Paying for a written quote for work resulting from property survey

It is not normal to pay for written quotes, you need to know exactly what you are paying for and exactly what you are getting for your money so written quotes should be completely free of charge. As your need for a quote has resulted from a survey on a property you are buying this may be the reason why your builder is asking to be paid for providing a quote. It is common and normal practice to obtain quotes from several people for the same job, the fact that he wants paying for a quote would suggest that he is not confident that he will win the job should he provide you with a quote as you could then use it to beat down the price with another potential workman - this is also common practice - and he would lose out so to edge his bets and get something from it he is proposing to charge you for the quote. Obviously you want the best price for your work but you also need to be certain that the builder carrying out that work is qualified, insured and can back up any claims with references, recommendations or show you previous work, cheapest is not always the best and you could end up with issues resulting from a poorly done job that has cost you less and not being able to contact the builder once he has been paid.

In these situations it is more than reasonable to charge for written quotes as the reality is its not likely to actually turn into a real job. It takes personal time and effort to do these written quotes so if you do not want to pay then just accept a verbal quote for now and then ask for the written confirmation of your quote when you are in a position to accept the quote.

I agree with Kevin. Why would a skilled man want to waste hours of his time on a job that probably isn't going to come to anything??!!