Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Nov 08, 2014 11:31 pm Hi There, I just wondered if anyone else has had this experience?? Quite a few months ago, friends recommended that we use a draftsman to do up some independent drawings (design only) as we had seen a couple of builders and were not really happy with what had been drawn for us. So I called this guy & explained our situation and arranged a time for us to meet and discuss what we wanted in a house, budget etc. So we meet up I give him our list of 'wants' and our budget, size etc and he sends through a floor plan a couple of weeks later, that was nothing like what we had asked for, & I truly believe he must have lost our list, as there were a lot of 'wants' that were missing! So I email back to tell him that myself and hubby want to make quite a few changes and send pictures of how we want things and he responds saying we need to increase our size to accommodate (he gets paid per m2). He thinks we need to increase our size by another 30m2 to get everything that we want in, which was another $35 - $40k & said if we didnt want to do this we needed to lose a living area! We had already had 2 designs done previously with everything we wanted and to the size we wanted, & it seemed on his plan there was alot of wasted space! He sent another floor plan through that was missing a living area & it just didnt work and by this time we were very disillusioned & extremely disappointed as we really thought he would be able to draw something with some innovation, but it was a disaster! He told us that we needed to increase our size & we sent him an email telling him that we hadnt been financed for the extra money to increase the size and we didn't want to anyway, so we would have to find another solution ourselves. A few weeks later he returns from his holiday and leaves a message on my phone to say that he had returned from holiday and wanted to know where things were at & if we needed him to further assist us, to call him. At this point we had found a builder and they had started to design for us and we were happy, so I did not call him back. Three months later I receive an email from him, telling me that he had tried to contact me on several occasions (only the one time) and always got my message back and that he understood that his designs must not have made the mark for us and he was sorry for that, but he would be sending us through a bill for the designs. Now my husband and I are not unreasonable people and we know that he did some work on the designs and were happy to pay something for his time, but he has just sent us a bill for $1000k I just can't believe it and I have no idea where I stand in this regard, as it was totally unexpected, any advice would be great! Re: Advice please!!! What do I do?? Draftsman.....disaster! 2Nov 09, 2014 12:53 am SMH Now my husband and I are not unreasonable people and we know that he did some work on the designs and were happy to pay something for his time, but he has just sent us a bill for $1000k I just can't believe it and I have no idea where I stand in this regard, as it was totally unexpected, any advice would be great! It would seem that his fee/hourly rate was not discussed prior to engagement. You also expected to pay him "something" but did not take any measures for several months to finalise the account as per below. SMH A few weeks later he returns from his holiday and leaves a message on my phone to say that he had returned from holiday and wanted to know where things were at & if we needed him to further assist us, to call him. At this point we had found a builder and they had started to design for us and we were happy, so I did not call him back. Three months later I receive an email from him, telling me that he had tried to contact me on several occasions (only the one time) and always got my message back and that he understood that his designs must not have made the mark for us and he was sorry for that, but he would be sending us through a bill for the designs. It appears that he has been more than reasonable. IMHO, you need to pay the amount owing for the professional services rendered. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Advice please!!! What do I do?? Draftsman.....disaster! 3Nov 09, 2014 8:22 am I agree with SaveH20 on this one. I would pay the $1000. We had to forgo more than that four years ago just for asking a builder to do a preliminary draft of our own design which we didn't end up going ahead with. Building is expensive but even more expensive if you go ahead with something that isn't right. Just try and make sure the finished design with your builder is what you want and spend as much time as you need to to get it right. Good luck Re: Advice please!!! What do I do?? Draftsman.....disaster! 4Nov 09, 2014 8:47 am $1000 is a reasonable price for consultation and preliminary designs, irrespective of his ability to provide a design that met all your requirements. I would have assumed he would have given you a statement of fees when you started but I'd pay the bill and move on. Completed a knock down and rebuild in northern Melbourne. Handover completed 27/09/2013 and now moved in. Re: Advice please!!! What do I do?? Draftsman.....disaster! 5Nov 09, 2014 9:37 am There wasn't a fee per hour discussed prior to starting, but a price per square metre, but that was for full design plans, with elevations etc. As we could not sign off on a floor plan as it was not suitable, we did not even get to this stage. My friend that recommended him had full design plans done, with elevations etc with him on a 455m2 home and her total cost was $1100, whereas our home was 320m2! So quite a bit different - so I can't understand his pricing! When we showed our now builder the draftsman's plan, there were so many aspects of the design that didn't comply with the covenants (we are building in a body corporate estate) & the design drawn was $50k more in the build cost to what we had told him we had to spend, so once again not alot of thought went into the design & he had told me he was pressed for time as he was heading away on holiday, I just wish he had of said 'No' to the job, instead of giving us design plans that just didnt work on any level. And yes, we did expect to pay for his service, but was I going to chase him for an invoice to pay after what he had produced, hell no!! Re: Advice please!!! What do I do?? Draftsman.....disaster! 