Seren161

I had a similar situation but only got the premium AFTER I had owned the property and left it empty for 2 years from purchase and then I invited them to visit the property..It was declared uninhabitable and I was given 12 mths to make it habitable. Possibly one of the more lenient councils as this was relatively straightforward …so then managed to renovate the property and it’s back in normal occupancy so council happy.

If your property needs, is undergoing or has undergone major repair or structural alterations to make it habitable, you may get a 100% discount on your Council Tax for up to twelve months. We can only award a maximum of twelve months discount. If after twelve months the property remains empty and unfurnished, Council Tax will be payable. Depending on the time the property has been empty a premium charge may be incurred. To enable the discount to be awarded, the property must be unoccupied and unfurnished; AND requires or is undergoing major repair works (which include structural repair works) to render it habitable; or It is undergoing structural alteration; or It has undergone major repair works to render it habitable and less than six months have elapsed since the work was substantially completed and it has remained vacant since that date. Substantially unfurnished Substantially unfurnished is defined as a property where sufficient furniture has been removed to leave the property incapable of occupation. As a minimum, beds, chairs, tables, wardrobes, cabinets, televisions and personal effects would be expected to be removed. Major repair works The work required is such, that unless the work is carried out, the property will not be fit to live in. The property must be uninhabitable before any work starts. Structural alteration A change to the fabric of the property which should prevent occupation of the property. Anything that alters a load bearing surface that is supporting something greater than its own weight or alteration or removal of a supporting, load bearing wall. Works that could qualify for this discount Structural repairs to the main structure of the property, i.e. major roof repairs, replacing defective solid floor/ceiling joists and rebuilding internal/external walls. Major electrical re-wiring. Major re-plumbing. Walls being removed. Underpinning due to subsidence. Replacement of kitchen and/or bathroom together with other works. A considerable amount of work to render the property habitable with substantial cost of repairs. Works that would not qualify for this discount (they are not considered major repair work on their own, but a combination of them might be) General refurbishment and modernisation, such as replacing just a kitchen and bathroom. New heating including repairs and renewals of services. Replacement/repairs of bathroom and kitchen or any other fitting/fixtures. Timber or damp proof treatments. Re-plastering and redecoration in between tenancies. Repointing or window/door replacement. Minor alterations to the structure such as roof windows. It is to be noted that consideration can be given to awarding a discount where lots of repair works are being carried out. This would come under “A considerable amount of work to render the property habitable together with substantial cost of repairs”. Might be different for your local council but worth investigating… £12.5k is a lot of money…

But surely your liability for the council tax only started when you purchased the property in which case your 2 year empty tax premium only starts from after you have owned the property for two years? Also what is the state of repair or disrepair of the property.. there are exemptions to this premium if the property is not “ habitable or in need of structural repair etc” .. varies from council to council but especially in these days of working from home.. they might ask you to send proof of the disrepair and then give you a period in which to make the property habitable…

Yes

Keep meaning to come back to this thread….15 months later.. Build is close to completion..but definitely taken 3 months longer than I expected. Will end up as a 16 month build 🤞. We did go with a single unit MVHR..sourced from BPC Ventilation.waiting for final commissioning of MVHR and at the stage of accumulating various certifications and calculations for BC. We were not expecting to be able to but we eventually upped our spec to include ASHP, 3G,Solar PV and battery storage fast EV charging and a few other “nice to haves” Final costs working out at about £1900 per square metre which is respectable for a turnkey build. We would use our main contractor again in a heartbeat …not sure our main contractor would want us again though! Lessons learnt - Pick a contractor you can maintain a respectful and cordial relationship with. Our builder was nobody’s fool but he had a great habit of really listening which was really good for us all. -Have a look at their previous projects, in person if possible. -20 percent contingency is more likely than the oft quoted 10. -Pop something in your contract about targets, nothing massively punitive but something that keeps the focus on your job..We knew we were in good hands but tradesmen and builders are busy (maybe less so post trussonomic mortgage disaster) and so the focus was not always on our job. -Be as specific as you can be about the spec and make as many decisions as you can well beforehand..I found having as many 3D renders of the project super useful for visualising key spaces and thus was able to answer some super specific questions that invariably arrived by text in the middle of my work day -Have a detailed landscaping plan..I didn’t and on a sloping plot.. that was a very expensive omission. - Clear Detailed schemes are your friend….detailed lighting schemes, painting schemes, tiling schemes..Clear and easy to understand for all involved. -Don’t be afraid to ask the builder or the other trades for their opinion..they usually have tonnes of experience and sometimes the best decisions were made by saying “ what do you think?” - If you are buying any items yourself such as tiles, decorative light fittings built in appliances etc..Negotiate with your builder before commencement if possible so that they purchase the items and you reimburse them promptly perhaps with a small handling fee to save you having to pay and reclaim vat. - Additional costs should be clear and agreed by all parties, - stuff will go wrong, people will make mistakes, hopefully nothing too damaging, ours included a smashed up neighbours car ( by Building merchants vehicle) and a landscape designer that couldn’t design amongst other minor mishaps..you live and learn This forum has been a brilliant resource for staying calm and carrying on ..even for members like me who aren’t physically doing the building

