ᐅ Are the structural engineer’s fees reasonable?

Hello everyone
We are currently planning our single-family house with a basement, totaling 120 sqm (1292 sq ft), and we are a bit shocked by the structural engineers’ quotes. The offers we received ranged from 10,000 euros to 20,000 euros. Our architect said the costs are so high because all companies are extremely busy at the moment. Do you think these costs are reasonable?
Best regards
AnnaSophie34

So, my sister and her husband recently obtained several quotes from structural engineers for a slightly larger house, also with a basement, and the prices were around 5000, but I have no idea what kind of differences there might be in terms of content.

Hello Yosan,
Thank you for your reply.
5000 sounds definitely more realistic than 20000 euros.

How many quotes did you obtain, and when do you plan to start building? We renovated in 2017, and it had to be done quite quickly. We also received some rather unreasonable (dismissive) quotes.

Structural engineers calculate their fees based on HOAI, meaning they are standardized to a certain extent. Use an online calculator for this to understand the fee.

For a typical single-family house with 120 sqm (1,292 sq ft), the fee would usually be a four-digit amount.

Have you already spoken with the structural engineers? There might be hidden cost drivers that you are not aware of.

Ask them to explain and break everything down for you. Even if communication has gone through the architect, you are the one hiring them, so they should provide you with clear explanations. Find out whether these are genuine preliminary offers or not.

If in doubt, contact more structural engineers, even those from further away. I don’t know how involved your architect is, but they are not the ones paying the invoice. Take initiative yourself.