newhome

I don’t understand why people are building detached houses with only 2 bedrooms? That house apparently had a master bedroom and one ‘for the boys’. They may be ok sharing now but inevitably they will want their own rooms within a few years. 3 bed homes are presumably more marketable too.

You'll never get on with ALL the neighbours - there is always some arse that lives in the vicinity People never hear their own noise though, or at least they find it tolerable compared to anyone else's ...

I don’t think they can do much about it but TBH being able to sit in your garden on a bank holiday weekend without a load of racket is nice. Last night they shut the A1 from 8pm and diverted the traffic past my house meaning that there were lorries thundering past all night and the rest of the weekend apparently (just started again now). Was there any warning? No. Can I do anything about it? No. Is it annoying? Yes!

I remember going there years ago. Might have to take a trip over when I’m next down.

I don’t have that style of gate ? mine are close boarded so no chicken wire or wooden spoons needed!

The VAT Tribunal decided the following (although it's equally vague) but it seems to be defined by 'purpose' in their view.

Wilbur will walk through the bars on that farm gate. You’ll end up stapling some chicken wire to it when Wilbur arrives ... Or use a wooden spoon! https://m.imgur.com/gallery/D0ZL7Jb

Welcome. First of all you need to check whether the property has had its permitted development rights removed or restricted or not. If not you can build certain things without needing PP but you will still need to go through Building Control if building an extension. The other complication is that current permitted development regs expire in May 2019 and it's not clear whether they will just be extended or amended afaik. It depends where you are too. Here is the portal for England. Permitted Development Portal - England

We have to undertake several dozen mandatory training courses plus tests on an annual basis one of which is information risk and cyber security. It covers how to spot and report phishing, vishing, smishing etc. Given the nature of the business I work in it’s taken very seriously. I continually hold my head in my hands when I hear about someone who has sent a large amount of money as an online transfer without sending a couple of quid to check that the online payment is correct. I’ve felt people get irritated when I’ve said ‘I’ll send you a quid first’ but too bad. And then apparently the banks are to blame when they screw up.

My company periodically sends emails round with links in them that have come in externally. Anyone clicking on them gets reported to their manager and has to take an online security test. If you click on one 3 times you are put on special measures training. 2 of my guys are on 2 strikes! ? TBH when one arrives now emails generally circulate saying ‘don’t click!!’. Sometimes however we get genuine external emails with links and I then get spammed with emails asking if it’s ok to click on them! ?

I refuse to click on any emails whether I know they’ve come from the bank or not. I also hate it when the bank calls out of the blue and starts asking security vetting questions to verify identity. The calls go something like this. Bank - hello, this is X bank we’re ringing from the x department. We need you to answer some questions before we can proceed. Me - I wasn’t expecting a call from you so I’m not giving you any personal details. Bank - without the validation we can’t proceed with the call. Me - that’s fine, I don’t know what you want anyway so am not bothered about having a conversation with you. If you really need to talk to me tell me where I can find the number of your department on your website and I’ll call back.

I had a look and there are plots available for 255k. Still overpriced I think given how many there are stacked into a relatively small area.

Hardly anyone does this I would suggest and you can’t send money using a digitally signed email.

I do that too. Still hate transferring the big amount though lol.

I don’t know why everything has to ‘fit in’ as if the style houses were built in a few hundred years ago is the only style that is acceptable in certain areas. Are our minds so closed that we cannot accept new innovative designs too? How do new designs become classic styles if they are not allowed to be built?

Yes these scams have been going on for a while but they are getting more and more clever making them harder to detect. Never hurts to remind people and make them question everything they do financially. I even hate transferring money into a brand new savings account these days when it’s a substantial amount.

I have heard of people losing hundreds of thousands that way too as conveyancing solicitors are targeted for obvious reasons.

When the OP contacted the plumber he said that another customer had received an email like that and he’d just told the guy to delete it and ignore it. He never bothered to warn any of his other customers ?

Sorry to hear that. I liked your design too and as a single storey it sounded very unobtrusive on the plot. Fingers crossed you can make some headway without compromising too much.

I read this on a self build site on Facebook earlier. OP has given me permission to cross post. Scams are getting more and more elaborate these days. Emails can be hacked and invoices produced with rogue bank details, texts can be made to look as if they’ve come directly from your bank. Never ever take anything at face value. Never click on any links, set up any online payments without sending a tiny amount through first and checking that it’s arrived before sending a larger amount. Always check independently with the person you are sending the money to via a brand new text message, phone call or email, not by replying to one that is sent to you. Be vigilant and question everything these days. OP’s message is below: WARNING ⚠️ Thanks for all advice on previous thread re VAT this morning, but have to share this with you all. Just had an awful experience. Thought I’d paid a bill yesterday to our newly appointed plumber but he has had his email hacked and I’ve paid the hacker £2200 for an invoice he/she had up dated with their bank details. Barclays were helpful but doubt very much anything will be recovered from the international bank I’ve paid. Angry and very upset with myself for falling for it. Apparently this kind of fraud is increasing. Please be cautious, I need to now figure out how I save that in an already tight budget ?

Not insurmountable of course and it is possible for someone to be next of kin without being a formal relative by marriage or blood as the term has no legal standing in the UK, but when you are visiting lots of hospitals, seeing endless different teams and the person who has to agree who their next of kin is getting sicker and sicker and less able to rationalise due to the extreme amount of drugs they are taking (50 pills a day in my hubby’s case) explaining anything becomes difficult. It’s only when you are caught up in those situations that you realise that things that sound straightforward aren’t. Bit like building TBH!

As someone who isn’t religious and lived with my partner for 23 years before we married I agree with you. We were perfectly happy to not be married and no doubt would have remained so had my hubby not got ill. When he was diagnosed with terminal cancer we did get married, initially because there were things that were more straightforward as a wife rather than a partner, for example being automatically treated as next of kin in hospitals rather than having to explain our relationship constantly, and the probate was easier. But somehow it just felt like the right thing to do which is something hard to explain.

It’s not.

Had the same issue here as you know. Person after person compounded the issue when they arrived to 'fix' it and I ended up with a system that pretty much didn't work at all in the end. Luckily I had BuildHubbers to the rescue as I would still be sitting here freezing otherwise I imagine. There just don't seem to be any (many) people who understand how UFH is supposed to work here, probably because it's not that common and they can make money pretty easily using traditional methods.

Can't help much but maybe you could agree to salvage some of the original materials and incorporate those into the new build?