Hi,
Looking for some advice please about a devastating situation regarding our extension design.
We found a home extension design firm 2 years ago who we entrusted with designing our extension. They are not architects but specialise in home extension design.
We gave a detailed brief of what we would like to achieve with an extension and gave a strict budget of £200K incl VAT this budget was reiterated throughout our many meetings with the company whilst the design was completed.
The designer came back with an amazing design and a projected spend of £198-213K incl VAT. So far so good.
However, it took 18months to seek Planning Permission due to the designers tardiness supplying drawings and a few issues with their design (they realised they hadn't left enough head height to get up the stairs initially!) but we were thrilled when it was granted first time round. They admitted to us that this was one of the biggest projects they'd undertaken but seemed really keen to manage the construction too. We duly handed over their design fee of £10K at this point and spent £2.5K on structural calculations to their engineer.
So next steps were to put the drawings out to construction firms to get quotes for the build. Here in lies the problem - out of 4 construction companies the cheapest quote was £310K + VAT and one was a trusted family friend.
Hence we can't afford the extension and have wasted 18 months and £10K on
a design that all of the builders said was unachievable with our original budget. I can't believe building costs have risen 50% in 18 months so feel that we have been mugged by the design company who have left us with a set of plans that do not fulfil our brief and planning permission for a home we cannot afford.
So the question is.... is there any comeback against the building design team or can they actually get £10K for a now useless set of plans that didn't fufil our brief?
I'd really appreciate any assistance in this matter as we're so upset that £10K of our life savings might as well have gone in the shredder like the useless plans. I should add we did not add or alter anything from their original plan that would have resulted in an increased price and they did not mention any increase from their projection over the 18 months.
Thanks for your help
xxx
Looking for some advice please about a devastating situation regarding our extension design.
We found a home extension design firm 2 years ago who we entrusted with designing our extension. They are not architects but specialise in home extension design.
We gave a detailed brief of what we would like to achieve with an extension and gave a strict budget of £200K incl VAT this budget was reiterated throughout our many meetings with the company whilst the design was completed.
The designer came back with an amazing design and a projected spend of £198-213K incl VAT. So far so good.
However, it took 18months to seek Planning Permission due to the designers tardiness supplying drawings and a few issues with their design (they realised they hadn't left enough head height to get up the stairs initially!) but we were thrilled when it was granted first time round. They admitted to us that this was one of the biggest projects they'd undertaken but seemed really keen to manage the construction too. We duly handed over their design fee of £10K at this point and spent £2.5K on structural calculations to their engineer.
So next steps were to put the drawings out to construction firms to get quotes for the build. Here in lies the problem - out of 4 construction companies the cheapest quote was £310K + VAT and one was a trusted family friend.
Hence we can't afford the extension and have wasted 18 months and £10K on
a design that all of the builders said was unachievable with our original budget. I can't believe building costs have risen 50% in 18 months so feel that we have been mugged by the design company who have left us with a set of plans that do not fulfil our brief and planning permission for a home we cannot afford.
So the question is.... is there any comeback against the building design team or can they actually get £10K for a now useless set of plans that didn't fufil our brief?
I'd really appreciate any assistance in this matter as we're so upset that £10K of our life savings might as well have gone in the shredder like the useless plans. I should add we did not add or alter anything from their original plan that would have resulted in an increased price and they did not mention any increase from their projection over the 18 months.
Thanks for your help
xxx
