Ambre Solaire

We are interested in a property and after having it surveyed, find that it needs some work doing. I have been advised by the estate agent that they can obtain a quote for the work, but the builder will want 50 Euros, "as there is no guarantee that he would get the job"

As we do not speak Spanish, language is a problem and hence the agent wants 20 Eu per hour to translate the pages of English to Spanish to enable the builder to do his quote, pay him 50 EU for doing the quote and then 20 Eu per hour for them to translate Spanish into English for us.

Is this the norm !


l

jdr

I haven`t met a builder yet that charges for an estimate.
Phone some others and get estimates off them.
If he was a decent agent he would translate it as part of his work of selling the property.

Rosemary

When we had a quote from a builder to remove our old windows and persianas and fit new ones he did not charge for the quote. He did not know whether we would employ him until after we agreed that his quote seemed fair and that we agreed to him doing the job.

Do not know if this is normal either, so may be of no use to you.

What area are you in?

Also it is very hard to come by builders who are available because of the massive amount of building that is going on in Spain.

Rosemary

rugbymatt

Quoting for any work and charging for that quote is pretty counter productive as far as I am concerned.

Rosemary

It sound to me like the estate agent is the one doing the charging and saying that it is the builder.

Rosemary

Ambre Solaire

The property is in a small inland hamlet

jdr

Yeah, too right, tell him its a freebie or you will look elsewhere.
I was in the trade for 40 years and never ever charged for an estimate.

mikeoc

Find a new agent, this one is trying it on

Rosemary

It has just occurred to me that if a survey is done on a Spanish house by a Spanish surveyor surely the information would have been written in Spanish not English so why is the agent asking you to pay for that translation?

Rosemary

rugbymatt

It does to me, even if there are very few jobs and losing one is a big loss charging for a quote is a sure fire way to lose the job.

Ambre Solaire

Thanks for all your replies -

We have been told the money would be re-imbursed if we bought the property, but we would have to pay for it in advance -prior to the translation and the quote !

Ambre Solaire

Sorry forgot to mention, Survey was carried out by a British surveyor in English - Thank God

keithwalters

Just to put the shoe on the other foot for a moment, if I was a builder and I was asked to quote for some work by someone who didn´t even own the property and there was no guarantee that they ever would, it would be quite easy to see how you might be labelled as a timewaster.

Charging you for the estimate, and then reimbursing you for it further down the line actually doesn´t seem unreasonable to me!

But I guess I am on my own here.

As for the translation, if you go to a translation company 20 euros an hour would be extremely cheap, especially as we are talking technical jargon here. I don´t know how big the document is, but to get it professionally translated will cost well over 20 euros an hour. Unless, that is, you persuade someone to do it for you for free, and that would have to be someone who has a vested interest in getting it done.

Ambre Solaire

Hi Keith

Most of the report is in "easy to understand" English, just a few technical words like "under pinning". No doubt I can use the excellent summary that is at the end of the report.

I was just amazed when the agent suggested paying money to the builder and then thought maybe I was being nieve.

Unfortunately, one of our biggest problems is lack of Spanish !

keithwalters

I´m guessing that the builder gets umpteen requests for quotes from people who are "thinking about buying a property". And perhaps only a very few of these quotes actually turn into paying clients, perhaps through no fault of his own but simply because these people don´t end up buying the house for one reason or another.

Contrary to what others have stated on here, I actually don´t think the builder is unreasonable by asking for 50 euros (refundable).

However, if you were already the owners of the house and fully installed in the property, I wouldn´t expect to pay for an estimate for works. I guess the builder just thinks that the odds of him getting the job, regardless how good his prices are, are very small. That´s what I´d be thinking anyway.