We've just been granted planning permission for an extension. We paid a builder to put together some plans for us and then obtain planning permission. We paid £495 +VAT for the plans plus the application fee to the council.
He gave us a quote for the whole project, broken down into various items including the building work. He said we could use the plans to get other quotes. But every builder I've asked to quote has said that the plans are too basic to be able to do this. They just show the elevations with and without the extension with a floor plan. Other than a measurement for the additional bit there are no internal or external measurements, even though he spent hours measuring all the rooms.
Now that planning has come through I've asked him to produce the more detailed plans that builders can quote from. He says that we haven't paid for this and we've only paid for 'plans'. After a bit of arguing back and forth, he's saying that he quoted for detailed plans separately and this is shown as 'Building Regs' for £750 +VAT and that we asked him only to apply for planning permission. Also he's now not doing detailed plans anyway so we have to go somewhere else for them.
Our first meeting with him was May last year so the whole process to date has been painfully slow and frustrating. So I'm doubting whether he's telling us the truth or he's trying to diddle us out of some decent plans now that he's decided he's not doing them anymore.
I questioned the plans when I first saw them as I remember other people's plans being more detailed, but he just said that's all that was needed to get planning. My impression at the time was that he was doing the minimum to get the application in and then would provide something more detailed once permission had been granted. This obviously wasn't the case.
Is this a schoolgirl error or have we been done?
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When plans aren't plans?
10 replies
chicaguapa · 25/01/2016 19:01
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