. Tell her i will do it for half the price, i had my ones done because i didnt have the time. The only thing this person could possibly be charging for is the 'archeticturally designed' crap, civil engineers can design and construct just as well, if not better.
This is possibly the most ridiculous price i have ever heard of for anything!
 
Hi Rainday and Roytheboyo,
No work done at this stage. Only received this quote in the last week. She nearly fainted at the thought of what was to come during building if the plans were going to cost this much.

I'm relieved to know I'm not alone in thinking this is a crazy price. I'll pass this info on but I'd really like to know if there is a going rate. None will quote over the phone for any work so it is difficult for her to assertain what is "normal"
I sometimes feel they pick a number, double it, multiply by 3 etc.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,!!!
 
Hi all,
In my experience the going rate for helping the customer decide what type of house, changing it to suit their needs, drawing up the final plans, submitting them, liasing with the local authority, doing test holes, levels is approximately 1000 to 2000 plus outlays. West of ireland.
 
Roytheboyo- is that for an architect or an engineer. I know an engineer in the South West would charge somewhere between 1500 to 2500 to draw up plans, submit for planning AND inspect at various stages the house being built. I always thought that architects could charge up to 10% of the build cost- but this information is somewhat out of date now.
 
I Agree with Roytheboy.

I paid 1500 for plans drawn up - West of ireland too. We did all the planning stuff.
The best thing is for you & your sister to approach locals who are building in the area, ask around - ask them who they got to do their plans and how much in general did they pay.


the figure does sound mad - but he's more than likely overseeing the whole project for that price, ie doing all the leg-work and working with the builder to make sure things are done correctly.
This is grand if you have money to burn, but most people I know hire an engineer for about 1k - 2k to make site visits ensuring the thing is build well.

Best of luck
Wolverine
 
are eyou sure there wasn't a typo on the quote and it should have read €2100.00?
I would ring up to check sounds mad.
 
Hi Jem,

I only wish there was a mistake or typo. No, this was a face to face meeting with the architect and the quote he gave my sister was twenty one thousand euro. No mistake.
I will take the advice of Wolverine and get my sister to ask in her locality. Surely though, there should be guidelines with regard to what can be charged or is this another one of those professions that can charge what they like?
 
Hi again All,

Just to clarify the situation further, I contacted my sister and she has emailed me the following which was given to her by the Architect.

"In terms of clarity, the fee proposal is for work to planning aplication/permission stage only and the fee proposal is for all architectural work necessary to apply for planning permission.
Further, if I wish them to provide construction documents,tendering,supervision of a builder, they will be happy to provide me with a quote fee for same.
The fee proposed for planning stage only is 21,735.00 plus vat. It does not include an appeal to An Bord Pleanala should one be necessary.
The fees quoted exclude vat and exclude standard expenses such as travel allowance, printing,newspaper advertisement,council fees etc.
The fee quoted does not include any other consulting services such as land surveyors, engineers,quantity surveyors,landscape consultants and they suggest that these services will be required by the council as part of the planning permission application."

So as you can see there is no mistake in this quote.


 
Walk away.
The fee i outlined above was for an engineer. The only difference is that when your sister is selling or renting or whatever, she can advertise the houses as 'architecturaly designed', for what its worth.
Maybe you should get a quote on how much the architect would charge for the stage payments and supervision of the builder, just for the laugh. The nerve of these guys is unreal.
 
Reading an article in the Sunday Times ( a few days late as usual) it would appear that architects normally charge between 10% to 15% for plans, planning and supervision of the project. So depending on your sisters house ( ie the build cost), this quote may not be as outlandish as some think.
 
the going rate is 10 - 15% of total build cost but this includes the full end-to-end process which involves planning application, tender management, selection of contractors and supervision of the work.

The going rate for an architect to bring you to the planning stage only is 35-50% of that 10-15%.

So for a 100 grand house it would be 15k for full end to end process and an absolute maximum of 7.5k for the design to planning stage only.

In my opinion it would be insane to pay someone 21 grand to bring you to planning stage only, regardless of the build cost - so for the love of god I hope your sister tells him to shove it cos thats the only way cowboys like this will learn they cant get away with the ripoff forever.
 
Hi All
Thanks for all the advice. This is a great forum to run this sort of thing because I have no idea what is reasonable in this situation and my sister - even less.

No, she hasn't taken this guy up on this as her gut feeling was that it was extraordinarily high figure. She's not looking for state of the art houses - just wants nice comfortable homes. Hoping to either rent or sell one and live in the other so the plans were certainly not over the top. I've past on all your comments and she is delighted with the advice so thanks again to everyone.
 
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