6Nov 09, 2014 1:51 pm You could ask for a specific invoice detailing what he is charging you for. If you disagree, contact your state/territory Consumer Affairs/Fair Trading and ask for their advice. Re: Advice please!!! What do I do?? Draftsman.....disaster! 7Nov 09, 2014 3:12 pm Our story started similar to yours but we had to pay our first $1000 before we even started! We asked the draftsman to draw up plans with very specific guidelines as to what we wanted and didn't want. First lot of sketches came back almost opposite of what we asked! Couldn't believe it! Cut a long story short we stuck it out with him to get our $1000 worth! Our fees were as follows. Payment to start design sketches $ 990.00 Payment to start working drawings $ 990.00 Payment on handover before council submission $ 990.00. So whilst payment / design (not square metre) may not have been discussed with you, i agree you have been charged accordingly. Personally i would cut my losses, pay it, and move on. Plenty more battles to fight in building a new home. Re: Advice please!!! What do I do?? Draftsman.....disaster! 8Nov 09, 2014 4:48 pm Maybe come to some kind of aggreement half that amount and move on if they aggree..... 'It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.' Re: Advice please!!! What do I do?? Draftsman.....disaster! 10Nov 09, 2014 11:30 pm If you have already 2 designs that fitted 'everything you wanted' why did you go for a 3rd (and now 4th).Have you paid anyone for time in doing these designs yet? And if you haven't had a quantity surveyor calculate on working drawings, how do you know the design was $50,000 more? Everyone likes to be paid for their time working, and architects get a professional fee. $1000 would get you 5 to 10 (very generous) hours working time. It doesn't take long to chew that up doing designs. I find it really hard to believe your friend got full drawings, elevations etc for $1100 from an architect. Re: Advice please!!! What do I do?? Draftsman.....disaster! 11Nov 10, 2014 10:32 am tjilpi "If you have already 2 designs that fitted 'everything you wanted' why did you go for a 3rd (and now 4th)." In response: I was talking about being able to fit amount of bedroom's living area's etc, Obviously if the drawings were what we wanted we would not not have employed a "draftsman" which I have clearly stated not an "Architect" as you mention, they are two different entities. The first two floor plan's drawn for us were from building companies, who as 'Im sure you would be aware, do not require payment unless you decide to build with them. We have now gone with a building company & yes we have now paid for our plan, that we have signed off on and are happy with. "And if you haven't had a quantity surveyor calculate on working drawings, how do you know the design was $50,000 more?" In response: We are building on a block of land that slopes, so the builder we have is working with the slope as much as possible to reduce the cost of expensive retaining etc, when he viewed the design we had from the draftsman he pointed out all the retaining that would need to be done to achieve the design, and continued to do a calculation for us (we had already had a survey plan and soil test) so it wasn't too difficult to calculate. In short - we were constantly pushed by the draftsman to increase our size (bearing in mind, he was not being paid an hourly rate - just on size) when now our final plan has all the bedroom's, living area's that we need, and for the same size we started with, so you tell me, do you think he was being genuine??? "I find it really hard to believe your friend got full drawings, elevations etc for $1100 from an architect." In response: Me too! Considering what he did for us, and what we were charged, I would have thought it would have been alot more for her, and she thinks so too! Re: Advice please!!! What do I do?? Draftsman.....disaster! 12Nov 16, 2014 9:16 pm The building company's plans are just slightly changed Kellogg's cornflakes off the shelf,not much work ,the custom designed plans do take lots of time,your friend can't be telling the whole story, when drafting,you get a plan, when happy you then get working drawings with most the build details,including a third party involved engineering. No way working drawings included for $1100' unless you were using one of those of the shelf type drafting services,which best already planed drawings would be dished out,a very different situation, I would move on,and clear my head for a better build result. Re: Advice please!!! What do I do?? Draftsman.....disaster! 14Nov 17, 2014 9:00 pm In reply to 'Joker" I have not mentioned 'working drawings' these were just 'Design Drawings' which consist of Floor Plan & elevations, we just needed these to submit to the body corporate. The building designer we worked with are a smaller builder but they do custom design to your specific requirements, and that's what they did for us, so our home is a 'one of'. Versaloc is a mortarless besser block system that still needs a properly engineered footing. If you just do a 400x200 footing it will fail in time. At 17m long you need it… 1 17474 A question. Im in Queensland and building a new home. We managed to reach practical completion 6 weeks ago but we haven't heard any date for handover yet. Who should we… 0 5806 I was being kind to the builder. With the amount charged for the upgrade the builder is probably charging closer to 100% margin. There are a few variables as I… 5 14307 |