tomfc

Nope, this is the even more frustrating thing, they did it during another earlier planned closure ?‍♂️ so now there won't be another for that job! Basically we tried to plan in work during their closure, but they tried to plan in their work as during another earlier closure! And then cancelled the closure whilst there were still official approved plans for Cadent to work during it, and neither the council nor ENWL thought to maybe tell Cadent?!?!?!

Yeah I agree, they're completely useless and I wish govt would do something, because the system does not work at the moment. Especially with UU I've been told different dates, different timescales, different rules each time I've spoken to a different person - to the point where I now can't believe anything they tell me to be anything more than just fobbing me off. I really do hate them.

I thought I had done really well too when I got them all to agree to work under ENWL's planned closure, but then ENWL cancelled it without telling anyone and left us even worse off! ? I'm genuinely at my wit's end with trying to be creative and get them to do anything mildly similar to what we want! I'm going to try to get them to coordinate works again for the next closure, the main issue for is is that it'll be in September, months behind schedule.

Yeah they're under the lane. A couple on our side, one on the other. We thought the ones on our side might be okay, but all services have said they need a full closure. There is no verge even to work in or give a bit of room. Nobody has even mentioned a mole, when pressed they've all just said that they need a full closure. Honestly it's impossible to get them to coordinate. That's what we've been trying to do, but even UU and ENWL, who use literally the same subcontractor (Network Plus) to do the work apparently can't talk to each other...!

Hi all. So my self-build journey was going swimmingly, until... trying to get services to the property. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience particularly with council rules around road closures, "early entry", etc. We are on a single track road so each service sadly needs a full road closure, which in turn needs to have 12 weeks notice for the council (and £2k just to the council apparently!). Very very long story short, we tried to plan in all the works to happen during a road closure already conveniently planned on our road (but not for our property). The DNO that had planned this closure (Elec North West - ENWL), and the council, approved Cadent Gas to work during the same closure to connect us up (happy days). Then, just a few days before start date, we find out by chance that ENWL have cancelled the closure, without even informing Cadent. So Cadent's works are still on the council database (down as incursion but not full closure!) but the closure removed. So Cadent cannot do their work either. And of course we had all this work planned in for this closure, so now have to go through the 12 week wait from scratch! Absolute nightmare! To add another confusion into the mix, United Utilities were also going to do work during this closure. They, however, had planned another closure in for September before deciding to hop onto this one which then got cancelled. They told me they had applied for "early entry" to go in 6 weeks early on the 12 week timescale. So we could've had a closure in August! But then they have now told me applying to do their work in the now cancelled closure has removed their early entry closure and they now can't apply for one again????? But have told us to speak to the council and apply for early entry???! I have sent an email but have no idea of the process and surely if UU claim they'd be refused early entry then so would we on their closure?! Sorry for the long and confusing paragraphs, but this is turning into an incredibly costly and time-consuming nightmare for us. We literally have a house that we can't do any more work towards finishing until we have services, and we may have months to wait now for that, when we were told they'd all be done this week! And this is all through no fault of our own! We could've moved in in a few weeks if not for this. I'm basically wondering if anyone has any advice. It seems like because of the council road closure timescales we're absolutely stuck time-wise, and I don't even really know who to complain to, the whole system has just failed us. We're spending thousands and ENWL, UU, and Cadent have all been impossible to deal with and get information out of at the best of times, and the council seems even worse. This shouldn't be so hard and I'm at the end of my tether. I wish I'd never started the housebuild journey honestly. :(

Hi all. I have a question about gas meters and pipework inside houses that's left us in a bit of a tizz. Hope someone can help! So our builder rang Cadent and was told verbally before our build started that a gas pipe could be run around the back of our house to a meter (gas main is in the road near the front), and so put in a duct and planned everything around this being the case. Now we have actually applied for Cadent to connect us up, they are saying that "due to new regulations" the gas meter needs to be on the front wall (or up to 2m down the side of the house). I can't find any regulations that say anything about this, though maybe am not looking in the right places. Does anyone have any advice? Our builder said he'd meet with them and try to convince them, but it surely should be either that there is a hard rule or there isn't one at all... And then if we have to have our meter on the front wall, I can't make out the rules as to how to have gas pipework through the property to the boiler which will be in our utility room at the back of the property. Can pipes be run through walls or under floors? I've seen things which all seem to be conflicting about needing vents or metal protector plates or such, or putting the pipe outside the house (would rather not this!).

Thanks guys, slightly worrying that the larger chimney flue might cause condensation, as we'll probably use the stove fairly often in winter at least.

Hello, more questions from me! This time it's about getting a multifuel stove for our newbuild. We suggested and pushed for putting in a smaller chimney flue, but our builder was indignant and said he always put in 9in flues... so we now have a 9in (clay?) flue. The builder told us this would work with whatever size of stove we ended up wanting, and wouldn't need a liner. Having spoken to a stove fitter he said that this flue is too large and we'd have to get a 5-6in liner fitted (ie extra cost). I am at the point of giving up taking advice from 'professionals' given that at pretty much every turn so far we have been given literally contradictory advice! But I suppose this is the curse of self-building! It seems the internet too has conflicting advice, from what I've read so far. Part J of building regs seems pretty complicated too. So I come here to ask if anyone can offer any guidance. Do we need a liner? Or if it's not a simple yes/no, then what are the pros and cons? And also do we need a HETAS certificate for the stove and fitting (the fitter mentioned this in passing)?

