A quantity
surveyor has helped us with the initial budget for works on our
church, and we have taken some time to fund-raise, but we are now
ready to start the works. A local chartered surveyor, however,
would like us to appoint him to project-manage our works; he is
sure that he can save more money, and says that his fees can come
out of the existing fee outline, as we have not yet signed the
contract with our professional team. Some of us are sceptical,
despite assurances that this surveyor comes from a Christian
partnership.
ALL sorts of questions
and comments spring to mind, but here are a few.
The question of a
person's faith when employing him or her for work is relevant only
if the work concerned requires him or her to lead a religious
activity, such as a service. Being a surveyor is not that sort of
work. There are surveyors of all standards of all faiths; so there
are good and bad surveyors who are Christians.
Then, if you have made a
verbal agreement with your existing team, but not signed contracts
because you were waiting till you had your funds, it is a question
of the congregation's ethical and moral standards whether it will
go back on its word.
If the congregation is
prepared to change its decision, then you should investigate the
new surveyor just as thoroughly as you did the original one. You
should ask: what is the surveyor's history and experience of
working on listed churches; is he or she recommended by previous
clients (contact them); and is he or she someone that you are all
comfortable to work with? (Your building-works group should meet
and interview him or her.) Also, has your architect had experience
that would help you or your DAC secretary? Any agreed appointment
should be ratified by the PCC; so check with the PCC that it is
happy for you to change horses midstream.
You should ensure a level playing field with your
existing quantity surveyor; and compare his or her answers with
those of the newcomer. If you already went through an interview
process to identify the one you have, you should have a good set of
answers for comparison.
All this is to say: go
through a thorough process before appointing anyone to your
professional team. Ensure that he or she has the qualifications,
skills, experience, and ability to work well with you - and that
the sums add up.
It is normal, if you
change professionals midstream (it can be as a result of illness,
for example), for the new professional to "start again", and not
adopt an existing plan without rechecking from scratch. Your new
surveyor would expect to rework the budget from scratch, and be
paid for that time; so you would experience an initial rise in
cost.
Expect a final invoice
from the existing surveyor, as he or she may have spent hours on
your project that have not yet been charged - the expectation being
that these would be included in the fee percentage when the job
finally got under way.
Finally, as I would be
loath to undertake the change you are considering, for all the
reasons implied above, do consider the break of a built-up
relationship, and the implications - from a bad taste to loss of
trust between the congregation and its professional team.
Questions and comments to
maggiedurran@virginmedia.com.