What a planning agent's fixed fee usually includes

A planning agent's fixed fee for a householder application normally buys the written and procedural work, and nothing else. Expect it to cover an initial appraisal, the application forms and certificates, the supporting statement, submission and the correspondence with the case officer until a decision is issued. Drawings, specialist reports and the council's own application fee usually sit outside it. Planning agent fees explained properly means reading the exclusions first, because that is where the second and third invoices come from.

Typical scope for a householder application

Most agents quote a fixed sum for a defined list of tasks. A fair quotation for a single-storey rear extension or a loft conversion will name them.

• A desktop appraisal of the site: constraints, planning history and the relevant local plan policies.
• Advice on whether permitted development, prior approval or a full householder application is the right route.
• Completion of the application forms, the ownership certificate and the agricultural holdings declaration.
• A supporting planning statement, sometimes combined with a design statement where one is needed.
• Submission through the Planning Portal or the council's own system, and payment handling if agreed.
• Dealing with validation queries from the council's technical support team.
• One round of correspondence with the case officer, including a response to a neighbour objection.
• Reporting the decision and explaining the conditions.

If the quotation does not list the last three, ask. The gap between submitting an application and holding a decision notice is where most of an agent's unbilled time goes, and a fee that stops at submission is not the same product as one that runs to determination.

Where drawings sit against planning work

Agents and architects are different trades even when one firm offers both. A planning agent writes and advises; a measured survey and a set of drawings are a separate commission, priced on its own, and a planning fixed fee rarely includes it.

For a householder application you need an existing and proposed site plan, existing and proposed floor plans and elevations, and often a section where levels or roof form matter. Someone has to measure the house first. That alone is half a day on site for a typical semi. Where an architectural technologist or surveyor produces the drawings and the agent handles the application, make sure one of them owns the task of checking that the drawing numbers, revisions and scales on the forms match the files uploaded. Validation failures on drawing content are tediously common and they cost a week each time.

One honest uncertainty here. Some agents will quote a lower fee on the understanding that your drawings arrive ready to submit, then charge for the time spent correcting them. Ask what happens if the drawings need amending, and get the answer in writing.

Specialist reports excluded from the fee

Almost every fixed fee excludes technical reports, and for good reason: the agent is not qualified to write most of them, and the scope depends on what a survey finds.

The reports that most often appear on a householder scheme are a tree survey where a protected or neighbouring tree is within influencing distance, a bat survey where roof works affect an older building, a flood risk assessment in Flood Zone 2 or 3, a heritage statement for a listed building or a conservation area, and a daylight and sunlight assessment where a neighbour's windows are close. A Design and Access Statement is required for some applications and not others, and an agent should tell you which category yours falls into rather than charging for one by default.

For a protected species survey or a biodiversity assessment, a licensed or competent professional is legally required and no agent's drafting can substitute for that. For arboricultural, acoustic and daylight work, councils usually expect a suitably qualified author and professional review is strongly advised. Where a report is seasonal, as bat emergence surveys are between May and September, the survey window rather than the fee is what controls your programme.

Hourly rates against fixed fees

A fixed fee transfers risk to the agent, so it carries a margin for the awkward case. An hourly rate transfers risk to you, and on a straightforward application it can work out lower. The distinction that matters is not which costs less in principle, but which one is capped.

Three questions settle it. What is the hourly rate, and for which grade of staff? Is there a cap or an estimate, and what happens when it is reached? Are disbursements such as the Planning Portal service charge, printing, mapping licences and travel charged on top?

Agents who work on fixed fees for householder applications and hourly rates for anything contentious are being sensible rather than evasive. The unhelpful quotation is the one that gives a single number with no list attached.

Charges for resubmission and amendments

This is the exclusion that surprises people most, because the council's fee position and the agent's are different.

Where an application is refused or withdrawn, the fee regulations allow one further application of the same character on the same site, submitted within twelve months, without a further planning application fee. That right is often described as the free go, and it has conditions attached, and the detail of how it works for a householder scheme is set out in the rules on planning fee exemptions and the free go. Your agent's time is not covered by it. Redesigning after a refusal, writing a new statement and resubmitting is new work, and most fixed fees say so.

Non-material amendments under section 96A and variations under section 73 are also separate instructions, each with its own council fee, and so is the discharge of conditions, which is where budgets quietly overrun. A condition you cannot discharge on the terms the council wrote can cost more than the application did, and the cost of a pre-start condition that cannot be discharged is worth understanding before you accept a consent.

Appeal work and whether it is included

Assume it is not. An appeal under section 78 is a different exercise from an application: a statement of case, a response to the council's statement, and in some cases a site visit and a costs application as well.

Householder appeals use a shortened written procedure with a twelve-week deadline from the decision notice, which is much tighter than the six months allowed for other appeals, and no new evidence is accepted after the appeal is lodged. That last point is the practical reason to involve your agent early rather than after a refusal: the case has to be complete when it is submitted. Agents normally quote appeal work separately on a fixed fee or on a capped hourly basis, and some decline householder appeals altogether.

Questions to ask before engaging

Put these in an email and keep the reply.

1. What exactly is included, task by task, and at what point does the fee end?
2. Who produces the drawings, and who checks them against the forms?
3. Which specialist reports do you expect this site to need, and who commissions them, and when?
4. Is the council's application fee and the portal service charge inside or outside your figure?
5. What do you charge for a resubmission, a section 73 variation or the discharge of conditions?
6. Are you covered by professional indemnity insurance, and is the person doing the work chartered?

The last one is not a formality. The weight a case officer gives a submitted statement has something to do with who signed it.

Comparing two quotes on a like for like basis

Build a single table with one row for every cost on the project and fill it in from each quotation: appraisal, forms, statement, drawings, each specialist report, the council fee, the portal charge, validation queries, officer correspondence, amendments, conditions, appeal. Leave the cells blank where a quotation is silent, then ask about the blanks.

The lowest headline number is frequently the one with the most blank cells. Product ranges published for individual report types are a useful sense check on the specialist lines, and the national fee schedule for the council's own fee is indexed annually, so check the current figures rather than a number quoted last year. Party wall work is outside planning altogether and often forgotten, and budgeting a party wall award alongside an extension sits on the same spreadsheet even though no planning officer will ever mention it.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. See PlanScope pricing if you want to compare the cost of drafting supporting documents yourself against a quoted fee. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.