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I believe not. However it might be best to formally apply for change of use to residential (business?). Suppose you went ahead and converted one to a games room or industrial unit. Then four years later a neighbour complains and the council investigate. They could ask you to submit an retrospective application for "change of use" and grant it. Normally a change of use doesn't trigger the CIL but that's only true if the building has been "in lawful use for at least six months in the three years prior to the development being permitted" which wouldn't be the case because it had been illegal for 4 years. If you are submitting a PP soon anyway you might consider including converting a shed to a "garage" in that. That would allow you to reclaim VAT on the materials used. VAT 708 again...

a) Regarding VAT: A water connection should be 0% rated for a new house, 5% rated for a conversion (reclaimable), and standard rated 20% for a replacement supply to existing building (not reclaimable). What you would normally do is ask the water/electric company for a quote at the appropriate VAT rate before accepting it. In your case 5%, and you can reclaim that. However if you paid standard rate you could not reclaim that because VAT paid to a supplier in error cannot be reclaimed from HMRC. Problem is you are effectively buying the water connection from the seller. If the seller of the land is a VAT registered company and he's putting the costs through his books then he should charge you 5% VAT on your share and you can reclaim it. He can also reclaim the difference in VAT between the standard rate he pays the water co and the 5% he charges you when he makes his quarterly return. I would ask for an invoice that just mentions water supply to your barn rather than a share of the whole job. Must be dated after you own the property. Ideally after you get PP but I think change of use might be enough. HMRC seem to make up the rules as they go along. If the seller isn't VAT rated he may just have one invoice from the water co and plans to split it informally. It will almost certainly have standard rate VAT on it and it will be hard to get that back.. You could try asking him to go back to the water co and ask for multiple invoices all with different VAT rates but good luck with that. b) VAT on long connections and diversions.. See VAT 708 and in particular section 3.3.4b which allows "Work closely connected to the construction of the building" to be 5% rated. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/buildings-and-construction-vat-notice-708 Again it would be better to wait until you have PP but change of use might be sufficient? c) The CIL and exemption If you plan to extend the barn and need the CIL exemption then for safety I would get the seller to run water to your plot boundary and stop there. Don't do any work on site. Connect it to the house later after the PP and CIL Exemption paperwork is all done. Beware its a multi part process detailed at the top of one of the forms. Follow it to the letter and ask for receipts. One lost form and you become liable. Three things: * A barn conversion (without increase in area) is normally exempt provided the barn has been in lawful use for a continuous 6 months out of the three years prior to planning permission first permitting development. Check! * There might be CIL to pay on any increase in floor area. If you plan to extend the barn beware the way the area is calculated is strange. Normally the first 100sqm of new floor area is exempt but I don't believe this is the case for a conversion. I believe the 100sqm gets used up by the conversion so the CIL is paid on all new increase in area. Ill try and find a reference. * That said you should be exempt from all CIL as a self builder. However some councils argue the self build exemption does not apply to conversions only new builds! If they try that trick on you refer them to this case I found last year..

Barney - Sorry if you know this but before taking any legal action you must make sure you have given the other party plenty of "opportunity to rectify". Otherwise the court will essentially send you away to do that. I'm sure you have but you need to be able to prove it. If possible get legal advice but would suggest two letters sent recorded delivery to their registered office: 1) Give them a deadline to rectify a list of defects after which you will hold them in breech of contract and consider legal action. Needs to be a reasonable period like 14 days. 2) A "letter before action" confirming that the list of defects weren't rectified by the date in 1) and you now hold them in breech of contract. The following link is mostly about a small claims court action but it includes a list of things a letter before action should include. https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/taking-legal-action/small-claims/making-a-small-claim/ Also in letter 2 you should probably state that the opportunity you gave them to rectify the defects has now passed. If you allow them to come back after letter 2 they will argue in court that the action is premature as they are still working with you to resolve the problems.

Did you take out legal protection with your house insurance policy? Usually they only pay out legal fees if they believe you have a good chance of winning. Claiming will also affect your premium obviously.

I've used a free program called PDFill to edit PDF forms. You can to add white space and/or new text boxes with white backgrounds to type over existing text. Save as an editable project file or a new PDF. I've not really used its drawing capabilities. Might be better progs around but works for me.. http://www.pdfill.com/

That could be a good approach. If you built one for yourself and another for a relative and both of you move in and live there for three years then with care you could escape the CIL, VAT and CGT on both plots. The downside is that self building can be quite stressful and many a relationship has failed the test.

Not that I'm aware of. If tariffs change things might get stopped at the port until the buyer pays the tariff and a handling charge. That can happen now when ordering from outside the EU. In practice I doubt the infrastructure will be in place so small orders will probably be waived through. It might be different if you buy something big like a house kit or a car as many are made abroad. My Ford SMax was made in Spain or Portugal I think. Some makes are warning buyers... https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/13/man-gets-brexit-surprise-on-invoice-for-new-mercedes-benz-12038546/ PS: I thought tariffs had been agreed for the transition period? Eg until end 2020.

Not unless the pressure is very high. Should really do a static pressure and flow rate test before deciding what sort of plumbing and heating system to install - just in case its too low for a mains pressure system.

Perhaps you can use an in ear thermometer if you have one?

Have I understood correctly.. The run goes vertical -> horizontal -> vertical outside stack? You have a large radius bend as the bottom of the outside stack but not on the bottom of the first vertical section Indoors? Perhaps changing that to a large rad would help?