Tufty’s plant room definitely looks the business..I definitely would go as big as is comfortable to. We had 1.8m x 2.7m and it has ended up a touch too snug because we originally did not plan for one and split our generous utility room to create ours. All our MVHR equipment, Solar PV set up and batteries, Hot water cylinders, Buffer cylinder, Water softener..blah blah..will be lucky to get a little space left over to put the rechargeable vacuum cleaners out of sight.. Fermacell sounds a brilliant idea for maximising wall placement… as does making sure that there are good heat smoke alarms installed .Earlier on in our design process ..researched Plant rooms as I had this same question and there was precious little info out there..Really informative thread!

“It is a condition of this mortgage that buildings insurance cover is in place, that it is sufficient for your property and remains in place for the duration of this loan. We can provide you with a quotation on request.” Similar..we had the buildcare site insurance which included the required reinstatement value of the anticipated full build cost as opposed to mortgage borrowing . Rebadged and probably significantly overpriced .. I think it was underwritten by Catlin insurance

All the replies above are true.. We are coming to the end of second fix and on course for £1900 per square metre for a main contractor build. Your estimated costs above probably cover materials only.

Should get in with a material amendment..there probably is some relatively minor expense if it is a major material amendment like this I think but otherwise should be straightforward

Pros: Save a considerable amount of money, Learn on the job, Family of builders means you probably have a few trusted ears to bend with questions, you also have this forum and seemingly decent knowledge base between the two of you. I imagine if you self managed..the sense of accomplishment at the end is pretty amazing…providing you get to the end. It could actually be really really rewarding. Cons: Flipping hard and time consuming and you need to be pretty determined. Tying up your cash in 20 percent vat and waiting for vat reclaim at the end although this is avoidable but not straightforward. Every thing takes longer even if you are on site.. Learning lots of info that might eventually be useless if you are only planning to build the one house..Life is short.. You sound like you both have jobs..say hello to a third all consuming job. Best tradesmen are always busy so you are either bottom of their pile as you are not repeat business or you may end up paying more anyways for their attention PM’ing as a couple is not for all couples.. ..free falling from a great height would be preferable than PM’ing with my beloved OH and I hate heights. Perhaps take the middle ground and commission a builder to take you to wall plates or roof and then take over..more doable.

Yes. Definitely abnormal

The first drawdown will be as you describe but you can hopefully make up the difference in the excess interest you pay by not drawing down the next stage until your cash flow actually needs it for example..providing everything goes relatively smoothly, you could be drawing down for stage 2 when you are actually well into stage 3 etc and when you will be saving paying interest on a larger sum anyways.

