If those plans are the extent of the work they have done then their fee for the plans is extortionate and their proposed charge for carrying out the work is nothing short of robbery.
I must say that having looked at their website I'm not impressed ... it looks like the sort of brochure we (a building firm) used to get from various builders merchants touting the latest garden paving products.
I can't see any reference to plants at all ... the 'practical and playful' family designs look almost identical to the 'garden' installed around a newly built old people's home not far from here ... uninspiring ... a sort of 'corporate' look like the bedrooms in budget hotels.
Dont touch them with a barge pole.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
We are delighted with the garden and it gives us a lot of pleasure. Though the cost might have been £23,000, I think the house value has probably increased commensurately.
Some commenters seem very sanguine about now owning the plans and finding other designers, but it all seems like a grand waste of the clients' time to me. If you don't have various sets of plans to compare, and have never done such work before, how would you know what would work best? If you don't have itemised costs, how can you assess value for money? They look like they're on commission from Marshalls, which also skews the pitch.
Well you've paid for the design now,so not much you can do about that,but there must be lots of landscapers who would work to the design and whom you could consult with on costs ,advantages or otherwise on materials. I too,think the cost is extortionate!
The whole truth is an instrument that can only be played by an expert.
Hi Dove. We have detailed drawings with measurements, materials etc (the drawings I posted just show the finished effect). To be fair, we asked for a simple modern design which I appreciate will not be everyone's cup of tea.
Pansy, yes they are the people we're dealing with. They seemed like lovely people and have a nice studio and have done lots of other projects but obviously something is off for them to hit us with a 70k quote. Currently, we're still on good terms with them and we're giving them the opportunity to come back with a reasonable quote and tweak the design/materials to bring the cost down. If that fails, we'll go elsewhere.
Hi Dove. We have detailed drawings with measurements, materials etc (the drawings I posted just show the finished effect). To be fair, we asked for a simple modern design which I appreciate will not be everyone's cup of tea.
Copyright and/or intellectual property infringements would be difficult to show on such simple designs. There may be small print on the detailed drawings about not being allowed to give them to another contractor for construction works, but that would be unusual and hard to enforce. Clauses in contracts that are not legal are not contractually binding, and in this case, I think it would be an infringement of Consumer Rights Laws to insist that only this guy's own team can build his design. It would be an infringement of his IP to pass the drawings on to (say) a new buyer of the house, or one of your neighbours to build in their house. But you paid for the drawings to be used by you on your premises. In the normal practice of the industry, that means you can get those designs realised if you want to, or not if you chose and by whatever means you chose.
But in any case, if you went to a young landscape company, showed them the 'final effect' drawings and asked them to create a design within a 15k budget based on those principles, I would expect them to be able to do so without further reference to the originals. You would only need to use them to talk around what you like about them and what you could compromise in order to achieve your budget.
It's hard to say if 70k is reasonable for what they've drawn but it seems a lot and I think there would be ways to achieve what you've asked within your budget, albeit you may need to have lower spec finishes.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
As far as I'm concerned, we own the drawings. We have paid for them and there is nothing in writing to say that we can't have someone else to do the work. Unless our designer drops his price dramatically, he has left us no choice but to go elsewhere.
If you hire 'An award winning designer' you are going to pay elevated prices. That said, if an initial budget of 15k was discussed, a 70k design is ridiculous. Without having full detail of the design it's impossible to day whether 70k is reasonable. If you're happy with the plans I'd be inclined to look elsewhere for somebody to actually do the work. Have you been provided with a fully detailed plan? i.e. planting layout, hard landscaping detail etc.
Posts
I must say that having looked at their website I'm not impressed ... it looks like the sort of brochure we (a building firm) used to get from various builders merchants touting the latest garden paving products.
I can't see any reference to plants at all ... the 'practical and playful' family designs look almost identical to the 'garden' installed around a newly built old people's home not far from here ... uninspiring ... a sort of 'corporate' look like the bedrooms in budget hotels.
Dont touch them with a barge pole.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
https://www.marshalls.co.uk/homeowners/uk-installers-and-contractors/leicestershire-garden-design-co-r02553
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
We are delighted with the garden and it gives us a lot of pleasure. Though the cost might have been £23,000, I think the house value has probably increased commensurately.
I too,think the cost is extortionate!
To be fair, we asked for a simple modern design which I appreciate will not be everyone's cup of tea.
There may be small print on the detailed drawings about not being allowed to give them to another contractor for construction works, but that would be unusual and hard to enforce. Clauses in contracts that are not legal are not contractually binding, and in this case, I think it would be an infringement of Consumer Rights Laws to insist that only this guy's own team can build his design.
It would be an infringement of his IP to pass the drawings on to (say) a new buyer of the house, or one of your neighbours to build in their house. But you paid for the drawings to be used by you on your premises. In the normal practice of the industry, that means you can get those designs realised if you want to, or not if you chose and by whatever means you chose.
But in any case, if you went to a young landscape company, showed them the 'final effect' drawings and asked them to create a design within a 15k budget based on those principles, I would expect them to be able to do so without further reference to the originals. You would only need to use them to talk around what you like about them and what you could compromise in order to achieve your budget.
It's hard to say if 70k is reasonable for what they've drawn but it seems a lot and I think there would be ways to achieve what you've asked within your budget, albeit you may need to have lower spec finishes.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
If you're happy with the plans I'd be inclined to look elsewhere for somebody to actually do the work. Have you been provided with a fully detailed plan? i.e. planting layout, hard landscaping detail etc.