Quotes for extension are nearly double what we discussed with architect

[Barbararara]

We have worked with architect to design our proposed extension. We’ve applied for and received pp and put it out to tender.
So far we’ve received 3 out of 4 quotes and all of them are nearly double the budget originally discussed.

First time dealing with anything like this so I am extremely naive. I’m hoping more experienced posters might know more.

All 3 quotes are within 10k of each other so I’m assuming that is just what it costs to do what we’ve asked. But if that’s the case, shouldn’t the architect have guided us a bit better?

On the other hand, each tender varies widely on individual costs which makes me think that there’s some kind of ballpark figure calculator that they’re using.

But if there is, shouldn’t the architect be using it too?

He’s saying that the next step is to negotiate with the builder, but if all the builders are agreed on price, more or less, my assumption is that there can’t be much movement possible in the price so instead we lose quality?

I don’t know what I should do at this point. I’m feeling very frustrated that we’ve paid several thousand for a design that is unworkable in our budget. I don’t think that our house value justifies the expenditure either. But am I naive in thinking that way too? Should I be talking to an estate agent rather than an architect?

I feel like I’m missing some obvious step in the process somewhere.

If he’d said at the start, that our budget was completely unrealistic we wouldn’t have paid him several thousand for surveying, designing and whatnot.

And if I understood how the costs are calculated we could design within our budget. But how do you find that out, if not from an architect?

@helpfulperson sorry didn't spot that.
@PandoraRocks just because you can source things cheaper it doesn't mean you are being ripped off
Often you use your time instead of paying somebody else to do that work - time isn't free when it's someone's job, they have to add overheads and profit otherwise they would be out of business pretty quick.
Yes when you do the legwork yourself you may save some money but it takes time, often risk and also you may not be comparing like with like.
Take your example of windows - there are many many differences in spec that can make a big difference to cost from the size of gap (efficiencies), the gases, the vents, numbers of openings, the style of the frames (horrible thick ones are often cheaper) - making sure you get the right sign off for building regs, different brands - all have a cost implication - you might not always notice the differences but it doesn't mean they aren't there.
I hate specifying upvc because getting the wrong ones can look really awful, cheap often looks it especially over time. However it is also true that expensive doesn't always mean good it's weeding the right companies out of the mix.
I employed trades separately rather than a main contractor when we renovated our house and employed them generally on a fit rather than supply and fit basis and even I found it stressful, and I know what I'm doing. We did save quite a bit of money though but it was balanced out by me taking 6mths off work to do it.

OP, I have had exactly the same experience as you.
We were very specific with our architect about our budget and were aghast when quotes started coming in. They were twice the amount we had discussed.
We went back to architect and they said I'll put you in touch with other builders, we found some of our own builders to quote and they were all coming out in a ballpark like yours.
We were really cross and felt we had pp for a design that wasn't going to be achievable. We'd also paid for structural engineer drawings too.
I did ask them during the design process if it was going to be within budget and suddenly he was vague and said oh yeah, it's about £1.5k persqm, which I think is unrealistic for our location.
I went back when we realised there was no way we could bring the costs down, he came up with an idea that he said would make considerable savings, I went back to builder, who went to his QS who said it would save about 5%. His response was, really that's all? Like he suddenly knew about costs!
Anyway, I said to architect I need a plan that will meet our budget, he did some tweaks that we gave to builder and got it to a level that was affordable, not within our original budget though.
We had to get new structural engineer drawings, so paid for them twice.
When it came to pay the final part of the architect bill, they sent me a message saying, oh yeah, is it ok if we call it £150 for the extra work I did for you. Well, my response was very detailed as to why I wouldn't be paying anything extra.

I, like you, felt I was naive in the whole process, but I think it is a common theme when you read replies on here.
The thing I would do though, is look really carefully at the plans and the builders quotes, I realised that our architect was moving doors and stud walls that probably didn't need to be moved and whilst the cost isn't that high it all adds up.
I would go back to your architect and ask them how they are going to move this forward and be clear you won't be paying any extra as they haven't meet your initial brief and this is part of the design phase that you've already paid for. As I pointed out to my architect, I would be more than happy to pay for extra design work if I had simply changed my mind, I hadn't changed my mind, their design didn't meet my brief in terms of budget.
Good luck.

