newhome

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?

Firstly welcome. Secondly I’m surprised that the builders didn’t know that anyone buying the property with a mortgage would need a warranty to be in place. A builder can’t generally get a self build warranty as many of them will have clauses that say that the self builder needs to live in the property for a year or 2 following completion. This is to stop commercial builders from using them. The warranty will need to be put in place by the builder, not you, and as it’s a commercial enterprise they will only be able to use certain providers such as LABC and NHBC. I suspect any retrospective warranty will cost several thousands of pounds. Your other option may be to look for a lender that will accept an architects certificate.

If it can't be sold separately from the main dwelling then it doesn't qualify for zero rating as per the very clear info from HMRC. You may well get away with it dependent on the builder you choose but should HMRC investigate then they will be at fault for having zero rated the work.

Yes some will but more are asking for proof of planning or a certificate these days to cover themselves. What you are building is covered here however so it’s clear that your ‘annex’ doesn’t meet the criteria for zero rating as I suspect that you cannot sell the additional building as a separate residence. You will however have to pay council tax on it if the council find out about it. https://www.gov.uk/vat-builders/new-homes

I have a TS and enquired about replacing my boiler with an ASHP. 2 MCS installers said that the TS would need to be replaced with an UVC as the TS temperature was too high for the size of ASHP that was appropriate for my home to provide DHW at the temperature needed and the COP at a decent level. The 3rd one quoted for retaining the TS but the ASHP quoted was big and expensive and the total quote was circa 30k.

Here is a simple (and very high level) guide from HMRC https://www.gov.uk/vat-builders

I sent the PP for the 2 houses here and they wrote and asked for the full PP for 2 different style houses on the plot from a few years earlier. I had never seen that PP and it wasn’t on the planning portal. Contacted the council but although they had a reference to it they didn’t have a scanned copy of the PP. They said that they would try to get it back from the archives for me but then said that it couldn’t be located. I rang HMRC and they told me not to worry. I can’t imagine how it could be relevant to the VAT claim . I think they just make it up as they go along!

I have 2 ovens. One is a combi microwave, fan oven, grill thing, the other is a standard oven. I never use the standard oven so have switched it off at the consumer unit as I was forever resetting the flashing digital clock display every time there was a power cut and that was the only time I touched it. It’s been off for over a year now. I can of course still use it when I want to. What do people with 2 or more matching ovens do if one breaks? Surely you’d need to replace the whole group as like everything oven models are continually being updated?

There was a study of inhabitants of a small cluster of villages in Turkey that had natural exposure to erionite that can also cause mesothelioma. Nearly 50% of deaths were caused by mesothelioma which is shockingly high. Some families had a very high number of deaths and their immediate neighbours had none at all leading to the suspicion that genetics were involved. They are still researching this and trying to tailor treatments based on a person’s genetic make up. Genetics likely play a part in the development of most cancers. It is thought that a single breath may be all that it takes to cause mesothelioma later in life if you are genetically susceptible to it. There have been accounts of teachers who caught it though pinning children’s pictures on the wall and thus releasing a tiny number of fibres, medics who caught it just through working in a building with asbestos present, wives and children who got it via casual contact with a worker’s clothing on return from work. In one family that I know of the 3 children used to greet their father when he returned from work. He later died of mesothelioma and a few decades later all 3 children died of it too despite never having worked with asbestos.

There is thought to be a genetic link to those who contract mesothelioma, aka asbestos cancer. It can run in families with 2 or 3 generations suffering from it. It’s pretty rare however which is why ‘many diy’ers’ don’t drop dead from it. It can take decades to show but casual contact is indeed all it takes for those who are susceptible to it. So bottom line is that you’d be extremely unlucky to get mesothelioma from casual contact but sadly it does happen as I know from personal experience when my husband got it.

Your builder must be VAT registered and bill you at zero rated VAT so there is no VAT for you to claim yourself. You can reclaim VAT on eligible materials that you purchase yourself on a supply only basis, even if it’s just a handful of things. If your builder is building a house to sell then he can’t ‘reclaim’ the VAT using the DIY house builders’ scheme as that is for self builders who have built a house to live in, not for developers. Your builder can however use his VAT registered company to apply zero rating via his VAT returns, and also to invoice you with zero rated VAT.

It’s not the payment in cash that’s unlawful, it’s the failure of the builder to declare the entirety of their income to HMRC that’s unlawful.