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It does seem unfair that the Council can continue to collect rates until the Council determines a planning grant. What incentive do they have to hurry? I think a nice letter to your MP might be in order. Ask him to urge the Council to use any discretionary powers they have to grant an exemption for flood damaged properties that need to be demolished because repair is not economically viable.

As I understand it before 2013 you could claim an exemption if the property was uninhabitable but think they did away with that to encourage empty properties to be brought back into use.

If you have trouble finding your councils exemption page tell us the name of your council.

Try your Insurance Co to see if they will pay it. Have a look at the Council Tax exemptions on your councils web site. Some say they will grant an exemption if your Insurance Company won't pay Council Tax. https://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/council_tax/reductions/special-circumstances-council-tax-reductions-section-13a.aspx Other councils have different rules https://www.richmondshire.gov.uk/environmental-health/flooding/flood-damage-council-tax/

Unfortunately "Original roof" refers to the height of the roof of your extension before the lantern/velux is added, not the original pitched roof of the house. Aside: Many ordinary flat Velux windows are >150mm tall but they don't need planning permission because they are partly recessed into the roof (eg by the depth of the tiles and battens that are removed). Obviously that doesn't help you here.

Google suggests the Black MDPE is UV stabilised but not the blue. Its pretty strong stuff but is 20mm big enough? I'm thinking about the diameter of the "knot" connecting draw rope to the Fibre? I've normally used 3/8" rope to pull electrical cable. Double that back on itself and bind with tape. That would be more than 20mm. Perhaps smaller draw rope is ok?

My wife once told me that if you have help to fund a court case the people paying may also be liable for the other parties costs if you loose. Not sure if that's right but might be best to make any donations anonymous?

Apparently there is a Supreme Court but here it says... https://www.supremecourt.uk/about/role-of-the-supreme-court.html Elsewhere it says

That was from the High Court so think that might be end of the road.

I think metal lintels are meant to have more than one brick course above them? Minimum of 3 courses I think.

Most stats use something like a 10K Ohm NTC probe. These are readily available for a £few so you don't really need to spend silly money for the ones from the UFH company if you decide to buy spares.

Some 40 years ago when I was kid I got a summer job with an electrician helping to wire up a 6-8 storey office block in Staines. All the floors were identical so we dropped off the same number of switches and sockets on each floor at the start of the day. Finished fitting them on one floor and had one light switch left over. Took us hours to find out where the missing one should go because the plasterer had totally filled the back box and polished it over. No plans and no mobile phones to take pictures back then so we had to go up and down and rely on memory to try and figure out where the missing one should go. Once we had narrowed it down to a wall I volunteered to go down the fire escape get his metal detector to find it. Don't bother he said and proceeded to stab the wall with a screwdriver over an area of about two square meters while muttering under his breath.. "That will teach the F&%$£s.. " Learned a lot that week... Always leave about three feet of wire sticking out after first fix - later you can cut it to a more suitable length, collect the cuttings and burn off the plastic for the copper. How to avoid having to carry massive rolls of left over carpet down 6 floors - just make sure the car park below is empty before you push it off the fire escape. Always check an electricians references - at another site the recently hired electrician just failed to turn up one day. They eventually found he had just been pushing short lengths of wire into the conduit and fitting sockets. It was the same at the distribution board, if you pulled a wire just a short length came out!

I got a copy of my house plans and marked them up with switch/dimmer and socket positions for the electrician. You can also write on the walls.

+1 If the pipe has to go horizontal then a bit more needed for timber to support plasterboard on back side of the wall. Say another 20mm?

Because most are made same way from basically the same materials. Sometimes with modifiers to alter the density or fire properties. Polyisocyanurate (PIR) is a modified Polyurethane. Typically around 0.022-0.028 Expanded Polystyrene is usually around 0.034 These figures are for a nominal 1m thickness of the material. If you simply scale the numbers for 150mm thick sheets they will be close to the makers spec for that thickness but can vary slightly due to surface effects. Normally the 0.022 figure quoted for PIR assumes most of the gas used to make it has leaked out (eg its aged). So for the first 10 years or so it actually performs a bit better. The main issue with rigid insulation is sealing gaps. Builders tend to just saw sheets to fit between rafters and I'm convinced that's where a lot of performance is lost. If I ever build again it will be a warm roof with insulation above the rafters so sherts can be butted together or perhaps using SIPS. Lots of other data here on different types of insolation... https://www.greenspec.co.uk/building-design/insulation-materials-thermal-properties/

It been that way for at least 15 years I think. It's to make them more accessible for disabled people. Nothing to do with access by babies. We built our house to these rules 13 years ago and it's simply not a problem. In fact it's great. You don't have to bend over so far to plug things in.

It's tricky. The CIL exemption must be claimed using the right sequence of forms before development work starts on site. Given the sums involved its unwise to do any work before you have got the exemption in place.

In my area was told everything had to be black for electric and they wouldn't accept twin wall conduit.

Some reading... Noise survey on 9 ASHP systems.. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/48204/3307-acoustic-noise-air-source-heat-pumps-1.pdf Page 24 suggests some ASHP were 5db louder than the makers spec. Out of 9 sites only one was quieter than the makers spec. On page 27 they calculate how far away you have to be (eg from neighbours) before the noise level fell below the limit for Permitted Development Rights (eg <42db). It ranged from 4 to 28 meters. More if they make "tonal" noise. In one case 45m.

Does IKEA have them in stock somewhere you could go collect from or just not in stock?

Sold separately because in theory you could roll your own flashing system but don't go there. As I said above, I'd expect him to pay for consumables. That would include standard screws, nails and adhesives. Obscure screws specific to something being fitted would be down to you. For example in the unlikely event the flooring supplier required you to use a specific make and type of screw to maintain the warranty then that would be down to you. If you can use any suitable screw the I'd say the builder. It's a bit of a grey area if it's not in the contract.

This is what we did... Arched lintels with brick slips. Pointed up after installation. Some windows.. One or two and front door were double arch..

I'm afraid agree with the builder. I would take "Installation" to cover cover labour and consumables like general purpose adhesives but not special flashing kits. In the case of Velux type windows these are typically specific to the window and type of roof tile. That's just my opinion, others may disagree.

It doesn't look like the roof sheeting overhangs into the gutter very much? Could that be partly the problem?

+1 You can get 20mm insulation board. Check floor is level with laser first. If not level use sand.