[nellyt]

Anyone had experience of the hassles of changing builder at the concept plan stage?

We went to one of the big national builders, at the upper end of the market, and have got them to draw some concept plans. This is a clean sheet design not a modification.
That was the only way they would give us a price estimate. In doing so we had to sign the copyright of the plans to them, but this seems standard practice. We have paid them for their design time as agreed.
40% of the design is out of a magazine, 50% we did ourselves, their designer/architect proably did 10-20%.

We knew they were not going to be the cheapest, but it seems they are expecting a significant amount more than seems reasonable. We are in the process of getting the same designs quoted by another large local builder. Others we have spoken to have said they could do the same and they "often take on designs from xxxx".

When asked about the copyright issue one has told us they just need to move a door, the other says they would have to re-design 30% of the house and that is what the Masterbuilders rules state.

All 3 are Masterbuilders. I have just spoken to the legal lady at MB's who was quite rude and was of no help at all. She would not even say if there was a members code of conduct in this area, in fact I put the phone down on her.

Has anyone jumped ship with concept plans or know of people who have? or have any idea what we may get charged to use what is largely "our" design with another builder?

In hind sight we should maybe of gone to a separate architect.

[hball]

When you commission anyone to draw plans the copyright belongs to them just as if you asked a musician to compose a piece of music for you. It doesn't matter where the details came from, as you say some came from a book, some from yourself and some from the architectural designer, he/she was the one who created the whole from the parts.

Whoever told you that all that was required to remove copyright was to move a door was totally wrong. You are safer with the 30% answer, the question is how to quantify 30%. But just to warn you, if you proceed with building using the plans to hand and an alternative building company the original building company is legally entitled to sue you!

Regarding costing a project, it is only when detailed plans are available that a accurate quotation for the work involved can be obtained. Prior to that anyone can give you a 'guesstimate' based loosely on the size of the project and the understood specification but expect these guesses to range wildly! Most responsible building companies will be reluctant to second guess an undetermined project.

I'm not sure that I follow your comment that you know 'they' were not going to be the cheapest etc. Was this for the plans or for the quotation?

Many people do use an independent architect to draw their plans as it does enable them to use whichever building company they choose. It is usually more expensive to go this route and it is not uncommon to find that once you have selected your builder elements of your plans will need to be redrawn to suit that company's construction preferences/specification.

Hope that's of help :)

[nellyt]

I'm not sure that I follow your comment that you know 'they' were not going to be the cheapest etc. Was this for the plans or for the quotation?

We knew their build price estimate would be more than others but it seems very ott. People have said "gosh you must be building a castle" to which we say no just a normal house. That gets us very depressed. The bank manager has told me to get estimates from other builders as she is pretty sure their estimate is unjustifiably high.

Regarding estimates I agree it is difficult, but they were reluctant to even tell us build prices of other houses that were vaguely similar, only their show home and off-plan homes.

[sizzlingbadger]

From what you're saying you were probably better off to go straight to an architect and then source the builders for your project rather than going for a house building company that specialise in building their own designs, IMO it would cost them more to build a one off design than one of their own.

When we looked in to building we went to quite a few different builders, found the plans we liked but just modified the interior, the exterior stayed the same that way it was still reasonably priced as they weren't changing the foot print of the building.

I don't know where you stand now if you turn these builders down and go on to build your house, it may be worth getting in touch with citizens advice or a solicitor. At the end of the day as some else has said you don't want to find yourselves subject to a law suit as it may cost you your dream home.

Good luck :nice1