Woodward

Thank you very much Dave, I will try them first. K

Hello, We have completed our self build and although we had site insurance during the construction, we now need buildings and contents insurance while we live in it. That would seem easy except I'm hitting a brick wall (sorry about pun) because we have used what is described as non-standard construction materials. I cannot tick the box for bricks nor for slates. the house has been made from Durisol woodcrete blocks and has a membrane roof in a wave shape with zinc flashing and enclosed gutters. We want to make sure we are covered for all eventualities and not have an insurance company come back to say we didn't provide accurate materials. Does anyone have experience of finding an insurance company who will quote for a more unusual building and materials? Thanks in advance. K

Thank you Newhome. That's really useful, especially the link to the list of VAT items which are allowed or not. I hadn't found that! I will crack on with inputting invoices now. Sounds like it could be quite a wait to get the refund.

Thank you for the replies. We have built the house subject to a couple of things which must be done still such as fit a Juliette balcony. We can then get the final sign off by building control and then as I understand it, we have three months to claim the VAT back on some items. We have already input all the info from the invoices into two Excel charts which match the VAT 431 form. I have a couple of questions: 1. are we allowed to print out all the info from the Excel chart and post that to HMRC with the original invoices, or do we have to complete the forms by hand? I can't find an open file of form 431 online to edit. 2. we have a number of cash sales receipts for allowable items but they do not have our name and address on. They have the debit card info/till slip attached and we can prove that belongs to us at our address. Is there any chance they will accept those receipts? I'm not sure how strict they are. 3. we understand that hired tools are not allowable for reclaiming VAT but what about the serviced portaloo which we hired for 18 months? Surely this is a necessary requirement for health & safety on any building site? I'm sure I will have more questions but if anyone can help on the above, that would be much appreciated.

Hello, I have just found this forum, too late for many of my questions as we finished our self build last year. It would have been so useful. It will however be great to chat with others on their own self build journey and get advice on the items we still need to tick off...what has been a very long list over the past few years.