newhome

The building warrant in Scotland covers all of the BCO inspections. There is nothing further to pay unless you need the warrant to be extended which is circa £100 for a 12 month extension. The structual warranty is indeed the equivalent of the NHBC 10 year warranty. A lot of money but sadly essential in most cases if you need a mortgage. An expensive piece of paper IMO with no real value and the inspections that come with it are a bit of a joke. The additional security fee is to cover the fact that staged payments are being made in advance I believe. I remember the mortgage indemnity policies. Had one for my first ever house bought with a 100% mortgage ?

Otherwise known as w**kword bingo where I work. With some people in the room you can get a full house inside 10 minutes ?

TF is timber frame There is a glossary of the more common acronyms here although interestingly that one isn't there (@ProDave)

If it’s used for heating the house and is incorporated into the building then yes you can.

@vivienz had a great one IIRC?

Hi and welcome to BuildHub. Others have already made lots of great comments above but if you are concerned about the budget it may be advantageous to post a draft of your plans here. That way people can comment on them both from a ‘how practical is this to live in’ perspective as well as a ‘how much will this cost to build’ perspective. An architect may not always have those things at the forefront of their mind. For example lots of complicated angles etc. can increase the build cost somewhat. You may need a thick skin for that as sometimes the responses can sound a bit brutal but it’s your house and your build and ultimately your decision. Better to have comments at an early stage however than to maybe regret not changing something later. Personally I think most comments are useful even if it’s just to validate why you won’t be using the suggestion. Sometimes even a seemingly minor change can make a big difference to either costs or overall comfort. That said a 5500 square foot house (or a shade over 500 square metres in new money) will require some fairly hefty cash. What sort of figure do you have in mind to achieve that size of build? Costs vary quite a lot but given the area of the country you are in and the finish needed I imagine you are talking about something in the region of 1500 to 1800 a square metre? Others on here have have achieved their builds for less than that although this has generally meant quite a lot of personal input, and some have gone north of 2k per square metre.

Not sure TBH. Here is the main info detailing current requirements for England and Wales. https://www.cml.org.uk/lenders-handbook/englandandwales/question-list/1913/ Some of them seem to allow other schemes other than traditional warranties. In addition the companies in Lloyds Banking Group seem to say this. We only require cover under a building standards indemnity scheme for a new property being occupied for the first time so maybe it’s not needed for a resale if the lender is in that group? The buyer may not like being restricted however.

I was always told that the bedhead has to be at the end and not the side to prevent the telltale rocking ?

Definitely an advantage to be able to stay in the old house for sure but ours was 400 miles away so wasn't practical. It also generally helps to free up cash if people sell before starting (or early on) plus with HMRC starting to do some unexpected things in terms of CGT it probably makes sense to either get the build done PDQ or live on site. That 'house bought off plan subject to CGT' case might be a one off due to the amount of money involved but I wouldn't be surprised if HMRC don't start apply similar measures to self builders too at some point.

Welcome to BuildHub Sean. There is a wealth of experience here that covers pretty much every trade you can think of so if you have any specific questions please fire aware. What are your plans for improving the insulation if any? You are doing so much to the walls and ceilings it would seem to be advantagous to look to improve the insulation quite a bit, especially if you are thinking of having UFH.

True, and I did think of that but my fear was that there would be an expectation that the warranty was valid for 10 years after the date on the completion certificate. I don't know if things are ever that thorough in practice but would be just my luck for them to be.

I managed ok too - but only because I had an apartment in Edinburgh and let the hubby do the living on site in a caravan thing! I did that at weekends only. The thought of trying to get 'office ready' in a touring caravan every day held no appeal whatsoever and it probably saved us from a divorce too!

Ah, that's cool then. You may have to keep all of the VAT reclaim receipts separate as I don't believe you can do a reclaim for 2 properties on the one form unless you know different? In fact it might be worth you giving HMRC a ring and say that you are building 2 properties at once and ask how you need to split the invoices for the reclaim. I assume you are building the properties both at once rather than one after the other? It would seem much more efficient to order materials for both properties rather than try to order separately. Assuming you're not building on a supply and fit basis that is.

I complained about mine to Buildzone as they dated it 12 months before when I had sent the council the form to carry out the completion inspection. It wasn’t complete at that point but the council had asked me to do that to trigger an inspection to help me understand what still needed to be done. They decided to use that date but did alter it to the completion date when I explained the circumstances. With @PeterStarck‘s build they backdated it to the watertight stage so it seems like they make it up as they go along. If the policy isn’t put on risk until they issue the certificate and you certainly couldn’t put a claim in before the policy was issued I’m sure, I don’t understand how they can reduce the term in real terms to whatever they like. 10 year cover means 10 year cover surely, unless there is something in the small print that says something different, if you take too long for example.

Welcome to BuildHub. Are they both for you or your family? If not I imagine you have taken advice on the various tax implications?

Yes you can but they tend to be more expensive. Not sure how much but they position it that they are taking on additional risk aka got you over a barrel. Edit - retrospective warranty price here. https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/5806-found-a-cheap-structural-warranty/?do=findComment&comment=95829 You may may be able to get an architect’s certificate retrospectively but ultimately it depends on what the mortgage lender will allow.

Did his dreams get washed away? ?

You didn’t see the kids these folks had ?. Let’s say that they were encouraged to be free spirits. Many would interpret their behaviour as ‘annoying brats’. A year of caging said brats in a motorhome with no chance of any family support to have some downtime once in a while and I bet it was hell. The wife left her hubby for another woman when they returned ?. Roll on 15 years and let’s say that at least 2 of the kids haven’t turned out ‘mainstream’ which may or may not be a good or bad thing depending upon your mindset.

Define acceptable. Risking your neck ain’t an acceptable risk IMO ?. Use the wood on another day. Have a look on fleabay or gumtree to see if someone is getting rid of an old one although the transport might be a PITA.

Noooo! Too risky. Your neck is worth more than the couple of hundred quid for a Stairbox one. Please don’t!

Indeed! I would have struggled to spend a year in one with just the OH

There seem to be loads of people doing similar these days in the hope that their blogs and interviews will pay them to go on a round the world trip. I know a couple who took their 4 young kids off on a 'live in a motorhome for a year' trip abroad years ago. They separated not long after returning to the UK .

You sure they are asking who is providing the warranty cover and not the self build insurance cover?

Nope! Boiler comes on and if a combi heats water on demand, or if not has a tank to hold said hot water until needed. Water circulates to rads (somehow) and if they have thermostatically controlled values individual rads shut off when temperature is at the set level. Most systems have a single thermostat that shuts boiler off when at that temperature. How the water gets to the rads I've no idea . Air gets in sometimes and rads need to be bleeded (cos I've done that bit before ). Other than that I'm clueless .

Yeah they won’t issue it until you’ve got the completion certificate. My surveyor didn’t bother coming out again when I got mine. Make sure they don’t do a sneaky on you and backdate it. It should be dated from the completion date as they won’t issue it before then. This is a common trick it seems.