We've had a similar issue. We were clear £100k for all work (including finish and a few other bits around the house) the quotes were £120k with just the shell. We were looking at £150-165 for mid-spec. We were a bit frustrated. We paid £3000 or so for all the architect work, we don't necessarily see that as wasted because we were glad we didn't start before knowing the costs. We are not going ahead.

I’ve just received a 4th quote back (after chasing them, as they promised to send it through last Thursday!). If I add in the bits they missed out, it’s £440k!! FFS, this is based on the total budget I gave the architect of £250k 🙈🙈🙈

We had exactly the same issue. I'm glad to hear we are not alone. I really feel like the whole process was like burning banknotes. The quotes we received for a side return extension to just she'll were three times what we had given our architect... So frustrating!

@pandafunfactory was it this one? www.granddesigns.tv/north-devon/

I am immediately reminded of EVERY episode of (I think!) George Clarke’s Ugly House , Lovely House.
In the end it became an item of one of the shows where George had to ask the architect how the build cost would be £250k when the client said their budget was max. £100k.

I’m shocked at some of these prices for architects.
£15k !!. Was that for a project management for the build, or for the drawings and seeing it through planning?

@tanstaafl - I’ve paid our architect £15k, the plans are super detailed, as is the tender pack. I wanted the layout and elevations of each room and he’s drawn up all of the joinery and inside cupboards. I didn’t want to get involved in the detail of the height of light switches or tvs or mirrors etc. I love everything about the design, but wish I’d chosen a different architect, as it’s just not all doable with the quotes coming through

Wow. I missed your budget in the earlier posts. At that kind of value your architect is a ridiculous way out. It must be an absolutely amazing project. What about speaking to the builder at 350k and seeing if there are some cheaper compromises which could be made 😔

The last builder to quote came round for a look today and it turns out that there is a ton of stuff in the plans that is completely unnecessary. Some of it is even a little bizarre (maybe a bit of sloppy copy and paste). I think there is going to be a lot of fat to trim so I don’t think we actually have a realistic quote at all yet. I’ve no idea if this is some kind of negotiation strategy by the architect, or we’re supposed to be impressed if he knocks the price back by cutting out unnecessary and unasked for work. It’s all a bit bizarre.

@Barbararara

Depends what the work is? For example we had an architect and structural engineer working together as we had several steels needed. EVERY builder was agog at the size of the steels and the rebuilding of the foundations of the old house to site them in..talk drilling down and reinforced concrete etc. Said there was huge unnecessary cost in it...but in the end what do you do when a structural engineer has done the calcs? Didn't want the steels to deflect!

@MarieG10 fair point and I'll be listening carefully to the engineer. This was much more minor stuff.

Hi,

I have had exactly the same issue. Brief set at 200K incl Vat , which I increased on the architects advise to 240K incl Vat after I increased the size of the extension. Quotes came back at 450k excl VAT. Scaled back all non-essentials and still couldn’t get it below 350K excl VAT. Plans totally unusable.
I went to complain to ARB, RIBA and the CAB. They were all very helpful and took a very different approach to the complaint. CAB take the sales of goods act approach. ARB looks to see if the architect has breached their code of conduct. RIBA looks at finding a solution for both sides through a professional neutral panel. They all required a lot of reading of the contract and the code of conduct government ARB registered architects. I decided rather than spend more money going down the RIBA route (I would need to employ a solicitor), I decided to go through ARB which is free to see if any of my complaints had legs. If I have a case with ARB, I will most likely hire a solicitor and pursue the architect for compensation.

Bottom line.. negotiate the part of the contract where it states that any costing of the plans to be done through a QS. It seems reasonable when the architect says it’s impossible to forecast costs down to the penny and that’s the job of a QS. However it works against you when the architect turns around and says it’s not their problem the quotes came back twice over the briefed amount, and you should have hired a QS if you wanted to know if the plans were on budget.

My view is that everyone involved in building and construction has got pound signs in their eyes. Demand exceeds supply for their services and they are hiking prices accordingly. The prices charged are gouging.

