newhome

I think the night in question was McEwans - the Belhaven was long gone by then . I'll take a photo of the 'bits' that are roasting hot and see what you think.

As a follow up question for this should all 'hot' pipework that is exposed be insulated? Most of the pipework out of my TS is wrapped in Armaflex thanks to the dynamic duo who came up to fix it but there are still some pipes or parts of pipes that are roasting hot. Not sure if I should be wrapping these in the stuff too? They are the more awkward shaped, smaller bits so it would be doable albeit a bit of a faff. And presumably the naked TS is ok too and doesn't need any sort of jacket / insulation?

Hope the move goes well. Soon be time to enjoy simply living in your home rather than working on it or wrapped up in the house sale.

I used to use the Three in Touch app but my phone has this setting now. Maybe you still need to use the app if it’s not a compatible phone. This is iPhone.

I complained about that experience and I’ve been offered £50 for the inconvenience and £18 travel costs as I will need to make another trip to open the account. Given that opening their monthly saver account last year only resulted in just over £30 in interest for the 12 month period I think that’s ok ?. I’m still going to open a First Direct account however. Do you physically have to close your old current account with them or just move DDs / salary payments? I have 2 current accounts with TSB so I guess I could just close one.

Sounds like the same script BT follow when you complain about broadband speed not being as advertised ?

There is a risk attached to that however as there is evidence to show that HMRC are fining people for submitting numerous ineligible invoices. You will probably get away with a handful but I wouldn’t personally submit a stack of invoices that I wasn’t sure about as a matter of course.

I thought that most hard landscaping was eligible and also turf, but not plants and trees unless noted in a lanscaping plan as part of the planning permission?

That’s not plumbing, it’s a design statement! Wow, so neat and precise. It deserves to be on display, not locked away!

Oh wow, I am so very sorry to hear about your husband. I was in a similar position in that my husband passed away during the build so my issue wasn’t one of getting the VAT claim done per se, although it’s what brought me to this forum, but more trying to get the work completed on my own and it’s not easy. Are you saying that you have the completion certificate for the house and it was issued 3 months ago? In theory the VAT reclaim is supposed to be submitted once the completion certificate has been issued as it is at that stage that the house is considered to be complete as far as HMRC are concerned. They don’t tend to consider outside landscaping work etc as needing to be completed before the claim is submitted so you can’t ordinarily delay just because of that. You can however claim VAT on materials purchased during the 3 month period. That seems to be the official line anyway. I don’t know how they will handle your circumstances if I’m honest. I do know that I would not have been in a position to do the reclaim if my husband had died in the middle of the 3 month period. There is just so much other stuff to sort during that period quite apart from not being in the right headspace to be bothered with a VAT form at that time. I have called the helpline a couple of times. You generally have to hold for quite a while but someone does generally answer. 0300 200 3700. So what to suggest. You could rely on HMRC’s ability to show compassion and you might get an allowance for that or you might not. I don’t think anyone knows for certain TBH. More concrete suggestions. 1. You could however have the remainder of the work completed on a supply and fit basis by a VAT registered builder and thus ask for the invoices to be zero rated (I doubt they will ask whether you have the completion certificate but they might ask for the planning permission). That will mean that you won’t have too many new invoices to add to the claim going forward and thus risk the VAT not being refunded. 2. Check your planning permission for any details such as requiring you to have a drive laid or whatever. Something outside that isn’t yet complete. If that’s there then in theory you need to complete that before the work is considered to be formally complete. 3. There is a place on the claim form that notes that you have to provide evidence of probate if someone has died. I assume you don’t have that for your husband yet? If not I would use that to your advantage when you call the helpline and say that in addition to the death of your husband being in the middle of the 3 month period meaning that the remaining work ceased during this period you don’t have the probate completed as yet so can’t submit the claim at this point. That’s not quite the case in reality as you are still living there (I assume you’ve moved in?) and I was able to send in my claim without the probate documents (house is in my name), but it’s certainly something you may be able to use to your advantage to justify a delay. Then once you have checked out all of the above give them a call. Write everything down you want to ask them before you call and have a pen handy to record their answers. Then send them a letter by recorded delivery confirming what you discussed on the phone. I’d be happy look over the detail if you want. I’m no expert but have been in your position and know how you will be feeling. They can’t tell you for sure whether the claim will be accepted as it has to meet other criteria too but if you’ve done your best to update them then I would hope that you have a good chance.

Demolition isn’t ‘reclaimable’ as only materials qualify for the VAT reclaim scheme but now that you have planning permission you should be able to get demolition invoices zero rated (assuming your PP mentions demolition). Note however that machine / equipment hire is not able to be zero rated unless it comes with an operator. If however your VAT registered demolition company supplies the equipment they should zero rate the whole invoice. Groundworks, and any labour throughout the build are treated in the same way. If your VAT registered builder supplies materials they should zero rate those on a supply and fit basis. If you are ordering materials yourself ensure that invoices are in your own name (ie don’t let builders ring up and order things in their own name unless they are supplying you on a supply and fit basis). Now that you’re about to start it’s worth having a read of the pinned VAT thread. Lots of things to consider to ensure that you maximise the opportunity to benefit from zero rating during the build and that your reclaim is all in order. It’s best to fully understand the rules from the get go than to have to sort things out later.

