Bitpipe

Do you keep them in a jar? They could go on the tool hire thread...

Do you have this in writing or just an oral promise? Hard to take the latter to court.

What do your drawings say and what does your build contract say? Have you paid up front for this work or are you paying in stages?

We dug 3.5m for basement and that felt deep. The survey was 10m probes and 5m cores.

Cheaper than living in a band D house though...

Monthly accommodation cost x number of months the build takes = savings (assuming fixed cost of living on site)

When we demolished our old 1950's house it was sad to realise that there was zero value in any of it, clay roof tiles, 1950's bathroom suites, oak parquet floors. I even had 1800 unused bricks left by the original builder (for a planned extension) which I couldn't even give away to local reclaim yards - the small resale value of the goods was always outweighed by the labour cost.

How old are your kids? We moved into a caravan on site with ours aged 8 & 10 and moved into the new house just before the oldest started senior school. They loved it to be honest, we muddled through but was not as bad as you'd think - in fact our van had more floor space than the sister in law's new build flat in London. We were 10 years older than you when we started and both working full time - I was lucky in that I did not need to go to office every day but was in and out of London regularly, week long trips internationally etc. Totally understand that your other half is not keen (and that is important) but if your budget really is that tight then you need to be prepared to make some significant but short term sacrifices to achieve your goal. If your plot is really 7 mins from your existing house then that's hardly insurmountable logistics for getting to and from work, parents etc. I know our pre-design budget more or less doubled but we stayed close to £1500 / m2. There are a lot of non build costs that you need to factor in, professional services being the main one, but also utility connections, access, landscaping etc. Take all that out and divide by £1250 (being generous) and see how many m2 you can get away with. A professional PM will want 10% of build budget, a general contractor will add a similar overhead to the build cost. How much is your rent / mortgage per month? Times that by 12 (or 18) and that's money you can spend on the build. A decent 12ft x 40ft caravan can be got for a few thousand and sold on for the same at the end of the project, ditto a big site container for your stuff. Our 18 months of caravan accommodation had a net cost of £1250 which was £70 per month. Even a two bed flat in our town would have been the guts of £1500/month. We even made a profit on the container If you were very wealthy then you could commission a turnkey built house, maintain an un-interrupted life style and waltz in when it was complete without ever getting mud on your shoes , otherwise...

Welcome. Where are you located? The law & process varies across the UK countries. Always a good idea to look at what your neighbours have done, especially if their houses are broadly the same as yours. You'll need to understand what you can do under permitted development vs requiring a full planning submission. Lots of useful information here. https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200187/your_responsibilities/37/planning_permission/2#targetText=Permitted Development Rights,local authority but by Parliament. Most LA's now charge for any kind of pre-planning advice so they may not be the best place to start. Some architects will give you a free hour or so to talk through what's possible - this is always a more productive conversation once you already have a few ideas. You can also talk to local builders also but remember that you are ultimately responsible for ensuring what you do is lawful (planning and building control) so double check everything you're told and be wary of anyone who says 'Don't worry about it'!

Correct - I was referring to the earlier posts about eBay and similar merchants who would be supplying materials only.

The other system gets a weekly clear out courtesy of 4 pints of Guinness at the pub quiz.

Agree - I still suspect I have a bit of gravel & grit in mine so it's a half a day a year just for peace of mind.

Goes without saying but baby wipes should never go down the loo, even if used to wipe bums. If you have a bathroom bin with a lid (we have a Simple Human one) and plastic liner then they will not whiff at all. We had a few very unpleasant blockages - obviously some muck got into the system during the build & a wipe can seemingly get snagged on even a small pebble and back up from there. I invested in a set of 10M drain rods (about £20) and also a 30m drain wash extension for the jet washer - it has one forward jet and 3 reverse jets. I now like to give the whole system a good clean out once a year just for peace of mind.

if you are charged VAT then you can claim it back. However some sellers are not VAT registered (threshold is £85k turnover) so they can't charge you VAT, never mind issue a VAT receipt.

