Renegotiating or walking away
The agent rounds your quotation up to a tidier thousand. Why is the tidy number no longer the quotation?
Not the quotation: once the agent rounds your figure up to a tidier thousand, that tidy number is a different sum. The quotation is the figure the contractor wrote for the element they described. Changing it to a rounder total, even by a modest amount, means you are no longer holding the quotation. You are holding the agent's rewrite. Send the original paper, or do not send a number. A tidier thousand is not what the contractor offered, and it should not be described as if it were.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
Rounding feels harmless because the new number is easier to say. It still breaks the link between the work and the price. The contractor's total sits on a description: which element, what work, what is excluded. The agent's tidier thousand has none of that discipline. If the seller accepts the round number, you may be arguing about a sum nobody quoted. If they reject it, you have spent the conversation on a figure you cannot point to on the quotation.
Keep the contractor's page intact. If you want a proposal, the solicitor can say that the quotation is the attached total, not a rounded version of it. Do not let the agent add a cushion, a call-out, or a tidy thousand and still call the result the quote. If the original quotation is untidy, that is what it is. The survey does not authorise anyone to improve the arithmetic before the seller sees it.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Does your wording match the element this quotation prices?
- Should I treat any excluded items as outside that figure?
- What sentence should sit next to the original total so it is not rewritten?
What are the typical next steps?
- Keep the contractor's original total as the only quotation.
- Ask the solicitor to send that page, not a rounded thousand.
- Tell the agent the tidy number is not the quotation.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
If the agent only rounded up a little, is it still the quote?
No. Any substituted total is a new number. The quotation is the figure the contractor actually wrote, not the tidier thousand the agent prefers.
Can you add a contingency and still call it their quotation?
No. A contingency is your own allowance. It is not the contractor's figure, and it should be labelled as yours if you mention it at all.