NEGOTIATE A FEE TO SUIT YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES

All professional fees are negotiated. For each project, we derive fees from an estimate of time and the resources needed. These resources are necessary to supply the extent of service. This is essential to achieve successful outcomes. This assessment should happen as early as possible. This ensures that everybody is clear about your needs.

The basis of the fee can vary, depending on the type and complexity of the project. The fee is worked out as a percentage of the building cost. It can also be on an hourly basis or simply as an agreed fixed sum. Fees for domestic work range from about 7% to 18% for full services. They be considerably lower for partial services.

This flexibility enables us to settle on a fee that fits your individual circumstances.

WAYS USED TO REDUCE COST OF ARCHITECTURAL FEES

Reduced Scope of Services

A well designed building can save you the cost of the architects fees many times over. We are often asked to give ways to reduce our fees. Our policy is to offer reductions in the scope of service to reduce our fee, depending on the circumstances. By way of example, you choose to manage the building contract yourself. In this circumstance, we would tailor your specifications, drawings and contracts to help you through the process. For clients who have the available time, the savings will rarely outweigh the risk. They are unskilled in the mastery of complex construction and contract law.

Reduce re-designs, errors, omissions and corrections

Before you commission an architect for your project, make sure you can work with them. It is important to feel satisfied with this collaboration. It is thus very important that a clear brief is derived and agreed to satisfy your requirements. Your architect will formalise the brief in any number of ways depending on the circumstances of the project. To create a brief for domestic work, we offer early advice through preliminary sketches. We charge for this on an hourly basis. This helps to develop a satisfactory working relationship. Once the brief is clear, we then set our fee. We will use a more definitive method that takes into account the work already completed.

FEES SCALE

The Royal Australian Institute of Architects used to offer advice to architect members on establishing a competitive fee. These fee scales depend on the complexity of each project. Architects use them as a guide to form a profitable and competitive level of payment for services provided.

Typically fees are linked to various stages of the work as follows:

Sketch plans 15% of total fee

Design development 15% of total fee

Contract Documentation 35% of total fee

Tender & Negotiation 5% of total fee

Contract Administration 30% of total fee

The total fee depends on the complexity of the work. It ranges between 7% and 18% of the cost of the works. The fee is negotiated as a lump sum figure. Alternatively, it is derived from a time based formula. We understand that flexibility is needed to satisfy individual requirements. Thus, we consider and set up a fee proposal which best suits your circumstances.

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