Builder charging for quote

[FuglyHouse]

I've just started trying to get quotes for our renovation and one of the builders has told me that they charge for the quote. The size of the fee depends on the scale of the job and is refundable if they take on the job. Is this usual now? Good or bad? They are highly recommended and have a waiting list of about 8 months so I'm wondering whether to suck it up or keep banging my head against a brick wall attempting to get other builders to quote.

We've had 5 builders quote and not had this. How much do they want?

I guess it’s a way to filter out the time wasters when they are clearly very busy and popular.

I imagine a lot of people are reeling in shock at prices these days, and don’t go ahead. So there’s lost time on their part.

How much are we taking about?

They haven't told me what the fee is yet. I'd find out when they come to have a look at the proposed work.

Bear in mind a quote is fixed, while an estimate is just that and can go up (they never go down) as the work proceeds.

Is the fee a percentage of the quote - if so what is the percentage?

We would charge to diagnose or to produce plans but not to quote.

I'd worry about this bit. Surely they can know a rough estimate of job size prior to coming and seeing? What stops them from saying a quote costs £3k or whatever?

And then, do people book because he's good, or because they need that £3k back?

If it was say £20 to cover his time/ stop time wasters that would be different imo

Give them a miss

The only time I've come across someone asking to be paid gor a quote was when I needed an insurance job repair on my car. I've never come across it in building work before.

Perhaps they’ve had problems with people getting them in for consultation / ideas, going quite far down the planning path, then taking the advice and getting cheaper/ less skilled laborers in to do the actual job. You see that kind of thing a lot in the creative industries - wouldn’t be at all shocked if it had spread to the trades too- especially for bigger/ more complex jobs that need a bit of creative thinking.

Or maybe they’re just chancers! Best way to find out would be to get a recommendation or review from someone who’s used them I guess.

We had to pay for a quote for our recent building works. The guy said he had had so many time wasters and it took him quite some time (it was a quote rather than estimate). He came recommended and as we are very rural we struggled to get anyone up even consider the job. We didn't go with him in the end but it was a useful exercise at seeing what the build required, and wasn't a huge cost in the grand scheme of things.

Depending on the exact work a quote maybe a day or two work for him. I can understand not wanting to do that for nothing only to have you take the solutions to someone else. Especially if there is any element of design work. But he should be able to give you an estimate for nothing.

I've never been charged for a quote, but I get why they do. It can take hours to quote properly for a build job.

If it's a big job I guess it could possibly take the boss an hour to look around the house, then another hour to fully price it up.
I guess that's the reasoning behind the charge. I've had a charge for a quote before, but it was basically to pay for the guy to physically turn up for ten minutes. I didn't end up using them so just sucked up the cost.
It really depends on how much though I guess. If we are talking two hours of his time and maybe travel, what would you think was feasible?

I absolutely would charge for this. A quote takes hours of painstaking work, costing materials etc. an estimate five minutes.

I agree with this. It sounds like a builder who is highly in demand and who would give you a well-considered quote.