Alan Ambrose

>>> It is the kind of thig that banks should be offering Well any org that had some trust in the market. I was thinking probably backed by a law firm and/or a credit card/insurance company as it's generally not worth their while for lawyers to deliberately make a cash transfer without the proper conditions/authorisation (stop sniggering at the back there, Bloggins minor). I once sold a domain name through an escrow service, v straight forward, so I was (pretty much) guaranteed to get the cash and the buyer was (pretty much) guaranteed to get the domain. I see that quite a lot of the payment processors, Stripe etc, have some sort of escrow offering. Plucking random stuff out of Google, I'm seeing costs of 1 to 3%. That's for simple 'payment for goods' transactions. It would presumably be more for staged payments because of the extra admin costs. Again from random Googling - I see escrow.com will do transactions in GBP e.g. https://www.escrow.com/fee-calculator#GBP - even 'Milestone Transactions' at 1.78%.

>>> I’ve not mentioned the company I see that - but what are you gaining by that? That late accounts thing is a simple fact, so it's not as if you're committing libel. What we are losing is (a) other BH members won't have the information to potentially protect themselves and (b) you might be missing out on other BH member's experiences. Somebody might be able to say 'we just had a kitchen from them and it was great' etc and put you at a bit more ease - they can't do that if we don't know who on earth you're talking about. Also, it makes the thread all a bit theoretical and uninteresting if you're just telling us that 'some company somewhere hasn't filed its accounts' I'm not picking on you - this seems to be normal behavior here, but I'm suggesting that this kind of behaviour isn't in the overall community's interest.

@Kelvin Firstly I don't get this tendency to protect identities - especially of potential miscreants. Sure, for libel reasons, keep to the facts and your opinions - just keep your personal slagging off of individuals to yourself for the time being. By identifying them, you may well be helping some other BH community member from getting shafted. Also, IMO there's nothing like transparency to reduce the level of dodgy dealing. Second - also check the cash/sales/profit/capital trends over the last few years. Bear in mind that the accounts may well be 9 months or so old. If those are on a downward trend and there's very little cash and negative retained earnings, you're probably looking at something that's not going to stay around. Post the name up and we can show examples of what figures we're looking at from Companies house. Lastly, I don't think that it's impossible that BH members could design some kind of escrow / staged payment / contract scheme to use with suppliers.

>>> I imagine I am wearing safety gear. And that protects you OK? A sort of mind over matter thing? Yeah, I always get the full face shield out when wielding the angle thingy. I once cut through my own lead (well the grinder's) up on a roof somewhere - such a clean cut it didn't trigger the trip - so it left the dangling cable end live. I also have a permanent numb-ish finger tip after a bit of ally flew off the chop saw. And I'm quite careful really.

BTW you can get little noddy stands for angle grinders that turn them into chop saws. Also cheap metal cutoff saws e.g. Evolution series. If using power, be very gentle, clamp up very securely (the wood support idea above is good), and wear every bit of PPE you have .

Errr, what does the assessor say? >>> When I gave all the as built details, including the air test result to my EPC assessor (full SAP) my instructions were, if it does not achieve an EPC A, then do not register the EPC, instead discuss with me what improvements I need to make it achieve an A before the EPC is registered. I had something similar for my mum's place when the EPC ran out. I said I would need a thorough explanation unless the result turned out the same as the original B. That is, I didn't want any dodgy 'assumptions' knocking down the EPC rating. The situation was a bunch of similar flats with no changes since built (actually converted from an office building 14 years ago). They had all started off with the same B rating but ended up with different ratings over the last few years - with no changes to the fabric, heating methods etc - just depending on how diligent the EPC guys were. I learned a lot talking to my EPC guy who was very thorough. He said the original EPC person will have had access to the builder's docs but he, of course, didn't have access to them - so the rating would likely be lower. In actual fact, he contacted the person who did the original EPC and got the original details from them and therefore generated the same B result. It took him a bunch of time and he didn't charge me extra - I think a professional pride thing. Another reason why builders and sellers should be required to pass a full set of docs down the line.

Usually fairly straight forward - but the pricing reflects how easy it is to get the cables from one place to the other. Sometimes it takes a few minutes to pull the cables behind some plasterboard, sometime an entire day to go a metre or so. So as ProDave said, it depends hugely on the construction.

