PNAmble

Northumberland took 21 weeks to pass my planning for a new build, no extension requested, site had previous planning approval, and we had no objections. they ‘forgot’ to post the notice on the lamp Post so had to ‘restart the timer’. my architect was useless despite him telling us when we contracted with him that he had contacts. In the end I email the head of planning and within two days forced them to make a decision. (Which was positive) I was advised not to go to a non determination appeal as it stops the clock, effectively refuses planning and even if you win the appeal you have to resubmit and they ‘guarantee’ an 8 week response.

No, my deal for the interest rate I’ll be paying is based on a max LTV of 65%. You could find a different deal which may have a higher LVT it may have increased interest rates or higher application fee. From the lenders view point it’s risk management. this is the way all secured loans (inc mortgages) work I’d suggest talk to either your financial advisor or a broker to see what is available for your circumstances.

Most mortgages have a Loan To Value .. whether they are a standard mortgage or a self build one. Mine is at 65%, and that is used at each stage including how much in total they will lend. i.e if the house I build is valued at 100K when finished the total amount they'd lend me is 65K, even if I earn 100K per annum.

We also looked at bridging as the redemption fees were expensive. Bridging was cheaper if borrowing for 5 months or less. But any delays in exiting would rapidly make it expensive. I had a very comprehensive spreadsheet. as said it’s a numbers game and depends also on how long the build will take and how much involvement you will be taking.

not that big! in our case it was based upon affordability and the value of the house you end up building. We used Mayflower as a broker - we are both self employed which also added to the complexity.

completed. its not a property until its completed.

I'm using an on site timber construction method and have really tricky groundworks / retaining walls. my mortgage company allows me to borrow 65% of the value of the plot from completion but that is likely after groundworks. watertight includes windows etc so depends upon spec. my build cost is approx 600K. will be about 50-60% paid when groundworks, drainage, retaining walls and timber structure is up .. higher end if I include windows.

I think you have 6 months or so overlap allowance.

We are just starting this process, plot bought outright, cash to get to timber structure up. House on the market, self build mortgage being applied for. We are trying to secure all the build costs with the mortgage but if we sell the house we’ll move into rented/borrowed and use the equity as opposed to the mortgage. We are on a quick build 6-8 months to handover. Main issue with rented is we have two dogs. there was never any discussion re staying in our house. As long as we passed the affordability test and build costs shown to be covered (inc 20% contingency). Fees so stack up though as self build mortgages have early redemption fees as well so borrowing and rapidly paying it off with house equity isn’t cheap. our problem was that we couldn’t organise the mortgage until the planning was granted which took 12 weeks longer than expected so now on a tight timescales before ground is broken.

If you are in Northumberland you don’t need to apply for an exemption at all. Was just about to apply for mine but checked with the planning office and apparently ‘Northumberland County Council is not a Community Infrastructure Levy Charging Authority’ Don’t know if other county councils are the same, but it surprised me.

We think it’s pretty simple. The main issue is the foundations. The problem currently with Northumberland Building control is that if I was to go Full Plan the plan review may take ‘upwards of 6 months’ (my planning took 21 weeks even though there were no objections and the plot already had permission for a larger house). So if I need a full plan review I’ll have to go independent. My Architect (who I don’t think understands value/cost dimensions and likes trying to spend my money on consultants) believes I should do a Full Plan review to mitigate (his?) risk. I’m thinking why bother and just get a building notice and him visiting the site, once we have the technical drawings we will be removing the architect. I need a warranty etc as will be on a self build mortgage for 60% of the build costs. My partner is a mechanical engineers and CAD/REVIT expert who supports building services companies on commercial projects. So we sort of ‘know stuff’ Are we trying to save money in the wrong place by not doing a Full Plan review. 🤔

Why bother with what ? An independent ?

Building a passive standard (not certified) 200m2 new build, timber frame (bespoke). Our builder suggested an independent building inspector would be better as they’d be more proactive and less ‘machine says no’. We’ve got a quote of £3000+vat from an Independent and wondering if this is a reasonable cost. we are in Northumberland and had a couple of rejections as their ‘nationwide local offices’ doesn’t include our area. Questions like this have been asked before but from what I can find not recently so Are independent more proactive than LABC? is the quote we’ve had reasonable ? thanks

How did you progress this, a company seems to be a mandatory field I've tried "Selfbuild" and "Selfbuild Project" but don't appear to get registration confirmation

We’ve not gone down this route but looking at other suppliers for lift and slide doors that fit our budget we came across these. https://www.uniwindows.co.uk/en/tilt-and-slide/#Tilt & slide-1 Not seen a tech spec for them though and assume they are not part of their passivhaus range.

The quote was from Buildmer in Gateshead (we are building in Northumberland) We’ve not progressed yet as house still in planning. It was part of a full set of windows/doors (>30k). We’ve had internorm quotes from ecohaus as well different scope but very similar pricing.

HF410s./Homepure passivhaus standard. 3G /u was 0.78 looking at my quote.

We priced some up late last year from internorm 1000x2200came in before discount (approx 10-15%) was £1730. / 900x 2400 @£1630

We got quoted at 650 for the frame and 400 for the raft (based on 110m2 raft). Their eco house option was 550m2 (plus same raft). (We are going passiv standard but not certifying). For foundation / soil issues we can’t go insulted raft as it happens so regrettably are moving away from MBC.

rethink the the patio / glass doors, not certain how MBC Twin Wall will cope with the those being going into the wall opening - we looked at prices of a 6m 3g sliding door set .. quickly changed our minds when we saw the price. If you are going MBC PH solution, there is no point in having a freezing cold pain of glass on the North so decent quality will be required (potentially even looking at CEROIII to get to a decent u-value and the West Facing Doors into the the SNUG will certainly keep it snug due to Solar Gain. I recently (last month) costed a MBC PH solution for a two story house, flat roof, and their foundation approx 200m2 (GIA) - it's not a budget solution.

We’ve got a garden about 190m2. We have a Worx Landroid about 5 years old now. Does a brilliant job but …. I still use my old petrol mower at the end and start of the season as it gets a bit wet for the robot to go out (ie it rains too much). This year (we live in Northumberland) I’ve just put the robot out. Main reason is that it’s been a really wet April here and for some reason the dogs have dug some holes in the lawn over winter where we’ve had ‘critters’ which needed fixing which I’ve only just done. The robot goes out for about an hour a day. if you want stripes then forget it and you’ll still need to strim edges (even with the worx close to edge system) main reason I got mine was that we worked away and I got fed up of having to do a ‘major’ cut when I got home which was occasionally every two weeks during summer. hope that helps.