Question: Who is plansforcouncil?

Answer: They are a group of hardworking consultants who have been in the building and construction for approximately 20 years and saw the need to develop a career type bidding web site for all the consultants seeking greater opportunities in their careers and consultancy employment.

Question: We are a large building design Consultancy firm located in Brisbane, Australia and we would like to bid for a residential project in London. How do we do it? Step by step?

Answer: The first step is to create a free account for your company. Click on the “sign up” link on our home page or visit www.plansforcouncil.com/signup.php and make sure you select user type: Consultant when signing up.

Once you have an account a “Bid Now” icon will appear next to all projects details. Click on this button and you will be asked to provide a bid price and comment and will be given the option of being notified if someone bids lower than you.

If your bid is successful you will be charged a small fee so make sure you top up your account at some stage. (Refer related FAQ question)

Once the bidding for a project closes, or if the Client/Buyer sees a bid they like ,they choose the bidder and the project is frozen. It is now up to the Consultant to accept or reject the project. If you choose to accept you will be charged a small amount which will be deducted from your building projects account. From this point onwards you communicate directly with your new customer. We just ask that you rate them once the project is complete and you have been paid. This step is very important as it takes away the risk of dispute or fraud.

Question: I am an Architect and would like to place a quote or bid on a project located in Wales UK. What do I do? Also I think I need additional information to accurately put in a price.

Answer: You begin by creating an account on the web site making sure you select the user type of Consultant. Once your account is set up you will see a “Bid Now” icon as part of each project’s details. If you are not ready to make a bid and need more information you can post a question to the project message board, but look through the existing posts first as your question may already have been answered.

Once you have made a bid you will have the option of being notified every time somebody bids lower than you so that you can update your bid. If your bid is chosen by the Client/Buyer you will have the option of accepting or rejecting the job. Accepting the job carries a small fee so make sure there is money in your account before you begin bidding (See related FAQ question)

Question: We would like to build an extension on our existing home in New Zealand and would like to get some quotes from a range of Architects and various other Consultants in Australia only. Can we be selective in our bidding request? And how do we place the bid.

Answer: When posting a project you will be asked to provide some project details.You can specify here that you are only interested in bids from a specific location.When you review the resulting bids you can check the location and profile of each bidder and make sure that they meet your requirements.

Question: We are a firm of consultants and we do not understand how the payment system operates. How do we pay if our bid wins the project? Also, how do we find out if our bid does win the project. Who tells us?

Answer: Every time you make a bid, your bid is bettered by another consultant. If your bid is accepted or refused you receive an automated email with instructionson how to proceed. If your bid is successful you will have the option of finally accepting or rejecting the job.If you choose to accept you will be charged a small fee which is deducted from your account.You can add or replenish funds to your account by using a credit card or the Pay Pal account.

Question: I am an Acoustic Consultant and I only do projects by the hourly rate. How can I make a bid. ?

Answer: You can’t bid at an hourly rate. You can however put in a contract sum for the whole job. If you need more information about the project, post some questions on the projects message board.

Question: We are looking to obtain prices for an Engineer to prepare computations on a current design inorder to safely demolish and re-built on our site. Do we pay a fee to place a notice for bids?

Answer: No, posting a project is completely free and there are no fees for finding a consultant.

Question: I am a self employed Building Designer. If I win a bid and pay the subsequent fee for accepting the job, what guarantee do I have that the Client won’t back out.

Answer: We operate a tried and tested user rating program which has successfully been used over the past 10 years in auction systems like e-bay. Each time anybody does business on our web site they are rated by the other party. Users with a bad rating quickly stop getting business and disappear from the website altogether.