Hi,
I live in a flat - one of three in a Victorian house. We are leasehold, and share of freehold.
we asked a surveyor to prepare a specification for maintenance works, which he did, for a fee of £1000 plus VAT.
While he was putting the specification together, he said we should put everything we might want doing in the spec, as it's easier to take out than put in.
We then asked him to go to tender. He agreed that his fee to tender, and oversee the works would be 15% of the final budget of the works.
When the quotes came back, they were massive (£40k), way over our budget. So, we said no to going ahead, and took his spec and got some other builders to do the work (but way less than the surveyor seopcified).
The surveyor is now chasing us for 60% of his fee on the £40k. As we were never told that that was the case (apparently they charge 60% of the lowest quoted contractor at tender stage - although had the works gond ahead, we would have spent approx. £13k), and we never agreed to this, where do we stand legally? I agree we have to pay for his time in doing the tender, but not £1700 extra! What does anyone legal-eagle think?