Terms of Service

These terms, and your quote

These terms govern drawing and consultancy work carried out by DrawingsDirect of 71–75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ. Your written quote sits alongside them and defines the specific scope, the fee and the deliverables for your project. Where the quote and these terms conflict, the quote wins. A contract forms when you accept the quote in writing and we confirm it.

Browsing this website creates no contract and no obligation. A quote is an offer to carry out defined work, valid for 30 days unless it says otherwise.

Fixed fees

The fee in your quote is fixed. It does not rise because the drawings took us longer than expected, because the survey was more awkward than it looked, or because a revision cycle ran long. That risk sits with us — that is what a fixed fee means.

The fee changes only if you change the job: a materially different scheme after drawings have started, an additional storey, a second property, or work outside the scope your quote describes. In that case we will tell you before doing anything and issue a revised quote you can accept or decline.

Third-party costs are not included unless the quote says so explicitly. Council planning application fees, building control fees, structural engineer’s calculations, party wall surveyors, arboricultural or ecology reports, and lawful development certificate fees are paid by you, to those bodies. We will tell you what we expect them to be.

What we promise — and what we cannot

We promise that the drawings will be accurate, correctly scaled, professionally prepared, and compliant with the requirements of your local planning authority for validation. We promise a first full drawing set in around seven days from a completed survey in ordinary circumstances. We promise free redraws to approval: if a case officer raises comments on a scheme we prepared, we will revise and resubmit at no extra fee for as long as the scheme itself stays the same.

We cannot promise that your council will grant permission. Nobody honestly can. A planning decision is a discretionary judgement made by a public authority under policy we do not control, and the same scheme can be decided differently by different officers. Our published approval rate is a record of what has happened, not a guarantee of what will. If we think a scheme is unlikely to be approved we will say so before you spend money on it — that conversation is more valuable to you than an optimistic one.

We are architectural technologists. We do not provide structural engineering calculations, party wall awards, legal advice on your lease or title, or building contracting services. Where a project needs those, we will tell you and can usually point you to someone.

What we need from you

Reasonable access to the property for the measured survey, accurate information about ownership and any leasehold restrictions, disclosure of relevant planning history including previous refusals, and timely decisions when we ask for them. If a project stalls because we are waiting on you, our timescales pause with it.

You are responsible for the accuracy of information you give us. If a drawing is wrong because the information behind it was wrong, correcting it is chargeable.

Payment

Unless your quote sets out a different schedule, we invoice a deposit on instruction and the balance on delivery of the drawing package. Invoices are payable within 14 days. We may withhold release of final drawings, and any submission on your behalf, until the invoice for that stage is settled.

Ownership of the drawings

We retain copyright in the drawings we produce. On full payment you receive an irrevocable licence to use them for the project and property they were drawn for — including submitting them to the council, issuing them to your builder, and pricing the work. That licence does not extend to reusing the drawings for a different property, or licensing them on to a third party, without our written agreement.

Cancellation

If you are a consumer instructing us away from our premises, you have a statutory 14-day right to cancel. If you ask us to begin work within that period and then cancel, we may charge for the work already done, which is the ordinary position under the Consumer Contracts Regulations.

After that period, either side may end the engagement in writing. You pay for work completed and costs committed up to that point; we hand over the drawings produced so far once that is settled.

Liability

We carry £2m professional indemnity insurance. Our liability for any claim arising from an engagement is limited to the level of that cover. We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss — for example lost rental income, delay to a build programme, or a builder’s standing charges — nor for the outcome of a planning decision, nor for third-party work we did not carry out.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited. If you are a consumer, your statutory rights are unaffected.

Complaints and governing law

If something has gone wrong, tell us: email [email protected] or call 020 7864 7245. We will acknowledge a complaint promptly and give you a considered response in writing.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction. See also our privacy policy.