They are still made at the Sunamp factory in Macmerry AFAIK. That may change in the future but won’t impact those units on the ground now.

You sure about that? They used to charge but certainly Three has stopped doing so.

I think most banks are ok until you need to do anything with them . I have a few different current accounts just because the interest rates they offer are much better than normal savings accounts but all I do with those is pay the minimum amount in each month and pay 2 DDs out. I do need a reliable bank for when I actually need to make proper transactions however. My main bank used to be Lloyds and it was fine. It has a Lloyds sort code (starts 30 rather than 77 or 87 that are heritage TSB) so I've no idea how it got included in the divestment but there I was punted to TSB. It was all fine when the TSB systems were a rebranded mirror of Lloyds but it was an utter debacle when they moved to Sabadell and fecked everything up. They knew at the outset that once they had started it would be a fix forward scenario but still didn't do enough to ensure that they were ready to go. The opposite in fact. They went before they were ready on an 'it'll be alright on the night' basis. A few months later the internet offering is still found wanting and I have noticed that recently the names of the last 3 payees from my account pop up before I have even logged on. I'm not very comfortable with people seeing that TBH. Surely all account information should be hidden until you have logged on?

Doubt it would be that expensive if you wanted one. You can pick up uber cheap ones now, and second hand even less.

RBS closed the local branch in Dunbar a few months ago. They now have a weekly mobile van that arrives so anyone who wants to do things 'in branch' has to queue in all weathers to wait for the van to arrive. The very first week it was due to arrive there was an early queue but 2 hours later the van hadn't turned up. It had been in North Berwick (the stop before) but no one knew what had happened after that. Turns out it broke down between North Berwick and Dunbar. You couldn't make it up! They've lost quite a few customers to Bank of Scotland and TSB that are still on Dunbar High Street. Not having a branch doesn't particularly bother me but if banks are going to say 'you can only do this in branch' they do have to make provision for that.

Buy it for the ensuite - you know you want to!

I'm going to sign up to First Direct when I get round to it. I have come to the end of my patience with TSB finally. I only kept the account as it's the one I have had open since I started work and I can remember the sort code and account number easily lol. Had a disaster when they first moved onto Sabadell infrastructure and my account was locked due to 'potentially fraudulent activity' (ie me trying to do a transfer of funds to another bank as I'd done many times before), and then they were in meltdown so there was no one who could contact me to unlock it so I had no access to my main account for days. Just about got over that and last week tried to open up a new monthly saver account as I'd done several times before with pretty much one click of the mouse. Not this time - get a message "To build a better bank for you, we’re currently upgrading our systems. You can still open new accounts in our branches and we're introducing our products online over the coming weeks". Crap. Drove the 16 mile round trip to the branch to be told that you have to make an appointment to open one and there was no one who could do it for me. So First Direct here I come.

I wouldn’t want to start trimming insulation in such a thing. I wouldn’t be very good at it anyway and would have no real idea how much to remove. For something like a Sunamp surely insulation is important, and having just the right amount, ie not removing too much, must surely be important too?

Oh, and saying it will be addressed in the next iteration doesn't cut it either for those who bought the current model. Lots can be learned about companies from how they deal with customer care. Possibly not but if you've gone to the bother of getting an installer to fit for you then you likely won't want to be opening the thing up and trimming bits of anything off.

Yes I agree. If, for example, I had bought a new washing machine that after a few washes the side bowed out but was told 'oh it's ok it doesn't impact performance' I wouldn't accept that at all, similarly with Sunamp it's not good enough either. What are the company doing to be proactive about addressing their 'miss' in the installation instructions? They should be contacting all purchasers and installers and providing clear instructions of how to address the issue. Things like this can easily affect the confidence people have in a brand.

I wouldn’t be happy about that either! They will have lots of complaints coming their way if that happens.

Ha ha, when I was a kid I used to keep my horse on a farm that also had pigs and sheep. The farmer's kids and their friends used to camp out in the barn overnight on a 'shoot the rats' sleep over! They were stopped from doing it in the end as they kept blowing holes through the roof. I just hate rats. Can't be dealing with them at all after one grabbed my coat when I put my hand into one of the feed bins. I screamed the place down and the farmer came in, it ran into the corner of the room and he skewered it with a pitchfork. Never been able to be near one since although I had to deal with dead ones for A level biology. Dissection and creating a scientific drawing was part of the exam back then.

Yep, Vitamin K is often given as an antidote to dogs who get hold of rat poison. Those people on Warfarin are advised to avoid consuming large quantities of food containing vitamin K as it can counter the effect of the drug. Warfarin used to also be routinely used as a rat poison too but it is much less effective that difenacoum that can kill with a single dose.

There are all sorts of pointless regs these days. When I had lots of dogs I used to buy sheep wormer because it is exactly the same stuff as dog wormer in a much larger quantity and much more cost effective. I used to be able to buy it freely, then I had to fill in an online form stating how many sheep I had etc (we used to own sheep eons ago so I based my answers on that). At some point I imagine you might need real proof (down to 2 dogs now so just buy the pet one these days). I think only being able to buy 2 packets of paracetamol or ibuprofen is crazy too. People who need to take them daily due to chronic pain are disadvantaged by that. I know why they changed the regs but little thought as to how not to disadvantage others who need them.