Kevan Marshall

Thank you Alan, very interesting reading!

Thank you Alan, My Solicitor shall just say pay it, HMRC have a phone number I can ring so I’ll give them a ring when I get a chance….

Hi, I am in the process of buying a plot, there is an old wooden shack on it that is uninhabitable, I have received outline planning and can knock down and build on the plot, one of the reasons I received planning was the fact that the planners agreed that the house could not be renovated or ever lived in again, would this class the plot as non residential because the shack is uninhabitable which would make it exempt from Stamp Duty, I know I have got three years to build and shall have to sell my house I am living in within this period to claim back SD but it would help with funds if I was exempt from paying it? Kind regards, Kevan

Hi Iceverge, It needs to be built in a longitudinal direction, I have tweaked things slightly to get as the maximum room sizes for the footprint of the house! kind regards, Kevan.

It is going to be a SIP’s build so some walls we can alter as they shall be non load bearing!

The workshop can be 10 x 6 mtrs or 9 x 7mtrs, about 3 metres to eaves and 22.5 degrees pitch, 3 sides and roof shall be 40mm insulated cladding and front shall be silicone renderer board with 3mtr x 3mtr sectional garage door facing road

Hi Iceverge, Unfortunately the planners would never allow the garage to be built in front of the house and so close to the road!

Blue line is where outline off building shall be, the square at front of new house is outline of old shack, the planners want the new build to be in same line as next door but their garden is twice the size, the shack has been there since the 40’s and next door built there houses in the 80’s, it’s not my fault they put their houses further back and planning guidelines say that a house must not be brought forward from existing dwelling on my plot, problem is neighbours objected and mentioned privacy, one side has 7ft high wall, other side has 8ft high hedge, the side with hedge is double story and one small living room window looking onto ours and we are only building single story at this stage, the other neighbours are single story so no issues with privacy…

Budget has to be kept to an absolute minimum so trying to make the outlay as simple as possible and trying to make two bathrooms serve three bedrooms plus day visitors, the house is only for me and my wife and having occasional guests staying, the bedroom and snug are south facing, the plot size is 20 meters x 40 meters and I also need to incorporate a 9 meter x 7 meter workshop into the plot, I have neighbours either side and their plots are twice the size, planning have put a restriction on how far I can come forward with the house so this would only leave a 3 meter wide south facing back garden but we are appealing this, there is an existing wooden shack at front of plot which shall be taken down and we want to keep the new build behind it so we have 8 meters garden at back and 12 meters at front of house

We are trying to keep it simple and uncomplicated, only have two bathrooms to serve all bedrooms and utilise one bathroom as visitor/disabled toilet, we have to try and not waste any space and have everything in proportion

This may be better, slightly wider entrance hall, slightly bigger en-suite and small airing cupboard at end of entrance hall