ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the suite of professional engagement documents provided by the Landscape Institute to its members and how they should be used. The Landscape Institute’s Engaging a Landscape Consultant – Guidance for Clients on Fees published in 2002 was withdrawn because of inconsistencies with legislative changes. The 2013 edition of The Landscape Institute’s Landscape Consultant’s Appointment recommends using one of three common methods of fee calculation adopted by other construction industry professionals, those being percentage fees, time charges, and lump sum fees. Lump sum fees place all the risk on the professional practitioner and are only normally appropriate for straightforward commissions where, with experience, it is evident that what is involved in one project is pretty much the same as another. The effect of phased implementation, or elements of a project being undertaken by different contractors under separate negotiations with the professional practitioner, can be a considerable increase in percentage of the overall construction costs being charged as fees.
