Mr Punter

To provide an opinion on what may be the best route you would need to give facts and figures. You need an approximate build cost and sale value on the new properties. If you estimate the fully inclusive build cost at £2,750 per m2 plus extra over (£50k?) for e.g underpinning it will give you a start point. For sale values, these should be in line per m2 with those in your area. Deduct the build cost from the sale value and that will give an approximate profit. Assuming you are able to create a couple of 90m2 houses, total build cost £545,000. Your sale prices could range between £300,000 and £1,500,000 each. Perhaps they would value at £450,000 each, so £900,000. From the £355,000 you would need to deduct CIL, sale costs (if you choose to sell) and any other taxes that apply. A developer might offer £220,000 for the site with planning or option. Whether you are a partnership, ltd co or LLP, if you don't intend to sell, CGT will not be an issue and VAT will not be charged in full if you use a main contractor. CIL will be charged whatever.

Don't forget wiring for speakers, ethernet, TV, kettle, toaster, coffee machine, radio etc. Also you may want side tables near the sofa for drinks, nibbles books. What happened to the laundry? I like the shelves. Is it a kit? What software did you use for the drawing? Nice project. Lots of work to achieve this! Can you keep us up-to-date with progress?

You have obviously looked long and hard and come up with something that you like and I am sure it will work. The fridge freezer / oven is not optimal but they are both built in so also have a couple of layers of chipboard to separate. The oven is probably not on for more than half an hour a day on average. Very pretty plans and elevations!

Good that you have the engineer visiting. Have you dug a trial hole to expose the existing foundation right to the base?

Good news is there should not be any CIL and if you demolish you should get the VAT back. The stair being open plan may be an issue with building regs fire and also sound and kitchen smells going upstairs, which I would not want in a larger house. If it is what you want and the layout suits, go for it. Personally I like that there is some separation between the kitchen dining and the lounge. It will be interesting to see how this scheme looks externally. Only you know what works for you.

Is this a knock down and rebuild? If so, it would be nicer not to have sloping ceilings throughout the first floor. When I looked at this earlier it seemed like you could achieve £5k per metre. If you budget 2.5k build costs you may arrive at the ideal size property. I have only ever made the sums work out when demolishing 1 and building 3 but I have to make a living from this.

No need to apologise but I am interested in knowing your reasoning? I thought this would be regarded as their garden, and they would get PPR relief. I could be mistaken but it has been the case where I have bought garden plots from others.

The through coloured stains like hell. Sand :cement:lime, even when left unpainted, looks fine and can weather well if you don't use exposed beads. Here are some garden walls we did 23 years ago.

No. Get a new accountant. VAT is not chargeable on the supply of new build housing.

That is great news. I did wonder what constituted finished. I have only done an office to resi and it only took a year. Make sure you in writing EXACTLY what is required so you don't get any nasty surprises. They may want you paying council tax or have insurance or building regs completion or whatever. Once you have in writing what is needed you can relax (but only a bit!).

If you get on OK with them, ask what they think would be best. It needs something to stop the wall just getting soaked.

Have you just had a flashback?

Waste of time and money. They used to do these when it first came out. Now it is self cert.

The requirement in part g is self cert. Just a note from you saying that the dwelling meets that standard. Done.

That is interesting. What would you fail? Was this an additional planning condition, on top of the standard building regs part g / Code level standards?

Just submit another scheme, with an attenuation tank. You can easily pass the water consumption and you will not need rainwater harvesting to do this. It is a waste of money.

I have just had a lender valuation on an investment property we just bought where I thought I had overpaid a bit and it came back valued at the sale price.

Adequate, satisfactory and acceptable are fairly common terms. The £50k reduction in a year is a bit much. Was any reason given?

Sorry I should have said on the sale of new build properties. I was answering their point of

Was the rainwater harvesting a planning condition, like "submit details of xxxxxx system"? If so, either do another application to discharge the condition, stating that the rainwater system was not viable. Alternatively just do not install it, as planning will not check.

Use 15mm.

Off the shelf ltd company is quick and easy to do. If you VAT register you can reclaim all your VAT. You will need professional advice from an accountant. If you intend to let, you may need 2 companies, one to develop and one to let, as you may otherwise be unable to reclaim the VAT. Company A would hold the property and get Company B to design and build. Company B is VAT registered and can reclaim. They hand over finished property to Company A, who let it out. Ltd cos can be setup online v. quickly and cheaply. You would be best getting an architect to do a full design to include planning consent, building regs and full construction and tender information. You need someone who is used to doing this and deals with contractors in your area. Get a full turnkey build or you will have potential nightmares. You may also need a contract manager part time. You could also consider a design and build where a contractor undertakes on a fixed price to construct the housing to a specified standard, achieving specified performances and the rest is up to them. Bear in mind that you may not make much more doing this than you would if you just sold up to a developer.

Hello @Antz99 and welcome. If you sell the plots to others you can take the money free of any tax. This is 100% the course I would recommend unless you have lots of experience and funding. If you choose to build yourself or get others to do this for you, you will be a developer and tax will be due on the profit. Setting up a limited company, bank accounts, registering for VAT, CIS, obtaining appropriate insurances etc is a big undertaking and requires a large amount of paperwork. In any event, there is no VAT on new build.

Martin Goodall's planning blog has a few references to the 3 year class q rule: http://planninglawblog.blogspot.com/2018/04/class-q-revisited.html

Yes, with normal planning consent, once you start it is locked in forever. With class q it must be completed within 3 years. Now you have the class q it may be that your council would look favourably at a full planning application, so you could just do the work in your own time.