It's because everyone wants to renovate their house as they are changing the way they live and work. And also the housing market is so crazy its seen as cheaper to extend than move. Finally theres an expectation that costs can be added to the mortgage so some people don't see it as "real money" and as a result have been willing to accept silly prices on the never never. The fact that they've bollocksed up their retirement is neither here nor there for some.

Are all PPs in mainland UK? This is scary…

Just wondered if any of the PP’s have updated on their projects. We’re in the same boat. Budget was £270k (inc architects fees), went out to tender to 2 construction companies - one was just over £500k, the other nearly £600k. That was 6 weeks ago and since then just lots of fannying from the architects without coming up with tangible solutions. I’m pissed off. We’ve, like someone up thread, spent nearly £20k on fees so far and now they’re muttering about us having to pay more so they can redesign it so it’s more affordable. But that would mean that we don’t get lots of the stuff that was on our brief - so in other words they’re admitting that their design was never achievable…

What type of work are you both doing @CityDweller and @HforHotel? The numbers here are eye watering. I can totally see why you'd be pretty annoyed.

Extension plus internal renovation/ remodel. It’s quite extensive work, but the architects assured us throughout that it could be achieved on our budget.

@rottiemum88

Architects are notoriously optimistic when it comes to cost. Have you never seen an episode of Grand Designs?

Not just GD but the other house renovation programmes too. I don't think that architects are particularly "grounded" nor realistic.

It's not just domestic either. When I worked in industry, I was involved on two occasions for the building of new factories. On both occasions, the eventual costs were double the budget, and that was just the fabric of the building, i.e. foundations, structure, electrical/water/heating installations, so should have been bog-standard really. Really messed up our budgeting and finances and meant compromises later on, i.e. the plant & equipment to go in them.

It's covid and brexit. We'd saved so hard for an extension, knew exactly how much it would cost, in the last three months everything has gone up and the whole cost of the job is now 15k more than we correctly budgeted for. Heartbroken doesn't cover it

Argh. I’m so pissed off. What do we do now? We’ve spent loads of money getting this far and we need to do the work. But their plans are unusable. A lot of the work is remedial (we have single glazed windows and rotten window frames and an ancient hot water system) and some of it is to get much needed space (our kitchen and living space is too small). So we need to get the work done. Do I just ditch the architects and go straight to a builder? Can I get the money back I paid the architects if they designed something that is fundamentally unaffordable (ie didn’t meet the brief)?

I really like our architects, they’re lovely people and I’ve enjoyed working with them on the designs, but I feel that the last 18 months of working up these designs, getting planning permission, etc, has been a complete and total waste of our time and money.

Brexit has had a massive impact on costs - the extra paperwork, the haulage costs, the delays etc etc. A neighbour's kitchen extension has had 12 weeks of delays with rising costs of over 10K from original quotes.

We are in exactly the same position, told architect our budget was £125k, quotes coming in at £200k!

I’ve posted earlier about my renovation which was budgeted at GBP 240k (which the architect said was feasible according to their experience) and getting quotes from builders coming back at GBP450K excl. VAT.
As with others, I could not proceed with the plans, and have had to start from scratch. The architect having pocketed GBP20k in fees was no longer interested in starting over and so his replies to my emails lacked any sort of urgency, and most of the time taking around 2 weeks to reply.
I wanted to go through mediation through RIBA but they were not interested and so I got a letter from their solicitor saying that I would need to employ a solicitor to ‘follow the correct protocols’ to start the mediation process. I spoke to RIBA about this and they pretty much told me they shouldn’t be doing that but if that’s what they wanted l needed to get one to proceed. Having spent 20k and 18 months of me time, I decided I needed to do something positive and so moved onto another personal project and have iced the renovation for now.
However I have also complained to ARB about their conduct and according to ARB I do have a case and they will be investigating. However the process I was told would take 1 year to get an outcome. Any recommendations from the investigation would need to be enforced by the courts (ie I would need to get lawyers to pursue the case).
I have spent hours talking to RIBA, ARB and also CAB and I have discovered that while there are laws and regulatory bodies that protect the consumer, you will need to spend thousands of pounds in legal fees to help you through the process.