I was days away from completing my garage conversion (change a garage to home office/storage) when I got a letter from the enforcement team at Dublin city. It turns out that the original permission for my house (the small development) back in mid 2000 had a condition that the garage only be used for parking cars. Obviously, we had no idea of this. Anyway, we spoke to the DCC and they advised us to apply for permission. The work is 90% done - with just the window and door to go in.
This is fine. We will do that. We got in touch with a local architect before the lockdown and agreed a plan. The architect sent us a proposal with the costings. These costings are huge. Their proposal is about 33% the value of the conversion. (The garage is an internal room on the ground floor of the house with no structural changes required, accessed internally).
When speaking informally to others who have been involved in small building/planning projects, but not specifically similar to ours, we had been told to expect to pay hundreds, which is why the architects bill was a huge shock.
what im really asking is what are the cost guidelines for what we need to do? Are we being overcharged? what would DCC need from an architect in order to process our application. Its very difficult, in the current climate (the lockdown) to find an architect and proceed. We just want to make an informed decision.
thanks in advance.
This is fine. We will do that. We got in touch with a local architect before the lockdown and agreed a plan. The architect sent us a proposal with the costings. These costings are huge. Their proposal is about 33% the value of the conversion. (The garage is an internal room on the ground floor of the house with no structural changes required, accessed internally).
When speaking informally to others who have been involved in small building/planning projects, but not specifically similar to ours, we had been told to expect to pay hundreds, which is why the architects bill was a huge shock.
what im really asking is what are the cost guidelines for what we need to do? Are we being overcharged? what would DCC need from an architect in order to process our application. Its very difficult, in the current climate (the lockdown) to find an architect and proceed. We just want to make an informed decision.
thanks in advance.