Xenia

Hi Gareth, I have still not heard from North Norfolk District Council and had to escalate it to the head of dept - which is a bit embarrassing as I used to work for Norwich City Council and I know they are inundated with work. That said, I think waiting for two months for a reply is fair! The landowner is an old neighbour of mine so he's quite relaxed about timeline, but I'd really rather get the planning dept's input before I go any further.

Many thanks, will take a look. I'm not really looking for a mortgage, but equity release, hopefully as a lender they can help. Useful info, thank you.

Hi Mark, what's Ecology, is it a bank/lender?

Hi Bonner, no I'm not against a brick skin at all, just want to make the right decision, esp with regard to resale. I would like this to be my forever home, but as you say things do change. I'm financing the build with the sale of my current home which is mortgage free, but I'm looking to raise extra by using equity release (I don't want a mortgage, and I don't have children who will inherit) on my current house and transfer it to the new build, so the new house will have to be built in accordance with the lender's rules, ie timber frame inside is fine, but it will need a brick skin outside. I hope that makes sense, I'm beginning to confuse myself! Zen

Hi I'm Zen, but it seems someone else here is called Zen too, so I'm using my grown up name of Xenia. I'm currently negotiating for a piece of land in north Norfolk but before I do anything I wanted to ask a question about modern methods of construction (aka non-standard construction) and the pallaver over equity release/mortgage lenders not lending money against these. I was told by one equity release company that the building can be timber framed and pre-fabricated off-site, but that it would have to have a brick outer in order for it to comply with their acceptability rules. Can anyone shed some light on this please before I proceed and get to the point of no return with my build? I'm looking at Fleming, Dan-Wood, Scotframe and a few others and I think out of all of them, it may well be Dan-Wood who can't comply with the brick skin request. Help! Need some advice please. Thank you. Zen