Citizens Advice recommends checking the work and materials, price validity, VAT treatment and circumstances in which a quoted price can change. [1]
Ask how the design fee or construction price is calculated and what breakdown will be supplied. Identify assumptions and allowances alongside the fixed elements of the quotation.
Establish what is being quoted
Specify whether the request concerns a survey, design stage, application package, technical information, construction or a combination. For construction, identify the drawings and specification being priced. For design, identify the stage outputs and any continuing support required.
Ask for inclusions and exclusions to be recorded together. Do not interpret a heading such as technical design as proof that every specialist investigation or external charge has been included.
Check whether structural engineering, specialist reports, application charges, building-control charges, party wall services and utility work are included. For excluded services, record who appoints and pays the provider.
Check quotation and consultation terms
Our quotations are free and without obligation, with a stated validity period of three months. Surveys, feasibility studies and other professional services may require a paid appointment.
Confirm which quotation services and validity terms apply to your proposal, and which surveys, feasibility work or other activities require a paid appointment.
Use the actual quotation’s issue date, scope and terms when checking whether it remains available. Obtain written clarification where a proposal and website wording differ.
Agree payments and changes
Ask for payment stages, amounts or the calculation method, and the event that triggers each payment. For an allowance that cannot yet be fixed, ask what it covers and how the final amount will be agreed. Request a clear process for approving additional design or construction work before it proceeds.
Agree any advance payment, invoice stages and deadlines. Identify allowances, retention where applicable, additional-work rates and how changes require written authorisation.
A design-and-build scope also needs to identify the contractor’s design obligations. JCT explains that design responsibilities vary between projects and must be set out through clear client requirements; the contract label alone does not settle the scope. [2]
Read the project appointment, not just website terms
Our website terms govern use of the website. Your project needs its own professional appointment or building contract.
Ask which appointment or contract documents accompany the quotation and check the cancellation provisions, insurance information and acceptance procedure.
Retain the agreed quotation with its referenced drawings, exclusions and later written changes. Compare proposals on that complete basis rather than comparing only the headline total.