soapstar

Say for example you have trees on your plan, surely these dont have to be planted for signing off the build?! ?

Sorry to hear that @divorcingjack, that sounds like a total nightmare! This was exactly the reason I asked this question. It would seems everyone gets different treatment depending on the council they are working with. I know you must be having a hard time right now but it would be very helpful if you kept us up to date on this issue, im sure it would help many others. What part of Scotland are you in? Aberdeenshire by any chance?

@Ferdinand Entirely your choice obviously but I had a few issues with a 5ft/lb pistol we had, didn't quite 'dispatch' efficiently...

From experience I wouldn't recommend an air pistol, these would cause more suffering to the animal and would never kill it unless it stood in front of you with its hands up. 12ft/lb air rifle is sufficient enough, even then you have to shoot the prey in the right place...

Thanks. I assume not having a completion certificate would prevent us getting our final payment from the lender given it wasn't deemed 'complete'? If we decided to fund the rest of the build, bathrooms etc over the next year or so?

@ProDave Thanks for your quick response. This is good to know that all we would require is the bare minimum (1 kitchen, 1 bathroom) for a temporary habitation certificate. You see we have 3 bathrooms and to reduce costs we would like to do just one and the kitchen obviously. In regards to the completion sign off requiring everything as detailed on the plans this makes me wonder how this effects mortgage. I assume the lender is lending on the assumption that everything is complete (including all bathrooms etc) and would not lend up to a point of temporary habitation? Your point on VAT reclaim is interesting, I would agree the temporary habitation certificate is a safer bet to reclaim VAT in case of any unforeseen delays to complete the build!

Hello Folks, Got a few questions regarding the process involved in 'signing off' a build... My main reason to ask this is to find out what is the least we can have complete on our build before it is deemed 'habitable' (ie we can move in). I thought I knew the answer to this until someone recently told me I would require EVERYTHING as detailed on the plans to be complete before being 'signed off'. I find this hard to believe! Now the term signed off is getting me confused as from what I have gathered from reading on here and listening to various people there are 2 main signing off procedures, 1 being building control and the other a habitation certificate. Is this correct? Also when does the VAT reclaim process begin? As always thanks for the help! ?

I've heard bat surveys can be expensive...I think you need one done if your demolishing an old building. Have you thought about services? Do you have electric and water close by? If your electric supply is not sufficient enough for another house plus what it is already serving that cost can be pretty huge to upgrade transformer..

Have you been to a mortgage broker to determine your options and how much you can actually afford? You will go round in circles asking questions here, the advice is great on this forum however everyone's situation is different

Same for us, little over 15k to get where we are now. Architect, planning consultant, ground surveys etc To actually submit an application yes it would cost you a few hundred pounds, however to give yourself the best possible chance you need all bases covered to avoid going back and forth with the planners. You can usually re-submit again for free within one year...I learnt this the hard way by finding this out 1 week after the year was up on our 2nd submission ? I've said this before...talk to local councillors which are on your ward, they can be a great help to determine your chances and most importantly cost nothing...

We are relatively young (or was when we started!) and have learned the hard way for the past 5 years, still haven’t broken ground and have spent more than I would like to admit! But for us there is a specific reason for us needing to be at this location, this is what is driving us, I guess everyone else has there own reasons. Just be prepared to pay more than your budgeting for...it’s not a walk in the park as I was led to believe and no procedure to follow. Talk to the local counsellors they can be very helpful, architects, builders, read books, planners, this forum!

sounds to me that you definitely need to get a solicitor involved, i hate paying them but they could potentially save you thousands down the line

not sure if this is relevant but we had to write up a deed of servitude with a local land owner who's land we needed to dig up in order for laying water pipes...expense was on us and we paid the solicitor fee plus some BS amount to the land owner that he was entitled to.. ?

Hi @ultramods. Yes we are around the 290 mark, this includes garage at 42 sqm. We are still awaiting a couple of main contractors who arent as 'big' as the other 2 we have been quoted from, I am hoping this will saving us at least another 10-15k but I wont hold my breathe! When we have a better breakdown of all costs from each contractor I will definitely share to get thoughts. In regards to the 16k for painting thats a great question, what does it include, I will be asking the same question to the contractor! We are being charged an additional 7k for Ames Taping. So painting plus taping is around 21k alone? Seems crazy high in my opinion but maybe I am missing something here. Thats a good point regarding using the one company for taping/painting. I would assume the taping/painting can be done later and wouldnt effect sign off etc? There are other costs which i feel are highly priced, to name one would be plumbing at 35k, this includes ASHP (with tank, controls etc), UFH downstairs, radiators upstairs, plumbing for kitchen/bathrooms (3) does that sound high? Thanks @Carrerahill. Yes we have been given a couple quotes as explained above. In regards to managing the build as much as I would love to do this I really do not have the time, however if the cost associated with hiring a PM to sub contract together with an architect to sign off each stage is lower than a main contractor this would certainly be an option worth considering. Speaking of signing off, what is the basic requirements of having a house signed off for habitation? Just for the purpose of working out what could potentially be left out and done at a later date... Thanks for all this advice its really helping me out!

Yes I feel reducing costs on things such as kitchen as you suggest and bathrooms (we have 3 planned) may help. Landscaping is something we are prepared to do ourselves so we have that cost to subtract. Painting alone has been quoted at 16k so this may be an area where we can save money...

