Party wall fees / kitchen extension

[SpeedyG]

I'm building a single storey 10m x 2.2m rear kitchen extension on my Victorian semi. One of my neighbours is strongly against the extension and refused to engage with the party wall process so I had to appoint 2 surveyors as part of the party wall award process. My Surveyor quoted £85/hr + VAT and the adjoining owners surveyor £80/hr both of which seemed reasonable in proportion to other surveyors fees. The award hasn't been issued yet but my surveyor has sent an invoice for 26hrs work! I gather 6-8 hrs work per surveyor is the norm. He gave me a breakdown Which included 2.5hrs for a 30-40 min visit to my house, 1.5 hours for his last phone call to update me and collating his fees and he even billed an email responding to an enquirey about his fees a month before I appointed him. There have been quite a few emails so I wasn't expecting it to be cheap but not 26hrs / £2600 for my surveyor alone with more fees to come and no award to show for it yet.

It would be good to know how many hours other people have been charged for their party wall awards. Advise on challenging the fees would be appreciated too.

It's all down to his T&C's I would say.

He shouldn't be charging you for dealing with your initial enquiry, before you appointed him, that's just standard; responding to enquiries within any business.

He will charge for travel time to and from your property, so that may account for the 2.5 hours for the visit.

Ask him for a breakdown of his time, including itemised information for every hour spent. You are entitled to query his invoice. However, if he has actually spent that time on your project, there's he an off chance he may bill you extra time for providing you with the breakdown.

I was charged 900 all in to include 2 visits and party wall inspection on both sides. He produced a report at the end The neighbour on one side agreed readily, the other did not disagree but did not engage at all which was nerve racking.I'd say your surveyor is being rapacious.

Thanks, that sounds more like what I expected. The second surveyors fee is only £240, from what I've read it is the second surveyor who is more commonly the problem.

Ours quoted for the whole process, initial visit, drawing up agreement, final visit, around £1000.