Garden designer

[TheWrenx2]

We engaged a garden designer to help us design our garden. He sort of disappeared for 6 weeks after we said we'd like to work with him.
He then delivered us three pages of A4 - a 'concept' one of which was a set of mood board images from Google - which we hadn't asked for. One of the pages is a design idea (which is not good) and the other is measurements and stuff. In this time our baby ds became ill and we had to stop our garden project to focus on his health and medical appointments. We told the designer we needed to stop the project at this time because of what was happening with our ds. He's trying to charge us £650 for the three A4 pages and I'm furious about it. Am I just not understanding the work gone in or is he taking the p? I think I would be happy to pay half to cover time so far which seems fair to me but to ask for all that money seems very greedy to me. We didn't sign any contract but I acknowledge that he has done some work for us even though it wasn't what was promised (a 'concept' wasn't what were asked for). He spent 30 mins at our house as part of a no obligation chat he offered and we delivered him previous drawings detailing the garden measurements etc. How can I resolve this? Do I have to lump it and pay £650 for three bloody pages? Or offer to go half? Even half feels like a lot but I know he has costs to cover.

£300 is more than enough. Just be matter of fact and tell him that is what he is getting.

presumably you weren’t going to accept the design and work with him anyway, irrespective of your baby becoming ill?

in your contract… what does it say £650 will cover?

We have no contract! And no deliveries of anything tied to any amount other than the completed garden and lighting design tied to the full amount (£1000). So he's just plucked a figure out of thin air...well, half the full fee (which of course inc bloody vat) for a delivery of a random three page document.

so he came over
you had a chat about design idea and agreed he would go away and pull an idea together
he did

and at no point was costs discussed for the design work?

the fact your baby became ill was irrelevant because surely you weren’t going to work with him anyway?

No, costs were mentioned - £850 for the garden design and £150 for lighting design and we agreed to this, but we didn't get delivered either of those things, just some half arsed document that was never mentioned previously and he wants us to pay half the full fee. There were no costs set against different deliverables. My mistake - won't make it again!

Yes probably not.

when did you agree to this? before or after he delivered the design doc?

how is it in any way relevant? you got the design doc, it was shit, then your baby became ill

300 pounds - 10 hours work at 30 pounds an hour.
Sounds like what he produced is barely 10 hours of work. So 300 is generous.

But he's done the 1st part of the work? Presumably the next stage was to meet to go through what he's done, focus on the aspects you like, then a detailed plan is developed from the discussion. We've had a few garden designs done, and it was a staged process and quite expensive to be honest! He's charging you £500ish (without vat), which honestly isn't much when it comes to garden design! It sounds like the staged charges weren't clear, but I'm not sure how it's going to go down if you say you're not paying!

I’m a bit unclear about whether you agreed to pay something with him beforehand or not. And did he say what actually constitutes a garden design in terms of the product that you would receive? I know that garden designs are expensive, so wouldn’t be surprised if it was that high. We have had so many problems with getting people round, even with those with good recommendations, so a lot of our household stuff isn’t getting done at the moment as it’s all so much hassle.

yes… the OP agreed to costs at some point but not clear when!

I'm a garden designer. Most of us have to charge up front because that's our time and skill. I charge 150 minimum for small garden which includes a visit, measuring up and a 2d scale design. Obviously the price goes up if 3d work or technical drawing is needed. 650 is a lot. I just. charged this amount on a 3 acre garden, full 3d model, animations, and two visits, one being a presentation.

Saying all that. I'm probably on the cheap side for a designer. Did he actually give you a design? E.g. a plan drawing of your garden to scale that you could in theory, give to a builder to build correctly. Otherwise he hasn't really done a design, a concept maybe, and if you actually wanted to build it you would need more work from him.

If the second drawing IS conceivably a design then it's harder and you need to go back in your correspondence to see what you agreed to. He should have made it very clear what you were paying and what you were getting. I give a quote and get an agreement in writing for this very reason and I don't want to piss off my customers.

If you have nothing in writing and are unsatisfied with what he produced/feel like he hasn't delivered what was asked for then he doesn't have a leg to stand on.

@Cerialkiller You are definitely too cheap!

@Cerialkiller where are you based? You are WAY undercharging! 3 acre garden design down south would be thousands!

I am down south. Cambridgeshire! I have to be competitive as most of my work is subcontracting for other landscape companies. So i don't do planting plans or build quotes, also usually avoid the hassle of dealing with clients at all. I charge £27 per hour and I just work very fast too, especially 2d stuff, i can churn it out. The big 3 acre garden was closer to £800 now i have done the maths, nearly 30 hours of work including 2 visits, design and, 3D and walkthroughs.

Also £150 is the very least I charge. a tiny garden 5x10m, local to me, barely any design work and 2D drawing only which I can produce in a hour.