You have a very valid point with services. It was initially thought the garage would be for the electric input and ASHP tank etc...there would be space in the house for these but would be rather silly to take up valuable space in the house.. The construction for the garage is not very complicated with one shared wall to the utility room with separate roof. I appreciate your idea of building the 'bare bones' of the garage however I do not feel this would help much towards saving us in the region of approximately 40k! ? I like your idea of putting the foundations in as a 'patio' Yes I did consider the building warrant would have to be adjusted, this doesnt concern me too much however anything to do with obtaining PP again is a complete no go, we were extremely lucky to get the permission in the first place. As i initially thought this may be a crazy idea ?

Hello Folks, Its a simple but probably crazy idea, what is the general consensus on building an integral garage at a later stage? This is purely to save on build costs initially as we are finding it difficult to come within budget using a main contractor for the full build, and with a 40m2 garage this would reduce costs quite a bit - the garage is of block work construction. I know its quite common to build a detached garage at a later stage however what problems do you foresee in doing this with an integral garage? The foundation for the entire house/garage would obviously need to be done at the same time. The joining room to the garage is the utility room with one fire door into the garage. Thoughts on this would be appreciated!

Hello @Mrs S. Yes I understand where you are coming from, a quick look at the price for an ASHP and you can see we could already save £1,500 compared to using a sub contractor for plumbing. We have just actually received a breakdown of costs from one builder which still doesn't go into much detail, for example they state X amount for builder, X amount for plumber and so on, without detailing the work, slightly frustrating! I would be very interested in knowing which sub contractors you are considering and if you can recommend any in the area. Our aim of using a main contractor is looking less likely by the minute! @Bitpipe This is excellent thank you so much for taking the time to respond in this detail, helps us very much! The Home Builders Bible is now in the post! In regards to SPONs I have looked at this in the past however it seems rather expensive and wasn't sure if it would actually benefit us...

Makes complete sense in that having separate trades would allow you to keep track of costs along the way without ending up with a load of 'extra' costs at the end. As I said before we are just hesitant at taking this route as time is really something we do not have to be at hand every day. We do have more than enough experience with ground works (landscaping, drainage etc) having our own machinery but in the grand scheme of things I dont feel our 'skills' will reduce costs in a substantial way. If i remember correctly did someone have a spreadsheet on the breakdown of costs/stages on here? Would be great to have a simple breakdown of each stage to allow us to determine what trades are needed and when...

Hello @Mrs S We seem to be in a very familiar situation and also building around that area. Recently received a couple of quotes from local builders for them to do the entire build, we were taken back at how the cost is approx 50-60k over what we anticipated, not quite 150k but still enough to stop the dream of building once again! Our house is approx 290 m2 which includes an attached garage (42m2), I felt the garage would of been priced at a lower cost per m2 than to the rest of the house given it was blockwork construction opposed to TF for the house. The quotes we have received have been rather vague in my opinion, we weren't sure of the normal procedure of estimating a house build but we anticipated it would be broken down into the various stages - we have only received the total cost price with a list of certain basic inclusions in the price. I feel asking for a price breakdown of all the stages would annoy the builders!!? We still have another couple of smaller builders pricing the job for us but I feel the outcome is going to be the same unfortunately. @ultramods Would be interesting to know how you approached each company and divided up the workload. My main worry sub contracting is missing out an important detail which would prevent the other trades from getting on with their part of the job... You must have to be so detailed?

Thanks guys, so to clarify if we went with a local independent builder who was NOT registered this isn't an issue? I assume they deal with the warranty being the main contractor? Or is this still a cost for the client (me) - guess it depends? Thanks!

Hello Folks, Getting round to pricing up our build at the moment and would love some clarification on something. Priced up from a main contractor (relatively large company) and was over our budget, now looking at still keeping with a main contractor however a smaller or independent builder. There is no doubt this will work out cheaper for us however I wasn't sure how it works with your lender if the builder is not registered (NHBC for example), I vaguely remember reading somewhere this was a requirement of many lenders. But then I asked myself how do self build DIYers manage to get funding given they are not registered? I would ask build store but they take so long to get back so figured it would be quicker here!! ? Thanks for the help guys

Hello Folks, Just looking for other peoples experiences when doing their self build over several stages long term which is an option I am considering given finances etc. Its looking more and more likely that we wont be able to get our finances together to start our build in 2019 as originally planned, this is mainly due to our current property not selling! Itching to get something underway we are toying with the idea of getting our ground work / foundations done next year to get us ahead of the game for the following year to begin the actual build. We should have the cash to fund the foundations without any mortgage or loans required. However this brings me on to the important questions! We have heard from one mortgage provider that they do not like to fund a build that has already been started (foundations) for example - has anyone else heard this? It may be a way of scaring us to taking out a larger mortgage I don't know! Would funding the foundations with our own cash be unwise given this money would obviously be very handy as a deposit for funding the build if we started bare (no foundations). If anyone has been in this position or done anything similar your advice would be appreciated! How did you find it in general building over a longer period? Did you find it helped to relieve the stress rather than going for the whole hog in one go!?

Thanks for all your input guys, helps me out a lot. To clarify when estimating cost for a build you take the internal gross area (GIA) of the building? And how does an attached garage come into this calculation? Some people say you include it and some say dont, from my perspective this is a living space (no insulated) therefore should not be included? So many questions!! ? Thanks!

Hello Folks, Simple enough question, hopefully! What is the estimated build cost per square metre for an attached double garage? From what I can gather around £1000 per square metre is adequate for the house but surely this is not the same for the garage? Our garage will not be insulated. Appreciate any help!