vivienz

Thanks, Jeremy, that's very informative. As there is a live electricity supply running into the bungalow, we plan to have this disconnected before removing the windows so, in theory, that would strengthen the case of the building being either unready for or capable of occupation. However, as you say, one can never be certain so I'll give it my best shot and see what happens.

Well, I'm working on the basis that the information given was directly from the VOA and, given that the property is going to be demolished anyway, if I can get it unbanded by removing the windows, then nothing ventured, nothing gained. If they agree, I lose the council tax, if they disagree, I have to keep on paying what I thought I would have to anyway, at least until the roof also comes off. I'll post with any progress.

I came across some useful information today that doesn't exactly fall into the categories of the title of this section, but I think this is the closest one. The plot that we have bought has an old bungalow on it that we plan to demolish. Because the property has been vacant for some time, North Dorset Council have re-imposed council tax on the property and no discounts are available. Lack of occupancy and change of ownership make no difference. I advised the council of the change of ownership and just received a council tax bill for the remainder of the council's financial year, to 31/3/17. I rang the council as I wanted to be clear on a couple of minor points, in particular since demolition may take a period of time and when council tax would cease, and they put me in touch with the Valuation Office Agency. In short, the VOA advised that as soon as the property becomes 'unbanded', council tax can no longer be levied. The property becomes unbanded as soon as either the windows or roof are removed and so it is uninhabitable. Whether or not it has utilities connected is irrelevant and it isn't necessary to wait for demolition to apply for it to be unbanded. The windows part of this is very helpful for us as our property may have bats in the roof space, so demolition could take some time. However, once we've had the electricity supply to the bungalow cut off, we can go ahead and remove the windows and escape a £1600 pa council tax charge.

Thanks, chaps. We've appointed an architectural technicial and he reckons that we need to apply anew for PP as what we want is very different to the existing PP, so by the time we've got through design and PP (if all goes well), it will be full summer when demolition and construction start. Good to know I don't need to worry about the CIL - one less thing.

A very interesting post. I suspect that I'll need to get both S106 and the CIL exemption. Our new house will be in North Dorset and they are in the process of adopting the CIL. According to their website, they will start charging CIL towards the end of 2017 and our build won't be finished by then. Forewarned is forearmed. I reckon if we end up with something along the lines of 250 sq m, we could be caught out for an unanticipated £11k or more as they will charge £45/sq m for our location. Eek!

Hmm. Very interesting comments re. GSHP v ASHP. I'm nowhere near starting the costings on things with everything having been in hiatus for so long, but they are very persuasive figures. Added to the 'good ideas' list.

Thanks all, that's very helpful. I guess that it will be another thing that the SE will need to account for when considering drainage for the property. I'd really like to have a basement and if this part goes ahead, then certainly that's when any old land drains will come to light. We're building on the residential curtilege rather than any part of the agricultural land - the planning officer said that we would never get permission for a change of use on that, but it fits in nicely with our plans. We'll be digging plenty of other stuff as we're off-grid for everything apart from electricity; I plan to have a GSHP system installed along with UFH. Also, there is an old septic tank that will need to be dug out and replaced. Re. trees, there is a wild cherry and overgrown Christmas tree close to the existing property. Neither of any merit and the PO is happy for these to be removed as part of the redevelopment.

After many months of waiting for the vendor's rubbish solicitors to get their act together, we've finally exchanged on our north Dorset plot and will complete next week. The site is a rural one, and our plot is part agricultural field and part residential. The local area is heavy clay. We went to inspect the place at the weekend and met the neighbours who said that there are land drains running all over the place under the properties, but they weren't able to give any specific detail. Given that we intend to have the existing 1950s pre-fab bungalow demolished and then to re-build, is this something I need to worry about at this stage? Will the architect or structural engineer take this into account? Any useful information on this topic would be most welcome.

Thanks, Roger and mvincentd; apologies for my late response as I've been away for a couple of weeks. As yet, I'm not convinced that designing to passivhaus standards is for us; I keep thinking that the pursuit of that final bit of energy saving costs a great deal in time and effort as well as leading to some compromise on design. Given that the residential curtilege of the plot is long and narrow, running north/south, it may not be possible to get enough southern exposure to benefit fully from that style of design. Also, I appreciate that the GSHP is a large up-front cost, but this is almost totally recouped over the first seven years via the RHIP scheme. That said, absolutely nothing is fixed as yet and there are so many good ideas out there that are worthwhile exploring.

Fabulous - thanks, Bitpipe. We're not after anything complicated for the basement, just a large box that will be subdivided into smaller boxes. We will want to run some services into it, though, as we're planning to have GSHP and will put the plant room into the basement rather than use any of the main living area on the ground floor. Looking at your method, I've been coming at this from the wrong point of view and trying to deal with the basement first and then the house, rather than the house first which is the logical approach given that the basement may be the thing that has to go if budgets are too tight. MBC certainly seem to get a good press on this forum for the house construction and if they're happy to work with this type of construction, all to the good. A few of the kit house manufacturers I've spoken to have been very iffy about basements citing the small tolerances of the floor slab that are needed for any pre-fabricated structure to sit on top. What was your experience of this with yours and MBC?

