There is no doubt that making a planning application to improve your existing house or seek planning approval can be one of the best investments you can make. Even though East of England Planning Consultants pride themselves on striving to deliver excellent service and value for money, some of the costs incurred can be significant to many people. Those costs can later be recovered through the future sale of either property or development land but the initial expenditure is still a burden to bear.

When East of England Planning Consultants started compiling it’s list of services a discussion between the Directors was had surrounding the initial consultation with the prospective client. The company investigated two possible solutions for clients and those are outlined below:

1. The ‘Free’ Initial Consultation:

We considered offering the initial discussion with prospective clients free of charge. We felt that this could be a really great way of getting people to do business with us. We envisaged visiting the application site, undertaking an initial survey, making sketches of the intended development and then compiling a report giving our opinion on the chances of securing permission with a planning application.

When one sees the word ‘free’ most people would consider that to mean without charge. However, as we discussed, the time and costs incurred in undertaking a survey would need to be recovered somewhere in the application. It is possible that some other consultants may recover these costs through inflated charging for services later in the application process. In order to do this, some consultants may encourage people to proceed with an application, well knowing there is very little chance of success, in order to recoup these early-on, ‘free’ costs.

East of England Planning Consultants decided that our clients deserve only clear, honest charges for actual work undertaken. It was during these early days that we decided that we will only ever recommend a client to instruct us to progress an application if there is a reasonable chance of success.

2. The Paid For Initial Consultation:

As the word “free” could sometimes be translated as “hidden costs later” by some clients, we decided that we would be honest and open with clients right from the start.

Our initial charges include a consultation with the client, a site visit with survey, sketches of the proposed development site, initial liaison with the LPA concerned and a report produced for the client giving our opinion as to the chances of success and our recommended next steps.

We promise to tell you, that if we do not consider planning permission likely to be granted, not to instruct us to progress further. We will never lead you up the garden path and that’s a promise!

We consider that it is fairer for our clients to pay a small charge for an honest opinion than to end up with a huge bill for dashed hopes.

If you feel that a fair and honest opinion is something that you would value before you start your project then please get in touch with East of England Planning Consultants today.