newhome

Then you get those jobs where they deliberately use your naivety and lack of clarity to miss things out that they know you will want / need, and then charge a fortune for them as 'extras' afterwards.

Don't distract him - he's supposed to be grouting but clearly procrastinating again “Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow.”

I've had experience of the other scenario too. Got a fixed price quote from a joiner to do a few finishing off jobs here. He quoted me a grand just for labour and I agreed as I had no real idea how long the job would take. He was recommended by the plumber (who @Nickfromwales later named 'cock' but I didn't know he was a cock at the time ). He was here for literally 2 half days, worked like something possessed sawing wood where he stood and leaving sh1t loads of mess everywhere (bearing in mind it was a lived in house not a build in progress), chipped a tile in the entrance hall (I know he knew he had done it as I found that he had shoved a blob of silicone in to cover it up). The edges of the skirting he fitted don't stand up to close inspection TBH. If I had paid him T&M he likely would have worked much more slowly. It was just before I joined this forum or I may have been a bit more savvy. At the very least I could have asked for advice on what I should be paying for the jobs in question. Every day's a school day ... the learning costs money though!

I definitely paid by bank transfer when I had an account with the builders’ merchant but used to get a statement every month from the accounts dept so the guys at the sales desk never dealt with it.

If it seems too cheap there’s probably a catch - I would agree with that - but we paid an amazing price to have the roof fitted (guy was recommended), and I don’t think anyone would have done a better job. No idea why they charged so little (it was a fixed price paid at the end) as it is a large and fairly complicated roof. We actually paid them a little extra as a thank you, and had them back to do the extension and garage later on. OTOH you can pay top dollar and get a crappy job sometimes. @lizzie has several examples of this. My issue now is getting people out here to quote (8 miles out of the local town) and then they see a large house and add ££ it seems.

We had Karndean throughout the ground floor. It was laid in planks and looked like wood unless you looked closely. Was a great choice for ‘all the way through’. I have tiles in the utility, kitchen / family room and hall (plus bathrooms), for durability and ease of cleaning (dogs being the main reason), and the engineered oak everywhere else including upstairs. The engineered oak would probably work everywhere TBH if you were careful.

I had Karndean all over the ground floor in my previous house. We used the one with the thickest wear layer at the time, Da Vinci, as it had a 0.7mm wear layer vs 0.3 for the cheapest range. It still looked great after 10 years when we moved. For this house we used a mix of tiles and engineered oak as although Karndean can apparently be used with UFH we didn’t want to take the risk. We also chose the engineered oak with the thickest wear layer @ 6mm. I would never have laminate personally. For one thing with dogs it would be far too noisy.

Most of the tradesmen we used were small affairs and most wanted to be paid in cash. We tended to be asked to pay by the week in most cases (we were paying day rates mostly). Some wanted bank transfers but none of them ever took credit cards. If you wanted to claim against a builder under Section 75 you would need a good solid written agreement to evidence what you were paying for I imagine although if it was for sub standard work that might be less hard to prove.

I’ve seen some examples of Section 75 cases at work. They range from the very weird to the wonderful but they do indeed cover you even if you pay a very small amount on a credit card. I just looked at the terms and conditions of my TF supplier. They say that credit cards are accepted but I wasn’t offered that at the time IIRC. It wasn’t worth asking as it was well over the 30k limit anyway. Note that you cannot cover just a deposit under Section 75 so if you pay a 5k deposit for something worth 40k for example you aren’t covered for the deposit under Section 75. Similarly if you buy 10 items that are £75 each you aren’t covered either. So roofing tiles as an example. You will be covered if you buy bulk packs costing over £100 each, but you won’t be covered if you buy individual tiles under £100 each.

Having multiple companies trading under similar names seems so common I am amazed that there isn’t something that prevents companies being repeatedly dissolved and new ones set up.

