Temp

If you think there might be a cgt liability check the tax rules for the country you might be moving to. Not all countries have capital gains tax. For example i don't think Belgium has cgt on overseas property sales and it has a favourable double taxation treaty with the UK. So if you sold the house while resident in Belgium you would have no cgt to pay. The only issue is you couldn't come back for 5 years. Other countries may have a higher cgt rate than the UK. Some accountants like PWC have departments that can give international tax advice (for a fee).

I think it will be very interesting if no party has a majority. Which two parties are most likely to agree to work together? Conservatives and liberals again? Would the Liberals make a second vote a condition of working with the Conservatives?

For most people it's unlikely the service address was ever the "land between x and y". The "service address" is usually the address where the owner lives so (for example) if you were living in a rented house when you purchased the plot it's most likely been set to the address of the rented house by the solicitor. Just before completion we got the council to allocate a postal address and once we moved in we changed the service address to the new postal address. I don't remember ever changing the description of the title so it probably still says "Land to the north of..."

One thing you might want to do is change or update the "service address" at the LR. Few years ago the LR was under fire for allowing people to change LR records with little proof of ID. They now write to the service address before change of ownership but if that address is wrong it makes it easier for the fraudsters.. From 2009.. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7971995.stm

Check for noise in the line. Sometimes if you complain about broadband speed you just get fobbed off. However if you complain about a noisy line they seem more willing to investigate and that can fix your broadband sped.

I take it there is no sign of a fibre connection coming any time soon? That would still use the existing copper line for perhaps the last half mile but might bypass the problem area.

Might also be of interest.. https://www.mastdata.com/

http://energystorage.cleantechnology-business-review.com/news/renault-and-powervault-team-up-to-turn-ev-batteries-into-home-storage-5832805

Check the pad stone under the 2.8m steel as it may well extend over the area you want to remove. Re 8m external wall - check part A for the buttress requirements of long walls.

Especially if you spend the £50 on a BBQ for them.

I read somewhere that we still subsidise coal to the tune of £300M a year.

Take a walk around the house you currently live in (inside and out) with a note pad. Little things we forgot or didn't know we needed.. TV aerial and cable (although I remembered the distribution amp and cables to all rooms). Rain guards/bird cages on the chimney. Rubber boots between our rainwater down pipes and the 110mm drains Security cameras (should have put in wire for them when building). Spare slot in the consumer unit for the later shed (remembered one for the garage and outside power point). Driveway edging/conservation curbs. Linear drains for the patio and where driveway meets road. We also needed an extra course of bricks due to miss calculation I think. Sure there are others.

The main problem I see with your proposal is that the insulation is very thin so there will be heat loss down into the concrete slab and from there into the room below and/or the walls. You might be able to live with the increased running cost but the response time will be a lot slower. Do you have the headroom available to use thicker insulation say 80mm+? There is nothing peculiar to UFH that causes overheating. My guess is something else was going on. Perhaps too much solar gain? It is possible to have an issue with varying solar gain and a slow response time. Sometimes on a sunny winters day we get a lot of solar gain so the UFH switches off. Then when the sun sets the UFH takes awhile to respond to the loss of that heat source. The result is a small dip in temperature while the UFH catches up. They can be connected to a gas boiler using a mixer without a buffer tank. A correctly sized fully modulating boiler would be recommended if no room for a buffer tank. Buffer tank can help improve the efficiency but must be well insulated.

If they are happy to zero rate labor but not materials then the only option is for you to buy the materials (receipt in your name) and "free issue" them to the contractor. I ended up doing that for our windows to help the builders cash flow.

+1 to other replies. 1) You cannot reclaim VAT that you pay on labour (in error). 2) You cannot reclaim VAT on materials that anyone else has purchased. The VAT invoice must be in your name. They MUST zero rate labor to you. They must also zero rate the materials because in the case of multiple supply (eg labor and materials) everything must be rated at the lowest rate. Labour is zero rated so they must zero rate the materials as well. They can reclaim the VAT they paid on materials. It might help to give them a certificate. It's all in VAT 708.. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-708-buildings-and-construction/vat-notice-708-buildings-and-construction If you can't find the relevant sections let me know and I'll dig them out on Monday. PS: If the contractor isn't VAT registered but still puts VAT on the bill that's illegal. In such cases they can't reclaim the VAT they paid on materials which might be why they are reluctant to zero rate. Moral - Check all contractors are VAT registered.

BG rang me some time ago. The man told me that my meter was "out of date" and that they "needed" to come fit a new smart meter. Since we had the meter installed when we built the house I knew exactly how old it was.

Depends on their view of the housing market. Some vendors will resort to a sealed bid process when there a lot of interest in the plot. Instead of going around all the potential buyers haggling them up they just ask everyone for their best offer. In England there is nothing legally binding about the sealed bid process. The seller is free to open all the bids and decide not to accept the highest bid if he wants. He can even go back to his preferred bidder and ask him to match the highest bid. In with the bid you should point out (if true) that you are a cash buyer or have a mortgage approval and you've done all your due diligence checks. They want to be sure the buyer is ready to go and won't pull out six months down the line when they find out a sewerage treatment plant is needed or some other complication they hadn't planned on. Remember some buyers won't have a clue. We weren't the highest bidder for our plot :-)

There are walls and there are walls. Check the foundations and that mortar is still sound. Don't want the whole lot blowing over next winter.

Might be of help.. http://www.buildstore.co.uk/finance/hsbmwork.html See also other links on the left of that page.

Consider running three pipes. Hot, Cold and Hot Return. Hot return needed if you are having a loop to reduce the time it takes hot water to reach the tap. If you are having a water softener you might need two cold pipes (softened and un-softened).

If you they are going to be driving heavy vehicles in and out then I think the concrete should be around 150mm... http://www.pavingexpert.com/concrete.htm Should also think about drainage. Will the barn be standing on stub walls or direct on the concrete slab? Common mistake with a shed base is to make it bigger than the shed so you end up with a flat strip of concrete around the outside on which rainwater can land and run under the walls. If the slab is fractionally smaller than the shed and raised above ground level then rain drips off the walls onto the surrounding ground/gravel anti splash. Best check what detail the building supplier recommends. Likewise at any door way - do they need a linear drain or concrete channel to stop rainwater running in under the door?

Could you fit flat panel LED lights instead? Then only the wires have to puncture the VCL and you can seal those. Most other lights need some ventilation.

Yes that's the best method _if_ the heights work out ok. Obviously the branch has to be lower than the outlet from the WC pan and this can be a problem. Note that you must not cut the stack down too low. You have to leave enough for the slip coupling to slide over as I think the bit of pipe on the branch coupling is too short to slide to coupling over that. If no other option there are these glue and strap bosses... http://www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-sp319g-strap-boss-grey-110mm/93635 See what others suggest.

How about a wire hung system fixed between the two beams? Lots of systems available. If you don't know what I mean see.. https://www.modernlightingsolutions.co.uk/track-lighting/12v-wire-and-cable-lighting-system/ Edit: Oops I see Dave mentioned them above.

Our bco said it would be ok to have a level access from the car parking space to the front door so we created a parking space on the same level and have a flight of about 4 steps down to the rest of the garden. In effect we drive up our disabled access ramp.