acormack

Hi David, Sorry for not replying sooner but I've been working away, we finally have our building warrant through (six months after planning....) but now have the problem of a water main running through the field we're building in. We're waiting for the water board to come and find it, it's an 1 1/2" asbestos pipe that was installed in 1950 so have been advised it will be as brittle as anything. We have to have a WIRS approved contractor do the plans & moving the water main - 1st quote was 14.5K..!! We're going to build the Moncrieffe as thats what we both like, just a standard design. It's dragged on the be honest but we'll get there, still waiting for an updated quote but would imagine it's gone up a bit....

Slightly off topic here but what are they quoting for fitting a three phase supply dnb?? I take it is reasonable to install with you? My current house ( ex doctors surgery) had split phase fitted, however a couple of winters ago one of the lines broke at the pole insulators on a pole that crossed our car parking area and a cable ended up lying over the top of one of our cars. Long story short, SSEN said we'll do a quick fix for now but will put the supply underground to your house. I asked for the same set up i.e. run in three phase supply cable and use existing three phase meter (just use the two phases like the split phase so no big changes in my consumer unit cupboard) but they point blank refused. I was told pay a £3k connection fee and we'll reinstate it, the three phase connection is less than thirty feet from my house on the other side of my fence and they had dug the track for it already through my car park. I thought that was a bit steep so told them stuff it, just put single phase in. I also asked about three phase for our planned new build but was told the transformer and multiple poles would need upgraded and was advised it would be many 10's of thousands to fit it so that went out the window straight away!

The builders up here are moaning about the 'developers contribution' ProDave, seems it has indeed been going since 2018 I'm afraid. Another tax grab as you say Stones although I had no idea the CIL was so large down south, what a nightmare!

Hi everyone, Our kit builder mentioned we have a 'developers contribution' to pay before the council will give us our planning permission, never heard of it before but it's what the councilors agreed to in 2018 supposedly. I assume it's their equivalent to the CIL that I think is applicable in England, long story short that's another £796 paid to the council.... On top of the £3.5K for the building warrant. Supposedly this contribution is going towards Secondary Education in the region, would much rather if they spent it on the pot holes in our roads, they are falling to bits up here - look up 'Caithness pot holes' on Goggle to see the state of things in the far north!

Hi everyone, just starting out on our first new build up in Caithness so joined the forum, hopefully will pick up some good tips and advice on here. Going for a kit from Haus in Inverness and will have the planning through shortly, then the fun begins..... Will add photos and updates as we go along, pretty daunting now it's all coming together. Regards Alan