renos

Thanks IceEyez and Snoozee for the advice! Felt his charge was quite high - though the said person is claiming that 'senior architects with over 30 years of experience are able to charge up to 2k/hr' even. Not sure how real that is. BOA replied that the issue is a contractual one and thus not under their purview, unless we want to file a complaint against him.

Thanks for the link Snoozee! Tried to call BOA but their hotline is not operating due to covid, and they haven't responded yet to my email. Seems (from my layman's reading) too: that fees are payable if drawings are involved, which were not done in my case. Had 1 site visit, 2 phone conversations, and he went through our building plans. He even went as far as to suggest he would go to the Small Claims Tribunal if we refuse to pay his fee. Guess for now will probably try to reach BOA to understand whether his charges are reasonable or not...

Thanks a lot! We do want to be fair to him for his time and services as a professional. But somehow feel quite mistreated overall as unaware he would be charging & at such a high rate. Yes am emailing to clarify with them. Unfortunately their response time is rather slow due to covid measures too..

Hi, just wondering if it is industry practice for architects to charge for initial consultation, without being formerly engaged for a project? Bought an old terrace house. Consulted an architect due to leakage issues & considering renovating. He looked through our building plans, directed us to enquire with PUB and BCA (which we did ourselves), but later when we did so and got back to him, he declined to advise further without being formally engaged, saying his fees were 10-15% of construction costs. Thus we did not ask him any further, nor engage him formally. However, a few months later, received an invoice for consultation fees from him (which was at 1K/hr for several hours), which to me seems rather excessive (considering that he really didn't do much for the project aside from giving us some initial pointers to call PUB & BCA). Not sure if he is being fair to charge this way? Any advice or help would be much appreciated!