Architect loft conversion quote (already has CAD drawings for house)

[R8SSO]

I'll be honest, other than browsing the internet I have no idea how much an architect would cost for a loft conversion!

I've purchased a new build from a small developer and the developer suggested using his architect for the loft conversion as he already has the CAD drawings for the house and therefore might be cheaper than other architects...

Anyway, had an independant architect give me a quote first of 1500 plus VAT or 1800 plus VAT if I couldn't get copies of the CAD drawings from the developer.

I'm looking at getting a flight of stairs up to the loft with a mini dormer at the top of the stairs for head room plus a full length dorma at the back of the house.

The developers architect has given me the following quote which I think is quite high and looks like it will have additional costs:

^Stage 1 - Sketch Proposals & Town Planning Application

Prepare sketch proposal for your consideration and upon your approval of sketch proposal, develop to full design drawings and submit to Local Authority for a Town Planning decision.

Our fee for this stage shall be £1,020.00 inclusive of VAT and disbursements (£850.00+VAT).

Apart from our fee there will be a fee payable to the Council for the application; this is presently £172.00.

Stage 2 – Building Regulations

In conjunction with Structural Engineer, develop design drawings to full construction drawings and submit for Building Regulations approval.

Our fee for this stage shall be £1,194.00 inclusive of VAT and disbursements (£995.00+VAT).

Apart from our fee there will be a fee for Structural Engineer and also to the Council for the application^

Do you think I should try and negotiate the price down based on the fact that he already has the CAD drawings for the property? Is this a big time/cost saving for an architect?

Appreciate any help, thanks.
R

They are both very reasonably priced! you may want to check if the first architect you mentioned included building regs in his quote.

Very reasonably priced! Cad drawings required would only take half day to a day so would drop any price by 200 - 300, if that.

It unusual for an architect to cover third party fees so the first quote probably doesn't include that either... They just haven't told you.

There doesn't appear to be anything 'extra' in the scope of the second quote. I have a sneaking suspicion it's probably more coherent than the first.

What I mean by building regs in the context above is the work required to get to building regs submission, not building control approval itself. With regards to the fee, you can get a technician for cheaper of course but for an architect you won’t find that many that will be cheaper than those two (but if you do find one that’s cheaper I’d really be interested to know and be proven wrong). With the amount of the architect’s time that will be spent on the work, I disagree that half a day to a days work is enough time from commencement of initial info/design, cad for planning, to cad details and specs involved for building control submission, plus the time to fill in forms and submit them as the agent as well, not forgetting the liabilities as a professional also has a price tag. 8 years of architectural education is not cheap unfortunately and this will also reflect in the architect’s fee rates. Hope u make the right decision OP, can’t help you more than this. Good luck with your conversion!

I think you misunderstood what I wrote. The cad drawings available are representative of the existing house, not of the design. To reproduce those drawings is only a day to half a day, no produce a complete working set.

Of course the rest of it will take longer, but the reduction in fee would only be representative of the work to reproduce the original drawings.

What area do you live in?

My architect charged (copy and paste from his email);
Planning fee £172
Ordnance Survey Map £50
My fee £750 - This will include for the survey, drawings, submission to the Local Authority and any amendments to get it to the point of approval.

We can then submit the Building regs after. I would just charge a further £100 to cover the steel calcs.

This was for a double storey side and rear extension to a detached house plus a small single storey element. We did already have some drawings from a previous architect but that didn’t alter the cost (it saved him some time though as he didn’t measure up and used all the room sizes /dimensions from the existing plans)

I didn’t get any other quotes however I remember speaking to family at the time who had recently extended and they confirmed they had paid their architect roughly the same.(I had no idea what to expect to pay)

For context we are midlands so things usually much less spendy than London prices

Thanks for the replies everyone. It’s nice to hear that the quotes are reasonable.

The work is for a house in Chelsmford, Essex.

I’m inclined to go with the slightly more expensive quote as the guy already has the relationship with the developer and seemed a tad more professional!

Will keep you posted on how it goes and whether it was the right choice!!!

Very reasonable! We paid £2400 inc VAT for planning drawings and building regs drawings from our architect and that was discounted as DH had done them a favour previously!