Thedreamer

Just out of interest if your the landlord how are you being affected? Presumably your tenants might benefit and then be able to pay? One area you might benefit from is the delay on the payment in account in July, if you have a bit of money set aside for this you might be able to use this now, but you will need re save it again as the liability will still be payable.

Do you have an accountant? Might be worth dropping them an email? That's pretty much what I have been doing all last week.

The agent is renting on behalf of the tentant. The rent they collect won't be their income but held to be paid to the landlord less a management fee (this bit is the trading service) Yes you could be a self employed landlord but this will still be a property income. The HMRC will decide whether you qualify as land and property income sits within a different box on your self assessment.

No because the rental of property is not a service. Also the use of property over the long term but on a rolling short term contract would not be seen as such by the HMRC.

Yes as they would be providing a service to a number of landlords as customers. In addition each month in providing these services would constitute a new transaction.

As stated above no definition of trading. But in this case probably decided by a tenancy agreement.

Coming back to this. Looks like my wife qualifies for both. Self employed income was the majority of income for 18/19 and the government decided to included in the detailed guidance last year's earnings for calculating employment income under the job retention scheme. Won't be a massive sum for either but all will help.

Simple example, ignoring tenancy agreements etc If you tried to argue that rental of property was trading, then the first question would be however many customers (stay in your property) to you trade with over a period of time? If you have one customer over a long period of time that would not be a trading, but a different tenant/customer each week because of the number of transactions and different customers, this now starts to feel more like trading. Further proper stuff from the HMRC below. From the HMRC There is no further statutory help. As a result the courts have established for themselves what amounts to a ‘trade’, or ‘trading’, and their decisions provide guidance when the point is in dispute. ‘Broadly, ‘trade’ can be taken to refer to operations of a commercial kind by which the trader provides to customers for reward some kind of goods or services. The extension of the definition to ‘ventures in the nature of trade’ allows for the inclusion of isolated or speculative transactions, although not all such transactions will be within the definition.’ The badges of trade is typically how a decision is made whether trading exists. https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/business-income-manual/bim20205

My wife has some self employed income, but the bulk comes from wages from tourism sector. At moment we don't get any help, as the tourist season usually starts in March. Some self employed people who are able to continue to work will be laughing all the way to the bank as they will get up to £7,500 for nothing. As an accountant I can see what the government has done but too many folk have fallen through the cracks particularly in our area.

We are 95% according to our surveyor, could have been living in the house in a few weeks. In the positive front at least I don't have to be out from our current accommodation.

Well done. Perhaps you should change your profile pic to a cheetah?

During my commute to work I pass a church that has been renovated with MVHR fitted, the next property along is being gutted and currently has static caravan with a log burner. The amount of smoke that thing produces and is being sucked into the MVHR. This caravan has been there for years so this isn't a short term issue. At the end of day who cares if you fit MVHR or not it, your choice, your money.

For your elderly relatives would a MEV (and trickle vents) be more suitable? I'm basing this on the assumptions that they don't live in a particular airtight home and the requirement is more for good ventilation rather than heat /cost efficiency?

Prehaps some trades will be less inclined to work in older people homes for risk of infection.

Could clear some of that material out and then put in some chips ? Is the house finish yet, would be surprised if they left the outside like that?

Most building merchants can supply. Get a few quotes as it's purchase worth shopping around for. I used CUPA 3 heavies, got them from Jewsons. Might be worth having a look on my roofing entry on my blog. Don't forget your slates and half.

If you live in a small community trades can pick and choose the work they want to do. Hopefully a local electrician can do the work.

You will struggle to get an installer. Might be one trade you have bite the bullet and pay for travel from the mainland. Two recent installations in Uist had contractors from the mainland. Unfortunately I don't who the contractor were but this was mentioned as a passing comment to me. If you find a contractor in Stornoway your going to pay for travel anyway. Renewables companies based in the southern isles tend to be geared around heat pumps and turbines.

Ok that answers my question. On site.

How to set the fingerprint? Can you do this yourself or do have to do this when ordering? Looks great.

Our hot water tank (in the downstairs utility) is probably going to weight about 350kg. This will sit on 18mm plywood, a thick anti vibration mat, then 22mm chipboard T&G and finally 45 x 145mm joists at 400 centres. The span of the joists is quite reasonable at 2 meters and the tank is well placed next to wall. Is it irrational to be worried out this weight? If it ever became an issue would I notice a sag rather than the joists snapping

Hi @kaye Welcome to the forum. What's the plan/spec with the foundations?

Is this comparison being made just on materials? The impression I had with ICF is that the self builder has the opportunity to do more work themselves.

You might be the most Northerly member! The outside wall, I would imagine that loads of houses around you will have had cement render (this was probably applied at a later date, originally the outside wall might of been just stone or prehaps a lime render). I have a cement render on our new self build but it's on block with a cavity between that and timber frame kit which means that the cavity acts as a break. When you start mixing up modern materials and old materials you can have problem with moisture/dampness. This becomes more of an issue as you become more thermally efficient and airtight. There are ways around this, just requires some thought. This forum is a great place to ask questions as some on here are pros and others like me just are learning as we go. If it was me I would consider the condition of the metal roof, sarking and also I would want to know about the ground floor (rough concrete slab or suspended timber floor) That internal stone work looks amazing.

Usually with a treatment tank and even a old fashion septic tank (and soakaway) if you look after what you put in it then it shouldn't need to be empty that frequently. I chose to put mine with the decrofted plot boundary as I didn't want livestock standing on the tank. More of concern if in a field with cattle (the heaviest would be a ram for us). And we have the surrounding agricultural land. Just a consideration as well.