Yep, I did this for a few items - think it was window cills or something similar. The emailed receipt had VAT broken out but no VAT number (they were VAT registered) so I just wrote it on to the printout which I submitted. No issues.

Can also run spurs to rooms for future electric heating and leave them in wall if not needed.

No acceptable invoice = no payment. This is how the world of business works. Once you've paid, you have zero leverage.

Most of our contractors just wanted to have a copy of our PP (which clearly said 'demolish & new build' - these are the qualifying conditions for the scheme) before they'd remove VAT from a supply & fit quote. A few needed redirection to VAT 708 first. No doubt it goes in a file somewhere to be presented to the VAT inspector should they have a query at their end. Now, given you're right at the start of the build, you can start as you mean to go on. While professional services and desk / walkover surveys cannot be zero rated, any elements of demolition, ground investigation that use tools / disturb the ground etc should be zero rated so make sure you get this established at point of quote. Equipment hire (crane, scaff etc) is standard rate but the labour to operate / erect it is zero - you will need to get the supplier to split this out. Some smaller contractors / vendors (e.g. eBay) are not VAT registered. New utility connections are zero rated, moves are not (i.e. if you're demolishing an existing with electric & gas) If a trade does ask you to order something (to help their cash flow) make sure it's in your name and has your site address on VAT invoice - worth opening a few accounts (non credit) at the local BMs to allow for this. I found they would often give you the trade's discount if you walked in with them to order (or they phoned it in on your account). Get into a good filing habit now or face tackling the Shoe Box Of Doom at the end of your build Also, unless you're doing loads yourself, accept that the VAT reclaim is fairly modest compared with the overall outlay during the build as most of your materials should be zero rated at source - it is welcome though!

Aside from making the declaration in the form, how do they actually know ? And how long do you need to live in it before selling ? A day, a year...?

Ok, I now have one of these courtesy of Mrs B. who came back with a free one from a trade show. It checks in with BT to an app on your phone so you can see where you last had it - you can also make it beep loudly when in proximity. Comes with a keyring / lanyard and also a sticky patch - whole thing is about the size of a £2 coin. Have attached to my car keys which I am always misplacing at home.

Did you even try to get them to refund it & claim back from HMRC? Is there a way to alert HMRC to incorrectly paid VAT by a vendor - kind of name & shame them?

MBC used something like these https://www.orbitalfasteners.co.uk/products/8mm-x-110-express-anchor-steel-zinc-plated as you just need to hold the timber against the concrete, drill through both and hammer this home - there is no additional fixing and the timber goes where it is supposed to - quite quick way of working. They're pretty sturdy as I saw when one needed to be removed - did not come out of the concrete.

If I had known at the time I would have made sure. The SE commissioned the study and I approved the fees. First study it was all a bit of a car crash and needed a second (slightly) discounted study to get a clear view - there was quite a ding dong and their MD got involved but only budged minimally on the extra fees. So I suspected that I was on a sticky wicket to get the VAT back a few years down the road! To add insult to injury, when the dispute was ongoing, they sent my SE a nice bunch of flowers to say sorry for the trouble and I got naff all.

Not sure what your point is but agree that sooner is always better. However much of self build is a journey of discovery so you don't always know what's 'right' until after the fact. I found merchants happy to reissue VAT invoices some 3 years after the purchase (no changes) but had zero success persuading my ground investigation firm (3 years after the fact) to refund any of the VAT I was charged, even though the guidance suggests (in reverse) that their on site services involving tools should have been zero rated. They looked at my request and then just said no. 3.3.6 Services carried out before or after the construction of the building If you carry out services either before or after the physical construction of the building takes place, they can only be seen as closely connected if there’s a close connection between when they’re performed and when the physical construction of the building takes place. Services in paragraph 3.3.4 are standard-rated where, for example: Services in paragraph 3.3.4 are standard-rated where, for example: site investigation or demolition work is carried out before planning permission for the construction of a building that qualifies for the zero rate has been granted Which implies that doing this with PP would be zero rated.

Yep, accessibility is key as we've had a few fail in the first few years and it's an easy job to swap them out - if you can access them. They tend to go in as part of second fix so the environment they live in should be established by then.