Daveattavistock

I agree with you about the state of the UK... the Chief Constables are signalling to us all that we are on our own now as far as justice goes. We looked at moving to Spain over the last decade but in the end decided against it for several reasons. The first is that the tax and inheritance laws are very different to those in the UK. The personal allowance in Spain is around half that in the UK so you will pay a lot more tax. If you keep a bolt-hole back in the UK they will force you to declare it or face draconian penalties. If you don't dispose of all your UK properties before you go you will be charged capital gains tax when you do sell. Living in Spain through June, July and August can be unbearable due to the heat. It gets very cold at night in Spain in the winter...although we go to Nerja in Jan / Feb for its microclimate and sunshine... but it still gets chilly at night or when cloudy during the day.

[Edited by mods to sort out quote boxes] I know what you mean BotusBuild....one of my mistakes was to allow a professional tiler over the threshold. I then caught him using a small ball-pein hammer to make a circular cut-out for an individual shower pipe feed.... the end result looked like an exploding star and was too big to be covered up. I offered him a rat-tail tile saw but he refused to use it...it must have been against his religion or something. Needless to say the tile came straight off that evening and was done properly.

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I think the property tax that would replace council tax is a Local Property Tax separate to the National Property Tax which is only paid when the property is sold.

If the government opts for an annual property tax instead of tinkering with the CGT then there might be an advantage to owning a self-build property. According to think-tank proposals on this, the national property tax would cumulatively accrue at a certain percentage of the value of any property over £500,000 on an annual basis...and then would only be payable when the property is sold. To avoid double taxation in the changeover period, anyone who paid stamp duty on the purchase of their property would not pay this tax at all. Most self-builders, up to this point, will have only paid stamp duty on the land purchase which would be a much lesser amount than the purchase of an existing property. For example, in my case, I only paid 1% stamp duty of £650 on a plot purchase of £65,000.... but this would still exempt me from this new national property tax. However, there is this great big disconnect between the fact that the government needs a lot of money now.... and not at some distant time in the future.... so what might they be tempted to also do? There is also the question of how properties are going to be valued.

Hi Botusbuild, thanks for your reply. Yes, it's an an old photo and the downpipes are now in place. Single-mindedness is certainly an asset in this business but often real life gets in the way (if you want to avoid divorce) Also, the old quality / cost / time triangle in project management is inescapable (unless you are very well-heeled) The house is 3 storey, 3,600 sq feet and was built with high quality materials, minimal external labour costs and no architect involvement.... hence the time factor has to increase.

I agree with you but once it becomes law it is already too late. The time to make representations is before amendments to a bill are tabled.

I have recently started to think about the capital gains tax position of my self-build property. Up to now it has been my primary residence and therefore has no current CGT liability. However, there has been a lot of ‘kite-flying’ (to test public reaction) from the government and Rachel Reeves over potential changes to the CGT rules. Several, influential left-leaning think-tanks (that Labour listens to) have forcefully pushed the case that all house price inflation is ‘unearned’ and should be redistributed (heavily taxed) A full imposition of CGT on primary residences is unlikely but there may be new tax changes coming that are linked to CGT values and calculations on certain categories of property. The danger here for self-builders is that they, technically, have no conventional property purchase price to use as a starting point in any CGT calculation. Many self-builds are achieved at a very low cost base which puts us at a severe disadvantage when it comes to a CGT calculation start. I initially moved into my self-build in 2003 and it cost me £65,000 for the land and £95,000 in materials and labour. It is now worth between £700,000 and £750,000. Its initial huge jump in value was entirely down to my initiative and over 12,500 hours of hands-on work over an extended construction period (I also had a separate full-time job)…. but there is probably no mechanism in their rule books for HMRC to take that into account. If you are a non-UK resident you can rebase you property value to April 2019 for a CGT calculation…. but there is no option like this for a UK resident. There also does not seem to be any rule which would allow a UK resident self-builder to use a market value at the time of the property completion… it would be down to a very uncertain negotiation with HMRC. I have written to my MP to ask if they would make representations to the government to avoid unfair treatment of certain property owners like us due to what are, sometimes, very blunt and all-encompassing tax instruments.

We initially moved into our self-build in 2003. At that stage it had no internal doors, no carpets, no external landscaping, no driveway and was undecorated. Over the following years we moved from room to room as and when we had saved for more materials. Apart from excavation, scaffolding, blocklaying, bricklaying, screed and plastering teams, I put in (some might say foolishly) over 12,500 hours of personal hands-on work for all the rest (including the design, mortar mixing and block stacking) over an extended construction period. I also had a separate full-time job As you all know, it includes a lot of highs a few lows and not a few mistakes. The plot cost £65,000 and the basic shell plus roof and including a basement storey cost less than £10,000 for materials and labour (sounds like the good old days I hear you say) Now land costs around half the market value of a finished house.