Ye gods! That's an outrageous cost per m2. We're in Dorset and I've seen a few architects over the last few weeks and they are all coming in at a 2k/m2 ballpark figure at the moment. That's a very rough guess as we don't have plans yet but they seem to think that it's in that region. I'm aiming for £1500, expecting it to be around £1700 - £1800 but prepared for £1900 as we haven't done this before. I believe it's called planning for the worst and hoping for the best.

Thanks, Terry. Will do.

Thank you for the wealth of information, everyone. We're still waiting for a couple of quotes to come in, but slowly getting there. Deciding what structure to use is another question that we're pondering in parallel with the architect selection and the information on this and the previous forum has been very helpful. I will post in the correct section of the forum with more questions. Thanks again for the warm welcome.

Many thanks for the information, chaps, very helpful. The links to the previous threads were a real eye-opener, I have to say. I'll do a summary of them in a few days but the main thrust of the various threads seems to be the issue of the thermal bridge between the walls and sole plate which have the potential to condensation and, in time, rotting. I really can see the sense of the points being made and the difficulty for the buyer when you have a groundworks supplier and separate house supplier. The poor old consumer will fall between the two, quite literally if the base of the house collapses, with no satisfactory recourse to either. I've looked at the MBC system that has been frequently mentioned on this forum and it certainly has its advantages. Off to do some more research.

Thanks, Tony, that's very helpful and rather the opposite of what the all-in kit house manufacturers say. I'm going to stay with friends for a few days tomorrow and I'm going to drop in at Scandia Hus in East Grinstead on my way, so I'll play devil's advocate and see what they have to say from their side of things. I'm always cynical when it comes to someone singing the praises of something they want to sell me, especially when it's very expensive.

OH and I mentioned SIPs to one of the architects we saw recently, whilst discussing different construction methods and kit house manufacturers. He sucked his teeth quite enthusiastically and said that he'd seen a few constructions of this type and more than a bit of expanding foam used to seal gaps that shouldn't have been present in high-precision, pre-fabricated builds. We were surprised as we've heard a lot of good things about SIPs for an airtight house, but the seeds of doubt have been sown. Any thoughts, anyone?

Whilst we're deciding on architects/designs and all of that kind of thing, I'd like to start getting to grips with costing out our project. It's a bit chicken and egg because, of course, I can't price up exactly what we need until we know exactly what we want, but I'd like to try and understand ballpark figures. So, for example, if we have a 200sq m house with a 100 sq m footprint and start with the most basic form of a box, how much wall will I need? This will allow me to compare the costs of different construction materials, assuming that suppliers are forthcoming with their prices. Likewise, once I have a basic understanding of vertical exterior wallspace, then I can understand how much cladding we need, how much each type costs, and so on. Clearly, there is far more to it than this, but I have to start somewhere. I have the Housebuilder's Bible which is very informative but also a little overwhelming at first. I don't know how much we will do ourselves in terms of project management, but we have the capacity to do a lot as long as we can understand what it is we are supposed to be doing! I'm working on the assumption that this will save us money and another assumption that everyone else is out to spend our money for us, but not necessarily on us and our house. A healthy streak of cynicism has done me no harm in the past. Any pointers would be most welcome. Thanks, Vivien

Can I resurrect this topic, please? OH and I very much want to include a basement in our new build, but it's difficult to find much information on them and what we do isn't that informative. I have spoken to a few kit house manufacturers and they all put this work out to an alternative company (usually Glatthaar) who seem to be phenomenally expensive, albeit for top quality, or so I'm told. As I understand it, the two main issues are ensuring that it's watertight and also that it needs to be constructed to within very small tolerances if there is going to be a timber frame house built on top of it. Ideally, I'd like to start trying to price up the cost of a basement to determine how realistic it is to have one, i.e. is it affordable within our total budget. Can anyone give me any pointers, please?

Morning, OH and I are just about to complete on a plot in Dorset. It currently has a 1950s pre-fab bungalow on it and we plan to demolish and re-build with an energy efficient house. There is no mains gas or sewage and broadband isn't scheduled to arrive until 2017 at the moment, so GSHP is on the cards as well as solar PV and then a small treatment plant for sewage. We're not sure what to do about internet access, but that can wait untl we're closer to actually having a new home - it could be a while! The site comes with full PP to build a new house, but it's not one that we like so once we have plans we will submit to amend the existing PP; the vendors really went to town with all the surveys they had done so we'd rather not have to repeat all that. I've also had a pre-app meeting with the planning officer and he's receptive to our ideas for a larger and very contemporary build rather than the existing proposals. We're at the stage of researching architects - have seen 5, had 2 quotes with the rest to follow and subject to these narrowed down to a shortlist of 3. An interesting process. So, here we are, terrified and excited in equal measures, wondering what the hell we're doing and hoping to pick the brains of those who have gone before us. Vivien