Professional Appointment Review
Risk mitigationFixed FeeFor Self Builders5 working days
The appointment terms your architect, engineer or designer asks you to sign, read properly before signature: up to three proposals levelled onto one basis so the fees can genuinely be compared, a plain-English note of what each fee basis does when the build changes, and the questions to send each consultant before you commit. The first money a self build commits is usually professional fees, and it is the money households understand least.
The problem
A household will spend weeks comparing builder quotes and sign an architect's appointment the day it arrives, because it came from a professional and looked like a formality. What goes wrong is specific and expensive. A percentage fee rises with the build cost, so the fee grows every time the design gets more ambitious. A proposal covering only the design stages stops at the end of design, and the household discovers at tender that site inspections and contract administration are a separate fee nobody budgeted. When the design comes back over budget, the redesign is usually at the household's cost, under a clause almost nobody reads. And two proposals that look like a clear winner on price can cover different numbers of stages, different levels of drawing, with one of them leaving out the structural engineer entirely.
The solution
I start with what you believe each consultant will do for you, in your own words, because the gap between that and what the documents say is the finding. Each appointment is then read for what it actually covers: the fee basis exactly as stated, the work stages included, judged against the RIBA Plan of Work, the industry's numbered stages running from first idea to handover, the exclusions and the extras charged on top, and the risk clauses: what happens if the design exceeds your budget, what you owe if you stop, and the professional indemnity insurance, the consultant's cover if their work goes wrong, sitting behind it all. Up to three proposals are levelled onto the one scope you actually need, every added figure marked as my allowance rather than a price, and every percentage converted at your own budget figure and again at a higher build cost, so you see what a percentage fee does when the build grows. What comes back is the levelled comparison, the fee-basis note in plain English, and a questions annex written in your voice, ready to send. No consultant is ever recommended, and nothing here is legal advice or a view on anyone's design ability; where a clause needs a legal opinion, a solicitor is the right hands and the review says so. Fee fixed and quoted in writing.
What you receive
You see, on one page, what each appointment actually buys and what each will really cost once the gaps are filled, before your name goes on any of them. The fee-basis note tells you which risk each fee mechanism hands you when the build changes, and the questions annex turns the findings into written answers from the people who can fix them. Where a clause needs legal force, you found out before signing rather than after.
The Handover Pack accompanies the work with its dates and sources, likely outcomes and responses, scope boundaries and ready-to-send correspondence where needed.
Turnaround: five working days.
The working days start when the agreed scope and required inputs are available. Optional items do not hold the start unless the agreed scope says otherwise.
How it works
You send the proposals and say what you expect
Every fee proposal and appointment document as it arrived, terms and attachments included, and, in your own words, what you believe each consultant will do from now to the finished house. That list is written down before anything is read, because the gap between it and the documents is the finding.
- A
Every appointment document, complete
EssentialWithout it: The review is checking a fee it cannot fully see, so the report has to flag every gap in the paperwork rather than close it.
Where to find it: Your inbox; forward everything as it arrived, nothing tidied.
Why I need it: The terms behind a proposal usually carry the risk; a proposal alone cannot be reviewed properly
- B
The brief given
ImportantWithout it: There is nothing to test the fee against except a general sense of the project, so each proposal ends up judged as reasonable in isolation instead of against what you actually asked for.
Where to find it: Your sent folder, or your own memory written down.
Why I need it: A fee can only be judged against what was asked for
- C
The whole-project budget, and what of it is construction
ImportantWithout it: A percentage fee cannot be turned into a cash figure, so the comparison has to guess at what each proposal will actually cost you.
Where to find it: You hold all of this already; a few plain lines do it.
Why I need it: A percentage fee is charged on the construction cost and not on the whole budget, so the construction cost has to be derived from the budget before any fee can be tested against the number it will actually be charged on
- D
The route
EssentialWithout it: The review cannot tell which duties each appointment is actually buying, so gaps that fall to you silently stay hidden.
Where to find it: You hold all of this already; a few plain lines do it.
Why I need it: Decides which duties are being bought and which are silently left with the household
- E
The works type
EssentialWithout it: The survey and existing-condition work a renovation or conversion needs gets missed from the comparison entirely.
Where to find it: You hold all of this already; a few plain lines do it.
Why I need it: Renovations and conversions carry survey and existing-condition work that new builds do not
Copies are fine. Send what you have and I'll tell you what's missing. Download the client request PDF or editable Word version to pass to whoever holds the files.
- A
I read each appointment for what it actually covers
The fee basis exactly as stated, the work stages covered and where each stops, the exclusions and everything charged on top, and the clauses that bite when things change: over-budget redesign, stopping the project, insurance, the licence to use the drawings. Silences are recorded as findings, never assumed away.
Terms in before judging
Each proposal's standard terms are obtained, or their absence recorded and chased in writing, before any conclusion is drawn from it.
I level the proposals onto one basis
Every duty you actually need from now to completion becomes the one scope; whatever a proposal excludes is added as my stated allowance, marked as an allowance and not a price. Percentages are converted at your own budget figure, and again at a higher build cost, so a growing build has nowhere to hide.
I test what each fee does when the project changes
Build cost up, brief changed, programme longer, project stopped after planning: what each fee basis charges in each case, found in the clause that says so. Fee bases are chosen for the consultant's risk, not yours, and this note says which risk each one hands you.
I write the review and the questions annex
Findings worst-consequence-first, each traced to its page or clause; the levelled table with every allowance marked; and the questions grouped by consultant, written in your voice, short and answerable, ready to forward exactly as they stand.
Before you sign, always
The report and its written questions land before any appointment is signed, or you are told the same day, in writing, to hold off.
You send the questions and decide
A consultant's written answer to a direct question becomes part of the deal, and a duty no proposal covers is named before it lands on you mid build. Who to appoint is your decision, and the report says so in terms: I never recommend a consultant.
I hand over the levelled comparison and the questions to send
Free Service Pack
A step-by-step Handbook, with the templates and working documents you need to carry out the work it covers yourself. You supply your own project information and records.
Follow the Handbook's scope and stopping points, and obtain independent advice where required. The pack is not project-specific advice or independent sign-off.