Now you are showing your age and wisdom 😂

I looked at plots endlessly on plot finder etc before eventually settling for knock down and rebuild but I’m based in Dover and at the time ( less so now) you could get a detached on about 1/3 acre for about 300k.. These days I notice the small developers around tend to favour the infill plots, buying houses with large gardens and then splitting up the plot, renovate sell up and then build their own or in the opposite order of their cash flow allows.. Disadvantages are that plot size might be a little constrained and the neighbours can be rather annoyed and object to planning applications but usually this is surmountable.. especially if you are replacing a single dwelling with a single dwelling or maximum of two…services tend to cost far less… Deffo won’t get the 1/3rd ratios on plot cost:build cost and profit doing it that way.. our plot ( demolished house) cost just over 1/3rd of likely final value but we were able to live there for 5 years before demolishing and retained the large garage so not so bad I guess … build costs..that’s another story! Sounds like you have been looking for a while for a suitable plot..just outside the m25 might need some flexibility and compromise

5.99 Newcastle BS. Although looking at the current remortgage rates as we near completion..I can see more pain on the horizon as we move to capital repayment. Was going to be “ in by Christmas” 😂 and was annoyed that our build has overrun but now actually actually happy about it…hoping for February.. just so the mortgage market can settle down ..

Don’t know if this is of any use to you but simple standalone air purifiers can be very effective for improving air quality within properties. They are plug in and there is the relatively low background sound but usually configured as 3 filters and the option of carbon ( activated charcoal usually) filters as add ons. There is a wide price range and you probably change filters every 9 months….I have quite a few of these in my work premises( a leaky edwardian terrace) and during the pandemic which we worked through…no covid or cold transmission occurred in our workplace..so pretty effective if you get the right sizes..Have a team member who catches every respiratory virus available and in the 7 years or so we’ve had these purifiers..they have noticed an amazing reduction in colds etc. I use a company called Breathing Space.. lots of info on the website..I personally use the larger BlueAir health protect ones

is the completion certificate

Welcome! Your contributions would be very welcome!

even if you keep paying the lower rate..once you get a completion certificate..it usually triggers a revaluation..builder mate has an amazing mansion that is still “incomplete” so still pays lower tax band ..if you need the certificate though..just declare it demolished..we had to send photos of the site ,had a refund of overpayment ..and then wait for the new tax band wallop which will surely happen

You can get the grants on a new build but I also think that odds are that the boilers will usually outlast the heat pumps…I still favour heat pumps for environmental reasons ..they are not a perfect solution but they are certainly progressive. That said..I know of the old split unit air conditioner units in much harsher climates that have lasted 22 years so it’s all a bit of educated guesswork but still guesswork

Is it this polyurethane stuff.. Recent article claims that main issue is the fact that it makes it difficult for surveyors to properly assess structural integrity with subsequent mortgage issues. I just have screenshot but you can probably find the article as relatively recent

Terrifying costs for turnkey… I guess in London probably true but not sure where you are Indy.. My experience with estimators not dissimilar.. Turnkey quote ..masonry, block and beam floors throughout, 3G Aluminium glazing , UFH on all floors, ASHP, 3 Phase electric and solar panels,MVHR..quoted £2800 to £3000 per square meter by 2 different professional estimators although not Estimators online… and that was before the price hikes of Sept 21.. now 12 months into build..true cost with our local contractor ..£1800 per square metre. Had 3 local well regarded builders tender and all their quotes came in at under £2000 per square meter. £3500 seems really high..but there is the very real terror of running out of money or builders going bust etc etc and so I understand wanting to be prepared for the worst /most expensive case scenario! My back up plan was my spare kidney…thankfully managed to keep ownership of the kidney

Good luck Spud. Ask away and also make friends with the search function on the page as lots of questions have been asked and answered..brilliant resource really

Depends on finding a decent company . We had this for our new build and was a fairly straightforward process and yeah it was expensive because it was a new set up for a larger property 350 m2..we ended paying about 7K for the whole lot and the installers claimed the 5K BUS grant.To be honest our ASHP unit costs nearly that much on its own so of course they probably make a bit extra but tbh we got way more out of it. Arotherms S Plus 12 kW .. for reference..

We have circa 350 m2 over 3 floors ..eventually went with one large unit instead of two units.. and 90 mm semi rigid ducting for similar reasons.. A couple of earlier quotations suggested 2….we do have some longer than ideal runs but not too bad as over 3 floors as opposed to a single floor area ..not yet commissioned so don’t know yet how optimal our set up is..