Perhaps beware of the issue raised in this diagram if your pitch is low... http://www.roofconsult.co.uk/articles/tiling/tips83.htm

In the case of tiles... The bottom edge of one row of tiles normally rests on top of the row below, but obviously at the bottom there is no tile to rest on so they usually rest on the top of the fascia. If there is no fascia a triangular batten is used to maintain the pitch. Note the membrane goes over the top of the triangular batten and into the gutter. So in the case of counter battens the counter battens would need to stop above the triangular batten.

If you rent out the new house then I believe there is a problem with reclaiming VAT. You should seek advice on the following as it might be out of date... https://www.glovers.co.uk/news-articles307.html Normally new houses are zero rated when sold so VAT paid on materials can be recovered either by you using the self build reclaim scheme or by your builder.. But if its let then its an "exempt supply" not "zero rated". The difference is that VAT cannot be reclaimed according to...

Could this be a case of the liquids going too fast and leaving the solids behind? I've heard that can happen if drains are too steep by not sure if its a myth?

I didn't do mine but our architect produced quite a lot... Lots of sections through key areas. Eg showing foundations, Walls and floors, beams and lintels, cavity trays and closures, damp proof courses and membranes. Calculations for any universal beams (aka RSJ). Specifications for bricks and blocks (density of blocks and frost rating of bricks I think?) Drainage layout showing stacks, approx pipe runs, inspection chambers. Think we only had to provide U-Values for elements when we built our house but think you now need to provide SAP and predicted EPC? If any of the construction is non standard you may get asked to show how it complies with Part E sound. To avoid them asking you to do a sound test at the end (with risk of failure) you can provide so called Robust Design Detail drawings which I think you have to pay for. Before you do that try asking the company selling you insulation to see if they have a Robust Detail Drawing that matches your construction detail (or change your design to match their drawing?). This shouldn't be necessary if you are using reasonably standard construction. If its three storey there may need to be some detail drawings to show compliance with part B. Fire rated doors? You might consider telling the BCO you have a pretty good idea what's required but ask if he has a check list? Edit: Sorry I'm talking about England. Not sure how Scotland differs.

Thats ok but If the structural timbers are on the cold side of insulation they need to be well ventilated.

Think I got a few sheets from Travis Perkins but their list prices are probably high. Aside: I think BnQ are discontinuing Hardi Backer board as I got a the last sheet from a store near me at a very good/clearance price?

Studs would make great kindling if split up. Probably shouldn't burn the wood preserver but hey ho.

We have a split level house so there are similar changes in level under our house. I was also concerned about water penetration. Built a french drain...We dug regular foundation trenches and filled them with concrete then we built brick and block walls up above the high side. These block walls were tanked on the outside with a paint on rubber tanking solution down to and including the tops of the concrete. Then a sand blind and a perforated pipe in gravel were installed before back filling. The drain pipe led to the rest of the rainwater collection system.

You can get plinth bricks that have a 45 degree sloping top. You run a strip of lead flashing behind the timber cladding (and any membrane) down onto the plinth bricks, out and about 1" down the sloping part. This helps stops frost damage to the top of the bricks. An alternative to plinth bricks is to use some slate set on a mortar bed but plinth bricks are better in my opinion.

There is a physical limit. How crazy do you want to get? I think Aerogel has the lowest thermal conductivity known to man so wall made only of that stuff would be the thinnest possible. However its horribly expensive not readily available and wouldn't carry much load. Its also translucent. The next best material is PIR (polyisocyanurate) insulation which is a lot cheaper and more widely available then Aerogel. Some form of timber frame infilled and covered with PIR is probably going to give the best U value for minimum thickness. The outside could be rendered, clad with brick slips or battens and some form of rain screen/siding. One issue is the difficult of cutting and fitting PIR tightly between a timber frame. Poor workmanship can ruin a good theory. Some form of compressible rockwool batt between the frame might work better because its easier to get right even though the U-value is theoretically worse than PIR. A combination of Rockwool between and PIR outside would be reasonable. A layer of plywood or OSB would probably be needed to prevent racking. You might also look at a SIP panel construction.

PS I got my Geberit frames from a German seller on eBay UK but that was a decade ago.

I claimed 21% Belgian VAT when VAT here was 17.5%. Think I just converted the VAT paid from Euro to £ and wrote it on the self build reclaim form. Presumably this will still be allowed after 31st January?

All applications are meant to be acceptable in their in their own right. I would have a look at the Design & Access statements for these other properties. Ditto the planning officers recommendation report to the committee (if they went to committee). These will give you a good idea what if any objections the planning officer had and possibly how they were overcome. For example one objection to rural development might be a lack of services and public transport. So you should check there are spaces at the nearest schools and a school bus to get there. Ditto access to doctors and ideally shops. Planners call this sustainable development (nothing to do with being green). You need to do this even if you don't have kids - planners have to assume anyone could live there.

No they won't do that but they sghould get utility maps as part of the normal searches they do for any house purchase, eg to check there don't need to be wayleaves or other rights of way/access. Typically it takes a solicitor 3-4 weeks to get them from the utility company. What I did was call them up pretending I was digging on site and had found a cable/pipe. Asked if any chance I could pop into their office later same day to pickup a map. Said I didn't need a meeting of anything. Had a map same day. They need the coordinates and scale you want. Once you know where the nearest services are you can estimate likely costs. Most of which is usually the cost of digging trenches in the verge/road. If they are in the road past the plot that's about as good as it gets. Any services that are more than say 50m away should start affecting the value of the plot as you could be looking at £5-10k to get them to the site. Main thing to check is that none of the route is privately owned. You can also ask neighbours or physically look for manholes or access hatches.