newhome

Unfortunately not. All of the self build claims are delayed. Covid is just a convenient excuse. Mine took 20 weeks in 2018 when covid wasn’t even a thing. They just blamed staff shortages at that time. The important thing is to ensure that you don’t get anything wrong on the claim to maximise your chances of it all being accepted. There is a fairly comprehensive guide available on here but it’s a sub forum for regular members and you need more posts to be able to view it. You do get a letter from HMRC to confirm that your claim is eligible well in advance of the invoices being checked and that’s the first hurdle really. Beyond that it’s just a case of them checking individual invoice for eligibility and paperwork correctness. You do get the opportunity to provide further information if you have an invoice rejected. If it’s an order rather than an invoice for example you can go back to the supplier and ask for a proper VAT invoice and then resubmit although clearly it’s best to submit the correct paperwork to begin with. Remember that you can only claim for eligible MATERIALS bought on a supply only basis and preferably in your name or you may need to provide payment evidence if they’re not. Labour invoices and supply & fit arrangements need to be zero rated to you and are not claimable and nor are services many of which are standard rated.

My building warrant covered 2 houses and was dated 2005. A developer built one house and then sold the second plot to me in 2009. It took me until 2017 to complete my build but they accepted the reason and extended it (for a fee) every 9 months and later 6 months. When I had the completion certificate the building warrant still couldn’t get closed off as it turns out that the developer never got the house next door signed off so the owners who had lived there since 2008 had to make several changes to comply with building regs. The council never mentioned that to me in all the time I was extending the warrant even though it had been transferred into my name. My neighbours didn’t know either (their solicitor cocked up). Eventually they got the changes done and the house signed off sometime in 2018. It’s not in the LA’s interest to refuse renewal of a building warrant as you can’t just retrospectively conform to new regs and they risk houses never being signed off if they were to try to enforce new regs on a half or mostly built house. Most people don’t live in a caravan all that time however as most move into the house well in advance of sign off. It’s not lawful to do that in Scotland but most LAs turn a blind eye as long as they are getting council tax.

If you don’t have any other options get a cheapish touring caravan and put it on a site until you are ready to move onto the site.

My fear of moving to Octopus before a smart meter is installed is that I’ll be stuck on their standard tariff forever which is way more than my current provider. I’m going to try to get a smart meter installed before I switch as I’ve been on the Octopus list for a 3 phase smart meter for well over a year.

Welcome!

We’ll get it introduced into Scotland no doubt now that the SNP have agreed a power sharing deal with the Green Party. They are now talking up a transition away from fossil fuels. Oh the irony given the prominence of the (over inflated) oil price in the SNP’s independence white paper. With so many here being employed in the oil and gas industries in jobs that are generally well paid (and thus contribute to significant tax income for Scotland) I wonder what effect that will have on Scotland’s economic policy.

But they’re not allowed to zero rate supply only arrangements? They can only zero rate labour or supply & fit. Invoices for materials without labour are standard rated and the VAT has to be reclaimed at the end from HMRC.

Yes I believe that this is the case. The annex details are more to do with someone who builds a separate dwelling / annex to add to an existing house but the title can’t be split so it’s not then eligible for the reclaim.

But not as long as me 😉. I’m still getting the ‘not available’ message from my current provider.

I didn’t like my black quartz worktops to begin with. We chose it from a few small samples but when it arrived the shiny specks in the quartz seemed really blingy to me in quantity, especially in bright sunlight. I did get used to it however and I don’t notice it now. I do see what you mean about the yellow / cream look but I would look to change the colour of the walls as a bright white background will always over emphasise the colour of the worktops.

AFAIK you only need a ground floor WC to be accessible in buildings that are not defined as accessible and adaptable dwellings (it will state that as a planning condition if relevant). If not you only need one accessible WC on the primary entrance level but they like a shower too, or provision for a shower. Not sure why the BCO is going on about the upstairs bathrooms WRT width of the internal doors. There is absolutely no need for a bath. Sounds like the BCO has been looking at Category 2 in the M regs which is not relevant unless defined in the PP.

You can’t reclaim VAT on hippo bags as they are not incorporated into the fabric of the building so don’t qualify in the same way as purchasing tools doesn’t qualify.

I would ask that question to the HMRC forum. https://community.hmrc.gov.uk/customerforums/vat I wouldn’t mention anything about turning it into guest accommodation and anyway if you do that and include living accommodation, a kitchen and a bathroom separate from the main house the accommodation will be liable for separate council tax so you may wish to rethink that. I would just say that it has an outbuilding that you intend to use as a garden room. You can’t reclaim VAT on garden rooms anyway so personally I don’t see how that will affect the VAT claim. I think I would buy a cheap touring caravan and say that you are living there, even if you do convert the outbuilding to live in. There is nothing to stop you using a touring caravan as a temporary home. If you don’t want to use the caravan it might work as builders’ facilities for refreshments and a loo.

I would proceed as you suggest in with each line relating to a separate invoice. Work being undertaken on a supply and fit basis by a main contractor doesn’t fit neatly into categories. The form works much better for new builds where only the VAT on supply only materials is being reclaimed.

House sales in Scotland are mad currently. Where I live as soon as a property comes on the market it is sold unless there is something wrong with it or it’s overpriced. Can’t you put a caravan on the land and live there with your animals?