The SAP evaluation is a bit ... dodgy. Was this the same assessor? You should be able to see from the detailed report where the properties differ. You'll need to compare line by line. Are any of your values 'assumed'? The SAP objectives seem to be a bit confused on whether they're trying to optimise fabric energy efficiency or energy running cost or environmental carbon impact. For instance, electric heating gets marked down as 'Very Poor' even though it is the only green fuel. I have a property (a barn conversion) marked as EPC E which was completed in 2017 with the wall and floor insulation as 'assumed' for EPC purposes. Yeah, the EPC man could have asked the builder and/or the builder could have told him, but neither could be bothered. Essentially the EPC people put values into a bit of software. Quickly because they don't charge much. If they don't know something they guess - usually a 'conservative guess' i.e. they end up with a worse result. Whatever comes out is whatever comes out, they (usually) don't care, they've already started on the next one. From Wikipedia: "A number of comparisons have indicated that SAP does not provide an accurate model for low-energy buildings.[1][2][3]" "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-02-08. Retrieved 2016-02-02. ^ Passivhaus project reveals flaws in Code ^ Raising the bar

How annoying - particularly close to the end of the build. The one bonus to a misting system, of course, is that you will get some extra fire protection. Who knows, that might come in handy one day. Would you just need misting in the kitchen area? Is this LPA building control or commercial?

A question re ground floor and 'overlooking'. We have a neighbour who is planning to object to our just-filed design as we have some ground floor windows on the side of our proposed building which face one side of a new dwelling he just got permission for. There's no certainty that his dwelling will actually get built, but if it did, the gap between ours and his new building would be 10.5m. (The actual distance between windows in each building would be a bit larger.) Now there's a thick 3m high / 1m wide rural hedge between us that to my untutored eye looks 'impenetrable' but he thinks it's 'still inadequate to screen'. It's his hedge, if that makes any difference. Given that it's all rural and flat around here - is 'ground floor overlooking' even a thing?

As an outside-the-box solution - any scope for some external planting nearish the windows? We have some olive and other trees near-ish the SW windows - these look good, make the view very 'green', we get entertained by the blue tits, and the trees screen the sun. I trim in the Autumn and we appreciate more light through the winter.

>>> There are no hard rules on who owns what fence or hedge. I appreciate it's a bit historically vague in a lot of cases. However. in two recent property purchases I did (2018 & 2023) - it was crystal clear on the plans. Little 'internal T' signs for some reason with the Ts on the side of the land indicating ownership. The TP1 says: to maintain the boundary fencing marked with internal Ts on Plan 1 in a style as currently installed by the Transferor

Rather than SAP which is a bit simple - you could check the calcs using Part O Simple method / TM 59 / PHPP / Part L criterion 3 if you want to get a feel for the likely overheating risk. Alternatively, you could specify enough 'mitigation measures' by gut feel (solar glass, external blinds, shading etc) to cope with any likely overheating. Ideally your architect would do all that so that their client does end up disgruntled.

>>> Ill do a video for you. The kind of thing the 9 o'clock News warns its viewers about in advance?

Yeah +1 for spax or fischer. Also, stainless unless they have to be super-strong.

If the other end is a standard wood screw thread - double-ended screw / hanger bolt / dowel screw / twin thread screw.

I suspect you'll just about have enough room.

And ... we just submitted two alternative designs to the LPA ... 14 months from our initial offer on the plot and counting.

1st comment from the other 1/2 - 'it's ugly isn't it'

OK lost patience. Moving from Eon.Next to Octopus, who are quoting a 4-month waiting time for 3-phase smart meters.

Nice - you've out-bureaucrated the bureaucrats

Thanks everyone - seems clear that open verges are fine and the architect that submitted the previous application was mistaken / over-cautious.

I've searched around but can't find an answer to this - can/should visibility splays include the verges (as opposed to just the carriageway)? The local examples I can see (e.g. below) exclude the verge - but I would like to include it for obvious reasons.

Can you give us more of a clue on the background e.g. what period is the building from? the fittings? has any known pipework refurb/replacement been done? when was the basement flat created? That'll give us an idea of what could be expected to be there and what to watch out for. >>> What I want to get checked is whether all water taps (sinks, toilets, showers) etc are running fine Suggest first check yourself visually. You could measure the pressure and flow rate easy enough - or specify that for a plumber to do. Post up some pictures here to get the benefit of the experienced guys. >>> as well as if all the pipes inside/and serving the flat are in good conditions, free from any damages. That's harder as you won't be able to see a lot of them. You'll have to make an educated guess based on the stuff you can see and anything you're concerned about which you could expose and/or cctv. See if you can spot some inspection chambers for the drainage. >>> And given the flat has some small visual damp issues, I would like to make sure this is not faulty drainage/pipes that cause this. That sounds the most bothersome, and I think I would spend most of my energy on that. Leaks are notoriously hard to diagnose but some are fairly likely caused by leaking shower trays / gutters / roofs / rising damp / window seals / condensation etc. Again pictures will help.

If we're voting I also vote 'leave as is' - and the kitchen does look good 👍.