andyr87

We were originally planning on having stone cladding installed, however after seeing the revised plans showing the house without the cladding opted to leave it off. We have white render and some wood cladding - the stone looks good but we felt that it made the exterior look quite busy. Managed to get ourselves a £4k saving from our building contractor - worth getting costed as it can be expensive! Ask your architect to do a mock up showing what it looks like with and without the cladding.

I did google MVS and now know more about mainframe operating systems than I did when I got up this morning ?

@newhome what does MVS stand for?

A couple of things to consider; The Energy Trust Scotland will offer you an interest free loan of £10,000 to cover the cost of ASPH and £5000 for Solar PV. You must have an offer from the ETS prior to starting work on site to be eligible. ASHP will cost more initially and does require more space internally, however you will benefit from the domestic RHI. GSHP will pay for itself much quicker, however you will essentially need a plant room for all of the internal pipework and a lot more capital upfront. The government has set out plans for the Smart Export Guarantee from 01/01/20. I don't know too much detail on this having only heard about it yesterday, however it looks like they are essentially pushing the onus of something akin to the FIT onto the energy suppliers. Octopus Energy appear to the only provider with any info so far, offering 5.5p per k/Wh assuming that at least 50% of your energy generated is exported. We have been quoted circa £3500 for 8 no 1.7 x 1m solar PV panels (integrated to roof) which should provide 2.4kW of energy. I doubt very much we will generate enough to export at least 50% back to the grid also being based on the west coast of Scotland! You will require require an MCS installer for the ASHP to take advantage of the RHI and assume that the same rules will apply to the Smart Export Guarantee, so not sure if the DIY route is a great idea if this is an option you wish to explore in the future. I believe that you will need an MCS installer for these technologies to achieve your completion certificate, however may be wrong with that one!

@BrettW looks good - if you haven't got the land in your name yet I would advice doing this asap. This process took us much longer than anticipated and has ultimately delayed many aspects of our project.

Really useful advice, thanks @Bitpipe ?

@BrettW yes we started off with buildstore but found them difficult to get a hold of. Plus they charge fees whereas you can go directly to Ecology. I have read some good feedback regarding Buildstore on this forum though so shouldn't be dismissed. Ecology will "consider" 4 times joint salary according to their website. @AnonymousBosch makes a valid point regarding the quality of the plot. We had ours surveyed and had trial pits dug out by an engineer. This proved valuable for the architect who was able to use the profile of the plot to our advantage and will hopefully mitigate any potential surprises when we (eventually) break ground as we have a fairly good idea of what we are digging into. Of course there are never any guarantees when it comes to groundworks!

Thanks all for the feedback. Certainly gave me plenty to think about. I liaised with my SAP man who has advised putting up some solar PV panels to increase the SAP rating to allow us to meet Ecology's criteria. As @Alex C mentioned, £4k on an upgrade is better value than spending £4k on a broker. Just need to do some research on Solar PV now... From what you have advised regarding how Ecology work, it sounds like we would also save on solicitor fees and surveyor fees too? Whats the catch?

Hello. You will still need to borrow £200k regardless if that is what it is going to cost to build. The bank will use the land as for security should there be any issues with the build. They way to think about it is that you are spending £200k on the build, the land is worth £100k so the minimum value at completion is £300k (hopefully more). So you are spending £200k on an asset worth £300k. The Halifax won't lend to you as the land was gifted. I believe it is a rule introduced to stop people from building in their parents gardens. We are in a similar situation and have been speaking to various brokers / banks. Not sure where your project is based, but the Scottish Building Society will lend up to £300k and will give you 60% of the value of the land as your initial stage payment which you will be given before you start. However note that they require you to have 10% cash contingency and require proof that you have that. We have opened up dialogue with Ecology Building Society (see previous topic https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/10588-broker-query/) and the feedback seems to be pretty good as it sounds like you can bypass the broker and do the application yourself. The caveat is that you have to have have a SAP rating of 85 or above for the design to get the more favorable interest rates, which arguably isn't difficult on a new build especially if you are aware of this before you start the design process. Note that they lend on the basis that the design achieves the SAP rating to achieve a the lower interest rate. I believe that you can revert to a lower SAP rating as the build progresses however you will pay a higher rate of interest. As mentioned we have only just started these discussions so I may be wrong on that one! The maximum any lender will give you is 4 times your income, or joint income if you are going into this with a partner. Regardless you are in a fantastic position by owning the land outright as the bank will view you as less of a risk to lend to. We have been though the mill a bit recently with regards to finding the right mortgage for us however are beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel thanks to the feedback from members on this forum.

@JSHarris Just out of curiosity how much did Ecology roughly charge in fees and how long did the consultation period take (between first call and money in the bank)? I have been in touch with our energy consultant who has advised that the alterations to our project would be minimal to achieve the criteria for Ecology. They seem to get praise elsewhere in the forum so would be keen to investigate them further if we are eligible. Thanks in advance ?

@RalphUnfortunately this was the lender who capped the amount available to borrow and requested a 10% cash contingency. @JSHarris just off the phone to Ecology. We are a few bits of insulation short of the requirement energy rating, however they advised that we speak to the architect to slightly increase the insulation (or alternative solution) and redo the SAP calculation then we would be eligible as they do provide mortgages in Scotland. Thanks for the feedback so far - should have joined this forum years ago!!!

@JSHarris and @Christine Walker thanks for the response. I was on the Ecology website recently, not sure if we would meet their standards - we have planned for an ASPH and budgeted in an MVHR system, our insulation is above regulation, but not top of the range spec. I will give them a call nonetheless! I haven't read of many positive experiences on this forum regarding buildstore - our own experience with them wasn't great. They gave it a good pitch at the trade show we met them at, however found them very difficult to get ahold of and unwilling to provide ball park figures unless you paid them a fee. The other broker we liaised with recently (Custom Build Funding) were easier to speak to and have given us best and worst case scenarios regarding amount borrowed, terms, interest rates etc. So far they have been great, I just have a bee in my bonnet about the nominal fee. Out of interest how time consuming / difficult is it to make the initial application and subsequent staged applications yourself?

Hi all, first post so be gentle and apologies if this topic has been covered elsewhere on the forum! We have spent the last couple of years obtaining planning and a building warrant for our timber frame self build project in Argyll and Bute in Scotland. We are at the stage of getting in quotes from various contractors, however it is becoming clear that we will likely be required to borrow slightly more than originally envisaged. After a few evenings crushing my way through spreadsheets, I have concluded that we can comfortably afford to borrow what I think we will need (now that we have formal quotes) including 10% contingency. We are fortunate enough to own the land outright, so are able to use that as a deposit. However when I approached my broker about this I was told that the lender would only lend a maximum of £300k regardless of circumstance, which is short of what we need. So we cast our net a little further and have started liaising with another broker who specialises in self builds. The good news is that they have a few lenders who will lend us what we need. The bad news is that the broker charges 1% of the amount borrowed for their service. Now its not black and white as they offer additional services, such as assistance with site insurance, life insurance, warranties, post completion mortgage etc which are all included in this fee. I will admit that they give a good sales pitch and the quality of correspondence and speed of response so far has been very good. My question to the forum (if you are still reading) is - have any of you had any experience with a company like this and ultimately is it worth the cost? I would hope that given the high fee they would be able to negotiate better interest deals than I would which would perhaps offset the up front cost of employing the broker in the first place. As budget is tight (when is it never tight?) I want to ensure that all expenditure represents value and I will admit that the thought of having someone else deal with all of the bureaucracy of applying for the mortgage and staged payments appealing. Thanks - A