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Extension Plans cost dispute
Hi all. Haven't posted on here since the demise of British Passport Services!
We are planning an extension to our house and informally contracted, on recommendation, an acquaintance's father-in-law. He emailed us stating he charges '£325 for planning and building approval, no charge for amendments or re-submissions'. The local authority fees are separate from this, as was a payment made to a structural engineer for some calculations necessary for Building regs.
Long story short, after much changing of errors on the plans, amendments requested by Building Control, and two very minor changes to the plans requested by us (double instead of single rear door, and moving the location of an upstairs bathroom/window which led to Planning being consulted and an Non-Material Amendment [NMA] having to be submitted), plans are now approved.
The guy is now asking for £425, however, only telling us this AFTER everything is done, and stating that he's 'sure we can appreciate he's done extra work'. No mention that further charges would be payable at any stage before this.
Of course, we've queried the extra charge - and have had several sarcastic and quite rude emails back. He wants to come to see us (or us to go see him) or phone him, to discuss the 'extra charges'. He also agreed to accept payment via online banking but since we've queried the charge he is now insisting on cash 'as agreed' (we never agreed to pay him cash and in fact asked if we could pay by our bank early in the process). He has failed to provide a written breakdown of his cost, save that the 'NMA' itself seems to be the extra £100. I've looked into this and he had to move/amend 3 boxes on the plans he was already working on, plus write one email to Planning, and then write less than 50 words on an online form (all of which he OFFERED to do, without telling us it would be chargeable), so asking for effectively 1/3 of the cost of the whole set of plans for some relatively very minor amendments smacks of opportunism to me.
I've been advised by our builder to offer to meet his extra charge halfway (ie an extra £50) just to resolve it. I really don't want to have to meet this guy personally or even speak to him and I want to pay him online as getting the cash will involve a trip into town just to please him - why should I? I should clarify that he has emailed giving his bank details saying we can make the payment to his bank already, however when I tried to set up the payment his sort code came up unrecognised and he's so far failed to re-confirm it despite being asked, insisting on meeting us and demanding cash.
Any advice appreciated as I intend to email him later today with our offer. He lives locally but I've never met him (my wife had the initial meeting) and to be frank I've no desire to!
We are planning an extension to our house and informally contracted, on recommendation, an acquaintance's father-in-law. He emailed us stating he charges '£325 for planning and building approval, no charge for amendments or re-submissions'. The local authority fees are separate from this, as was a payment made to a structural engineer for some calculations necessary for Building regs.
Long story short, after much changing of errors on the plans, amendments requested by Building Control, and two very minor changes to the plans requested by us (double instead of single rear door, and moving the location of an upstairs bathroom/window which led to Planning being consulted and an Non-Material Amendment [NMA] having to be submitted), plans are now approved.
The guy is now asking for £425, however, only telling us this AFTER everything is done, and stating that he's 'sure we can appreciate he's done extra work'. No mention that further charges would be payable at any stage before this.
Of course, we've queried the extra charge - and have had several sarcastic and quite rude emails back. He wants to come to see us (or us to go see him) or phone him, to discuss the 'extra charges'. He also agreed to accept payment via online banking but since we've queried the charge he is now insisting on cash 'as agreed' (we never agreed to pay him cash and in fact asked if we could pay by our bank early in the process). He has failed to provide a written breakdown of his cost, save that the 'NMA' itself seems to be the extra £100. I've looked into this and he had to move/amend 3 boxes on the plans he was already working on, plus write one email to Planning, and then write less than 50 words on an online form (all of which he OFFERED to do, without telling us it would be chargeable), so asking for effectively 1/3 of the cost of the whole set of plans for some relatively very minor amendments smacks of opportunism to me.
I've been advised by our builder to offer to meet his extra charge halfway (ie an extra £50) just to resolve it. I really don't want to have to meet this guy personally or even speak to him and I want to pay him online as getting the cash will involve a trip into town just to please him - why should I? I should clarify that he has emailed giving his bank details saying we can make the payment to his bank already, however when I tried to set up the payment his sort code came up unrecognised and he's so far failed to re-confirm it despite being asked, insisting on meeting us and demanding cash.
Any advice appreciated as I intend to email him later today with our offer. He lives locally but I've never met him (my wife had the initial meeting) and to be frank I've no desire to!
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