1.GENERAL TERMS

Scope of Works

This is shown in your quotation with details of what work will be produced by Fytche-Taylor Planning Ltd. and which parts will be delivered by third party specialist consultants.

Fees & Exclusions

Our fees cover the items specified in your quote.  Unless specifically agreed, our fees exclude all third-party costs.  

Unless specifically agreed otherwise, our fees exclude the statutory planning (or building control) application fees that will be payable to the local authority. Please be aware that the council will require payment of any fees due in order to validate your application(s).

Unless specified in your quote our fees do not include pre-application engagement with the local planning authority or any other consultee or regulatory body. 

Our fees cover the work specified and our consultant’s time up to the point of validation.

Payment Terms (Note: payment terms differ by type of project, as shown)

All Planning Applications and Planning Appeals:  In most cases, payment is split as shown below. For smaller projects we may request full payment on appointment, otherwise:

• 60% of our fees are due on appointment.  Payment of this part of the fee secures our appointment.  No work shall be undertaken prior to payment of this element of the fees and our start date shall be calculated from the receipt of cleared funds. Since all work is specific to your project, this element of the fees is non-transferable and non-refundable.

• The remaining 40% balance of our fees is due once the application is ready to be submitted to the local planning authority. For appeals, the balance is due prior to submission of the appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.  Documents are only released in a final (non-watermarked) format on receipt of the balance of our fees.

Pre-Application Submissions: Full payment is required prior to commencing work

Site Appraisals:  Full payment is required prior to commencing work

Call for Sites / Site Promotion: To be paid in full on appointment

Prior Approvals, Building Regulations packs and other consent types: Full payment is required prior to commencing work

All other work – including Planning Appraisals / Scoping Reports / Pre-start meetings / Condition Discharge etc: Full fees to be paid on appointment unless otherwise agreed.

Confirming our Appointment (all projects)               

In all cases, our appointment must be confirmed in writing.  You may do this via email or by completing the last page of this document and sending a copy to us by post.  

In accepting our quotation, you are agreeing to the terms and conditions set out herein and to all payment terms specified. 

On receipt of written confirmation, we will issue an appointment invoice for the relevant fees.  No work will commence without funds on your account and without a formal written confirmation giving us your instruction to proceed.

VAT

Our fees shown are subject to VAT charged at 20%, or the applicable rate at the time of the invoice.

Quotation Validity

Fees shown are valid for 60 days from the date of this quote.  After 60 days the prices shown in your quote will no longer be valid and a revised quotation should be requested.

In the event that you decide to put the application on hold once our work is complete, we will issue an interim invoice to cover the work we have completed up to that point.  

Where a project is delayed due to the non-payment (or delayed payment) of any part of our fees, additional costs may be incurred if our fees have changed, or where the submission or application requirements have altered since the original date of our appointment.

 2. PLANNING APPLICATIONS

Potential Additional Costs      

Whilst we take great care in ensuring that your application is complete at the point of submission, for all planning applications the local planning authority is able to request any additional information (beyond that detailed in your quotation or prepared for your application) if they consider it to be necessary to reach a decision.

In addition, further matters may arise during the public consultation period that need to be explored, addressed or discussed with the local authority or planning officer. 

Similarly, new regulations or guidance can be introduced with immediate effect (usually by Central Government or the via the local authority) that result in the need for additional information or revisions to documents. This can occur at any time and often without prior notice.  Where this results in the need for further consultancy work, additional fees will apply to cover our consultant’s time for responding accordingly. 

In all cases our fees cover our work and consultancy time up to the point of validation.  Many applications require no, or very little, additional consultancy time - but for other applications some further work might be requested.  Because of this, once we have submitted your application, any further consultancy time required after the application is ‘live’ will be chargeable at the hourly rate applicable when that work is undertaken.  

This includes (but is not limited to) modifications to the application and/or any part thereof, the revision or reissue of any plans, the provision of additional reports, the attendance or participation in further meetings (including telephone, virtual or face to face meetings with you, consultees, third-parties or the local authority), email exchanges, and/or any other further work undertaken or time incurred.  

Contact us for our current hourly rate which is subject to quarterly review.

Payment of Additional Fees

Where further work is undertaken after your planning application is submitted, additional charges will be invoiced on either a rolling monthly basis for larger on-going projects, or on receipt of your decision notice for smaller developments.

This includes both changes made by you, or those required by the local planning authority to determine your application.  

Estimated Third-Party Fees (Disclaimer)

Wherever feasible, we will provide approximate cost estimates for any input from third-party specialists. These figures are derived from similar projects completed recently but have not been tailored to your specific site or proposed development. As such, the amounts are provided solely as a guide to aid in your budget planning. They should be treated as preliminary estimates until a tender process is conducted, and precise, site- or project-specific costs are confirmed.

Payment of Bonuses (where agreed)

Where a bonus has been agreed, this will be detailed in your quotation.  Where applicable, payment of the bonus is due in full within 7 working days of your decision being issued.

Outline Planning Applications

In most cases an outline planning application will not include full detailed architectural drawings.  Details of what plans are to be included in the submission will be clearly described in the quotation. 

Under certain circumstances, following the submission of an application for outline planning permission, the local planning authority (LPA) may make a request for further details to be submitted under Article 5.(2) of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015.  In this situation the LPA can effectively ask for whatever additional details are deemed necessary to assess the application.  Where this is the case, a new quotation will be provided to the client for the preparation and submission of the requested details.