On the back of reading a thread on here earlier this week about a company that had ceased trading, followed by a post on the local Facebook site where a pensioner has been done over by a bathroom fitter I wondered what steps we can take to protect our cash etc. In the first instance there is always a warning not to pay for goods upfront by cash as you can be protected via Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act for goods over £100 and less than £30k if you put even part of the cost on a credit card (so a small part of the deposit for example). Not all companies will take a credit card but do push them to see if they will acccept a deposit on one. Debit cards do not give you this cover. https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/section-75-of-the-consumer-credit-act Many companies will want payment before goods are delivered, or a hefty deposit paid for a bespoke order. That's clearly to protect them too which is understandable to a degree, but if you pay by cash you are potentially putting that money at risk. Then there are companies that provide labour services or supply and fit. In the Facebook post I mention above someone paid several thousands of pounds to have a bathroom fitted. The work was complete and the builder was paid but the shower leaks, the grout is falling out already and some of the floor tiles have cracked so the job was sub standard. Several people have replied to that post to say that they have lost substantial amounts of money to that individual and someone took him through small claims but didn't recover anything as he has 'no assets'. Calls to the company are unanwered and on looking at Companies House the owner of the limited company in question has a history of companies being set up with almost the same name, with the companies later 'dissolved via compulsory strike-off'. There are still 2 companies with similar names (same director) and one has a status of 'Active — Active proposal to strike off'. Seems that this guy has never filed accounts at all and just opens a new company and continues trading. How can this be, and what can we as consumers do to protect ourselves?

Christ I bet he didn’t even have the slightest hint of bum fluff when you started that job! ?

Can’t your parents get their lodge finished and the reclaim done before you do the RHI application? Assume the lodge is completely separate, mentions nothing about rental or business in the PP at all, and can be sold separately from anything else?

When are you finishing the damn tiling? Thought the boy had to use the shower before returning to uni?

It’s pretty normal for them to want to tie you in to their policy TBH. Have you tied yourself into a conversion of this 18 month policy to a self build policy or will it be a brand new one with a term of your choosing? If the former the downside is that you will only get 6 months to complete your build and that’s if everything goes to plan and you start in May. Many people need longer than that and find that the costs spiral if you want to extend. Definitely still shop around when it comes to taking the main policy out. Just as a little warning (to others too) we had a claim against our self build policy (there is a thread about it somewhere) and when we weren’t going to finish in time we were left high and dry as the insurance company refused to extend the cover and we wouldn’t have secured insurance through anyone else. After quite a few sleepless nights I managed to get ‘standard’ buildings cover via a specialist policy as the main structural work was complete so we no longer needed all of the things covered by a self build policy. My advice would be to add 6 months to the maximum time you think you’ll ever need and ensure that there is the facility to transfer to a standard buildings policy to use up any unused term once you get the completion certificate.

Do you not need a revised joist design for biscuit mix vs the much lighter spreader plates? I thought that @Redoctober did IIRC?

My house already had PP but Scotframe did the building control drawings, structural engineer’s certificate for the frame etc. They also changed the design as we wished when we changed our minds over a few things. All of that was invoiced as part of the frame so all of the VAT was recoverable. If you instruct your own architect, structural engineer etc you will need to pay the VAT on those things as it’s not recoverable. It’s also pretty convenient having a one stop shop rather than coordinating yourself.

This would be covered under third party cover via contents insurance surely?

Welcome. So when you mention Scotframe presumably they will just put the frame up and then it will be down to you to contract builders for the rest, or do they do the whole lot now? They didn’t when I bought my frame from them but it was a long time ago.

Maybe they are getting mixed up with someone buying a dwelling? Can’t you just say that will be put in place once work starts or have you already tried that?

Yes you probably are via your household insurance.

Where does the bin lorry go, or is your bin point further up?

Yep paint is fine but not white spirit (even if mixed with said paint).

That seems good from an RHI perspective but how do you plan to structure your build? Your VAT reclaim will need to be for a single house and they may ask you what you intend to do with the second property covered by the PP at the VAT reclaim stage bearing in mind the VAT reclaim must be for a house you or your family intend to live in or holiday in. They asked me as my PP covered 2 properties although the plot was split and I only owned 1 so a different scenario.

So if this requirement is in the building regs (I don’t know that it is but in theory) they can’t enforce it unless the PP notes it? Just trying to understand what must be on the PP vs enforceable because it’s in the building regs alone.