newhome

You can’t if the hob has an integrated extractor but I would just put the invoice in anyway and note it on your claim form as an extractor. The guidance hasn’t been updated yet but there is a chance that you won’t be allowed to reclaim VAT paid directly to HMRC in the UK now that we are no longer in the EU as that amount is not on the invoice.

I don’t have any experience in planning but your objection simply seems to be down to the increase in traffic which you claim is dangerous as people park on the pavement on both sides of the road meaning that pedestrians have to walk in the road. As others have said the way to get round the perceived danger is to restrict parking to one pavement but the existing residents don’t want that so in other words they put up with the danger for their own convenience. Whilst it’s not illegal to park on the pavement outside London you are supposed to do so only to allow cars to pass safely in the road, but in doing so you are not supposed to block pedestrians, wheelchair users and pushchairs from being able to use the pavement. If the entry through your road was pedestrian only you may find that occupiers of the flats would be more likely to complain about the pavements being blocked. Or they may just use that area to park their own cars and walk to their flats. In objecting about the use of the road by a handful of additional cars you may find yourself with a different issue. My brother had a similar scenario in his cul de sac in London. A developer was converting a listed mansion into multiple apartments with new houses in the grounds, and whilst the main vehicular access is via a different road the developer wanted a pedestrian access halfway down my brother’s road. The only possible reason for wanting that was to provide additional parking in the cul de sac as the main entrance is much more convenient for pedestrians. They wanted pedestrian access from 3 different cul de sacs and in the end the pedestrian accesses were refused for 2 reasons; firstly there is a very large pond in the grounds of the mansion and it was found to have great crested newts in it, and secondly REASON: In order to safeguard the amenities of neighbouring residents and prevent undue overspill parking on streets in the vicinity of the site, to comply with Policies BE1, T3 and T18 of the Unitary Development Plan. The development is now complete and they do still get visitors to the development parking in the cul de sac but the inconvenience of walking back to the main road and along to the main development mitigates that to a degree.

Scottish Building Society is mentioned in this post.

Quite a few people on here have used Ecology.

Hellfire! Albeit that it’s a long time ago but our connection cost £1261 in 2009 with SP Energy. That was for 3 phase with an existing connection next door.

24kw Electric boiler I’m still ‘on the list’ and have heard nowt. Of course these days covid is the excuse for just about everything.

My BCO said that if the windows to the extension had what he called night ventilation then I wouldn’t need trickle vents. My old house had these and they were good as the window could be locked but slightly vented. Not as secure as a closed locked windows of course.

Ask for forgiveness later. They’ve mandated a distance that you have to comply with but presumably not said that you can’t investigate where the pipes are? Not many people would go to the bother of reading through a policy document before digging a hole on their own land.

Yes. I had to dig a hole to expose the bottom of the foundations to satisfy the SE. I didn’t know how deep the foundations were so armed with a shovel I started to dig down and down. I got to about 5 foot down myself before I decided that I couldn’t go any deeper and got someone in to finish it off. The foundations ended up being 2 metres deep so I could probably have finished it myself but I was worried about being on my own in a hole deeper than I was tall. Baring in mind that I had never dug to this extent before and nor did I have suitable tools. A metre or so should be easy for guys that are used to it and have the right tools.

Yes

I always said ‘ay? It is finished’.

Welcome. There are a few folk here from Kent. Looking forward to seeing what you plan to build. And yes, CIL is a killer when all you want is to get going.

Someone was threatened with losing their CIL exemption when they stuck some hardcore down at the existing entrance to the plot to prevent their vehicle from spreading mud over the road as they exited. They had done nothing else at all. They managed to get the council to change their mind but it was touch and go. Some councils seem to be much more strict than others, and after all it is a licence for them to print money so they have to invent ways to stop it from slipping away.

@AliG has just built in Edinburgh and may have some good contacts.

Welcome. There are a number of us here in Scotland. I’m in the Borders and we have some other members who are a bit closer to you who may be able to advise a bit more on local trades vs national companies.

I’ve no idea where it was but I’m sure someone will look it up ?

Yeah but a farm must be worth a fair bit so plenty left for indulgence.

Only one MIL (and mother) but enough dosh to maintain his supply of new cars for a while I expect ???

Welcome. It sometimes helps to say where you are building, even if it’s just England, Scotland or wherever as the building regs aren’t the same across the UK.

Here are mine being laid. They haven’t moved in over 10 years. Some of the grouting needs redoing now but all of them are solid.

I think that there are definite financial winners and losers in this pandemic. Those who got to work from home and had no change in their income and no commuting costs etc. Those like me who lost a chunk of their normal earnings but as my costs were lower I haven’t noticed too much difference, and those whose businesses have been closed or have been made redundant and are struggling. I‘ve heard of lots of people making changes to their home as they will likely be spending more time at home going forwards. I won’t be going to the office anywhere near the amount of time that I did before (2 or 3 days a week). I can see me going maybe once a week or once a fortnight. A large number of people I work with have got new dogs during the pandemic. Spending a lot more time working from home now and in the future has made that possible for many more people. Prices for puppies have sky rocketed as a result.

At least they are out at the quote stage. Far better than taking your money and messing you around.

Let me fix that for you we are were not on bad terms ?

Yes indeed and I wouldn’t expect the figures to be constant throughout the year. But you do have to do some fairly detailed sums to see if the numbers stack up. I’m pretty sure that a flexible tariff would work for me once I’m able to move to one.

They do change the numbers a lot. Last summer the overnight rates were peanuts, and even negative on occasion but they have been relatively high over the last month or so apparently. You really need to work out costs for a year to get a proper view of how much money you can save.