Provision of Plans / Hard Copy Documents

All documentation is supplied in electronic format, typically as a PDF. If you require hard copies of any plans or drawings our charging schedule for printed documents is as follows (cost shown is per sheet):

A4 B/W: £0.10
A4 Colour £0.50

A3 B/W: £0.25
A3 Colour £1.10

A2 B/W: £2.68
A2 Colour £3.96

A1 B/W: £4.05
A1 Colour £5.60

Cancellation

In all cases, our appointment fees are non-refundable.  In the event that you subsequently cancel this project for any reason, and at any stage, the full costs for any further work completed up to that point (as assessed by us) will be chargeable plus a cancellation fee equal to 20% of your outstanding fees.  Other fees are non-negotiable once formally appointed and non-refundable irrespective of the outcome of your planning application. 

Timescales

Once appointed, our estimated start date and total timescales will be as detailed in your quotation.  Please be aware that this can change, sometimes significantly, during busy periods if there is a delay in confirming our appointment. 

Where there is a requirement for input from a third-party specialist (such as an ecologist, structural engineer or drainage engineer etc) their respective lead times will often affect the timescales.  

For planning applications, most minor developments must be determined within 8 weeks of validation.  For major planning developments this extends to a 13-week determination period.  Other types of application or prior approval may carry different timescales.  In most cases the LPA will determine an application in accordance with these requirements, however determination dates are solely controlled by the local authority and are entirely outside of our control. 

It is also common for matters to be raised during the consultation stage that the authority considers need to be examined further, in which case an extension of time might be sought prior to determination of the application.  

Named Contacts 

You will be provided with a named contact when your project starts.  Usually this is the consultant that has issued the quotation to you.  To ensure that you receive the best service and continuity, your named contact should remain your primary contact for all matters throughout the project, up to completion.  

In all cases, additional project support may be provided by other team members as necessary to ensure that your project is completed expediently.

Resubmissions or Planning Appeal Costs

Our fees provided to you make no allowance for any time or costs associated with preparing a revised planning application in the event of a resubmission, nor for the preparation of a planning appeal.  These will be provided separately on request.

Media and Public Relations

We use our social media and website to publicise our activities, promote our projects and to share site photos and/or project updates.  In appointing Fytche-Taylor Planning Ltd you confirm your consent to allow us to do so freely and for any third-party consultants appointed to the project to do the same for their own promotional or publicity purposes.

3. PLANNING APPRAISALS

Outcome of your appraisal (Disclaimer)

It is important to note that we cannot confirm that as a result of any planning advice or site review we provide you with that it will be possible to develop your land or buildings – the review is designed to provide you with a clear understanding of the development potential and any likely risks if you to decide to proceed with a planning application or to promote the site.

We pride ourselves in always providing honest advice. However, our advice will be based on planning policies in place at this time and we cannot confirm if any site has realistic development potential until we have completed our review and searches.

As such, the advice provided may not always align with the outcome you were perhaps hoping for.  Fees are non-refundable irrespective of your site’s development potential.

4. CALL FOR SITE SUBMISSIONS / SITE PROMOTION

Site Selection (Disclaimer)

Call for Sites consultations are often called at short notice and run for set time periods (usually 4 or 6 weeks).  As such, whilst we will take all reasonable steps to assist clients in all cases, if there is any delay in confirming our appointment it may not be possible to make a submission within this deadline.  Fytche-Taylor shall not be accountable under any circumstances for any late submissions arising from a delay in our appointment or any other cause.  

In all cases, it is important to demonstrate that a site is deliverable and that any constraints can be reasonably mitigated.  We take pride in the high quality of our work and will seek to maintain this quality at all times.  As such, we have a minimum level of information that we would expect to include to ensure that our submissions remain to our level of quality and attention to detail. 

Our consultants have an excellent track record in securing site allocations for clients, but the decision over whether to allocate a site remains with the Local Planning Authority alone.  As such, we cannot ever guarantee that a site will be allocated and in all cases our consultancy fees are non-refundable under any circumstances, irrespective of the outcome of the site promotion.

 5. FEEDBACK

Reviews and Customer Feedback    

Client feedback is incredibly important to our team.  Your reviews also significantly improve our visibility and provide potential clients with additional confidence in our services. Leaving us a review, with details of our consultants that have helped you, should take no more than a minute or so and can be done via these links:

Google:              https://g.page/r/Ca-CXDnrQziXEAg/review

Yell:                      https://tinyurl.com/2s3uh4dd          

Your Satisfaction

We are proud of our exemplary service standards and exceptional approval rates.  We also understand that planning and architecture can sometimes be an incredibly frustrating process.  Unfortunately, delays to your decision are outside of our control and local authorities can sometimes be very slow to provide updates on the application’s progress.  If you would like to discuss any aspect of your project or are dissatisfied in any way, we will always work with you to address any concerns – please do contact us at any time if this is the case so that we can discuss your options.

Applicable Law

Any dispute or legal issues arising from our Terms and Conditions of business will be determined by the law of England and Wales, and considered exclusively by the English and Welsh courts.

 6. APPOINTMENT OF FYTCHE-TAYLOR PLANNING LTD

In all cases, our appointment must be confirmed in writing. 

By Email:  Please confirm via email to [email protected]. 

You do not need to send a copy of this form, but in giving us email confirmation to proceed you are confirming that you are authorised on behalf of the land or property owner, company, firm or partnership you represent to make a binding agreement to the terms and conditions in this document and commit to payment of fees in accordance with the terms shown.

In signing, you are confirming that you have read, understood, and accepted these Terms and Conditions of Business in full.

or

By Post:  Please complete the details below and send a copy of this page to us: Fytche-Taylor Planning Ltd, Unit 5 The Quays, Burton Waters, Lincoln, LN1 2XG with the following declaration: "I confirm that I am authorised on behalf of the land or property owner, company, firm or partnership I represent to bind it to such conditions and commit it to payment of fees in accordance with this agreement. I confirm I have read and understood, and I accept, these Terms and Conditions of Business".

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