Yes, I did see this page and that they responded with a comment and generic email, so will give it a go! Cheers

Thanks again for all the advice and help! I realise now I've made things rather difficult for myself, as always I should have done my research! Yes I've spoken to (useless) people in the shop, but yes I will try to contact their customer services and see if I get any further. I've a good mind to make a complaint at the same time, given how terrible their service has been. I'm dubious their customer services will be any better but I'm willing to try.

Thanks guys! I can see it's going to be a pain to get them all to work together but let's see how it goes! I'll definitely await quotes from the others and see who's cheap and if they'll work together. I haven't even thought about Openreach, I know we have an overhead cable outside so I (perhaps naively?) presumed it would be pretty simple? Does one have to contact Openreach directly? The impression I get from their website is that for a single house you can just contact a broadband provider and they'll sort Openreach (and perhaps charge a connection fee of some kind)? At least that isn't under the road too! We thankfully already have a sewer on our land so that at least is something I don't have to worry too much about! Three utilities is still too much though!

Hi all, sorry, I couldn't see a forum for utilities but maybe I'm just being blind? If this is in the wrong place let me know. Basically I'm asking for advice. We need to connect our plot to electricity, gas and water mains, all of which lie under the road next to the plot. The road is however single-track and so the local electricity people have quoted us a large amount, mainly because they'll have to shut the road. I don't know if there is any way around this, and I don't think we'll know until we accept and someone comes and assesses. But the electricity cabling is on our side of the road according to their maps and it seems like they could maybe get away with not closing the whole road and just digging up our side, whilst leaving enough room for a car to squeeze past. Anyone know how big of a hole they'll need or whether this is ridiculous? We also haven't got quotes from gas or water yet, but I'm assuming they will need to dig up the road too? If so how feasible is it to get them all to come at the same time to minimise the road closures and thus cost? Or again is this ridiculous? Does anyone have experience? I know the water is on our side of the road with the electric, but the gas is on the opposite side. We are also opposite another self-builder who is a bit earlier in their build, reckon the utility companies would let us somehow split the cost and connect both at once? Surely it'd be easier for them??

Argh, so the kitchen company is Howdens and they are refusing to do anything for us. Perhaps I should have known better than going with them, but alas. When asking for a VAT refund on the worktops + fitting I have been told rather rudely that I was completely wrong, everything they sell should have VAT charged, and then "I wouldn't have thought a big company like Howdens would be doing anything wrong regarding HMRC". They also refuse to alter any invoices, which are still also sadly made out to the joiner. Honestly I've had shocking service from them all along so I shouldn't be surprised, I was stupidly pressured into buying during the 'sale' but would never use them again after all the hassle we've had throughout. I just don't know what else I can do but I feel like I'm chancing it at best with HMRC and gonna lose out on all of this VAT money

Cheers, glad to see there are fellow Lancastrians on here!

Hi all! Came here looking for answers to my many questions as a self building novice, so thought I'd say hello too. We're in the process of building a modest 3-bed detached house on our plot in rural Lancashire. It's been quite the ride so far and we're learning a lot along the way! Great to see so many other people on here sharing their knowledge and stories!

Thanks for the help guys! So when I went back they said they'd see what they could do about an invoice in our name, but they argued against refunding the VAT from the granite worktops + fitting invoice. Their argument seemed to be that their fitters were a different division of their company, but am I right in saying they're still in the wrong? If we were invoiced by this company for worktops + fitting surely then this should be zero rated regardless of whether it is a different division of their company that fits or anything like that...?!

Thanks everyone for their comments so far - as I say I'm new to all this and learning as I go! I will ask them to zero rate the worktops and if they can produce another invoice with my name. But if not then I suppose I will just have to try with the invoice we have addressed to our joiner. This makes me feel a bit less worried - @recoveringbuilder can I ask how you went about this? Did you just add a simple note to the HMRC forms simply saying that the items were bought through your builder's account sufficient? Or did you have to send more proof that you paid for the items etc? I was under the impression HMRC could be quite picky over these things?

Hi there, I'm new to these forums and to self building so please bear with me! We're building a traditional 3-bed detached house at the moment, and I have a couple of questions about the possibility of VAT reclaim (I think we might've screwed up but I'm trying to work out if there's a way to sort it out). We've bought a kitchen from a trade supplier using our joiner's trade account. He's not VAT registered himself. All the way through the kitchen company talked about us being able to reclaim VAT on it so we never even gave it a second thought until now when I've just read through the HMRC VAT reclaim forms and guidance. But the receipt for the kitchen is in our joiner's name not ours as it is on his account, and I'm worried we thus can't claim (as technically he's bought it off them, and we've bought it off him?). Is there any way around this? Would it be ridiculous to ask the kitchen company to print out a receipt in our names instead? Second question: Whilst our joiner is fitting most of the kitchen, the granite worktops are being fitted by the kitchen company themselves (and have been invoiced separately to the rest, still addressed to our joiner). Should these have been zero rated when we paid for them as they I guess are 'supply and fit'? Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance! :)