Raine

Hi @JKay, Sorry, only just saw this message - notifications don't seem to be working. I ended up pulling out as I discovered there were badgers on the site!!!! Very lucky escape! 😨🦡

Two questions for you all please: 1. Is the local council (England) allowed to set its own fees for planning applications? My understanding is not, and that this is set nationally? 2. Anyone ever heard of the Planning Portal calculating application fees incorrectly, assuming the applicant has ticked the correct boxes? Context I've just submitted a single application including: A single new house (Category 1), applicable fee £578, and Alteration / extension to existing house (Category 6 / 7a), applicable fee £258 In the Planning Portal fee calculator, I ticked the boxes for both of these components, and it calculated the fee at £578 total (plus the portal admin fee), which is what I paid. This seems to align with the gov.uk guidance in the "Fees for mixed development" calculation flowchart, from gov.uk, attached here, in which every combination of mixed-category development ends up with only one of the fees (whichever is highest) being due. That's correct, right? If you read it, is there any way it can be construed that both fees are due? The council declared my application invalid, saying that the fee due is £578 plus £258. I have mailed them twice now with appropriate links and attachments, and they don't even seem to be reading my mails properly. 😞 I will keep trying, but wanted to sanity check with you guys before I take it further. in case I might be wrong?? Planning app fees for mixed development 2014-Oct.pdf

Ooh yes, that's it. Thanks both. 👍

Anyone know if there's a name for this type / shape of window in a flat roof? Front elevation: Side elevation:

Hi folks, This question isn't specifically about self build mortgages, but is related to a new mortgage (possibly standard residential mortgage) on an existing mortgage-free property to raise funds for purchasing another property. Do mortgage companies always send a valuer to site? If so, will they need access to the property? I'm sure I remember a "drive by" valuation being done on a house that I owned in the dim & distant past, but I don't fully recall. It might have been that they sometimes do a drive-by (or even desktop?) valuation for low LTV loans?? I can't remember though!!

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I'm just starting on my D&A statement and read this bit in particular with interest. That opening part of your D&A statement is interesting, and I have some questions about it, if you don't mind @Tony K? It refers to Paragraph 49 of the NPPF, in particular the second part of that paragraph which says 'Relevant policies for the supply of housing should not be considered up-to-date if the local planning authority cannot demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing sites.' You then say "The Strategic Housing Market Assessment (June 2016) identifies a shortfall in Epsom and Ewell of 418 units per annum. The effect of this is that the proposal subject of this planning application must be assessed against the second part of NPPF paragraph 14, i.e. the proposal must be approved unless any adverse impacts of doing so would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits of providing a new house." My question, having skim-read (ha!) the SHMA that you refer to, is this: It looks to me that the 418 figure is the total annual need for new dwellings identified in 2016, which I think is not the same thing as the LPA demonstrating whether there is a five-year supply of deliverable housing sites ?? There is no date on your D&A statement but I presume it was written not long before your post in 2022. This leaves a gap of several years since the need / shortfall was identified, during which time the LPA might have starting approving more sites and hence reduced or eliminated any shortfall. I was thinking about adding something similar to my D&A statement, but presume I'd need to ask the LPA (via a FOI request maybe?) to confirm / demonstrate the future five-year supply of deliverable housing sites for the area, and then compare that figure to the identified need, and only if there is a shortfall then, the second part of NPPG Para 49 would apply?? Or have I misunderstood? P.S. I'm only just starting on this so I will probably have more questions! I hope you don't mind! Thanks so much for sharing your D&A statement - it is fantastic! 🌟👍

I could, but I haven't even exchanged on the purchase yet, and I don't want to alert them (or anyone else) to my plans. There is also a very old covenant (from the 1800s) to limit the number of houses that can be built on plots for which there is no plan (at least not with the deeds for the house I'm planning to buy) and hence no indication of whether adding a house would breach it (the plots definitely don't correspond to the current individual plots on the road) and no listed beneficiary, so it currently appears to be unenforceable. I'm planning to get an indemnity policy for this covenant, which, as with all similar indemnities, relies on no one tipping off potential beneficiaries, and no objections being received at planning stage based on the covenant. So I'd rather wait till I've got the site and my planning permission before discussing with the road owners.

Hi, Scenario: Well-maintained private road in an affluent suburb in a commuter town in south-east England; The road owners are organised and present; Existing deeds / covenants between the road owners & homeowners include provision for a) homeowners have full access rights & liberty over the road incl. vehicles and services laying / maintenance; b) right for road owners to charge a reasonable levy for development or building works; Several infill detached houses have been built already on various plots on the road, and each have been granted right of access similar to the other houses. Does anyone have any idea what a private road owner may charge for: 1. Levy for development work where an existing house is demolished and two new ones are to be built. Bearing in mind it is required to be "reasonable". 2. Grant of access for one additional infill house. I know, I know, it's like saying "how long is a piece of string?", but I have no idea whether this is likely to be closer to £1,000 or £100,000? I'm thinking to budget £50k and hope for £10k - thoughts? I guess it'll have to be reasonable, right? And I might have to end up bringing in valuers and potentially going to a tribunal if we can't agree a figure? I'm taking some comfort from the fact that there have already been several infill dwellings built, so clearly the cost hasn't been prohibitive for them.

@Ronan 1 - you said you've been notified of price increases averaging 6% (other than steel) - would you say this is fairly typical of recent years, or is this year exceptional?

@SimonD this is an American site so whilst interesting, probably can't be drawn on directly for the UK market. Interesting what you say about local microclimates for pricing. Another good reason to research, research, research before committing (but of course much easier said than done!). I think I will get hold of an old copy of the Spon's guide and spend the weekend doing my usual line-by-line detailed budget calcs based on my past costs, latest HB Bible figures, bring in Spon's costs for good measure, and apply my best-guess estimate for each item. Well, nothing else to do in lockdown with bad weather, is there? ? @Ferdinand - did you mean something like this? https://www.estimators-online.com/ @Bitpipe, good to hear that you've not seen a great deal of trade cost inflation.

All understood, and I am in bracket 3, unfortunately. To explain my reasons for this post a bit more: In my previous projects, I've budgeted based on the individual costs & tables throughout HB Bible, with careful and highly detailed adjustments based on London labour rates etc., and my final costs have always come in pretty close to budget. So I was thinking (just for early high-level budgetary purposes) to take my previous costs and add x% per year, compounded over the 10 years since my last project. That's why I'm after people's real-world experiences of cost increases over time. I thought 5% per year might be a reasonable budgetary increase, but I don't know if I'm dreaming and it's actually much higher than that?

I've done some more calcs: UK average wages (here) increased by an average of 2.0% annually between 2010 and 2020 (21.6% overall increase over the period) . HB Bible has a table in chapter 1 entitled "How Brickie's Rates Track Average House Prices", and there is indeed, as @daiking says, an extremely close correlation. According to that, in the most recent 6 years (2013-19), brickies' rates have increased at an average of 3.8% annually (25% overall), and UK national average house prices have increased at 4.0% annually (26% overall) over the same period. (if we look over 10 years instead of 6, for comparison with the national wages picture, the average annual brickie rate increase is 3.8% (46% overall) and average house price increase is 2.6% (30% overall) - so there's a close correlation over 6 years, but not so close over 10 years, but it seems that brickies wages grown at almost double the pace of overall UK wage growth). Somewhat confusingly though, just a few pages further on in the HB Bible we find the Model House costs table, which, upon comparison with HB Bible 10 (2013), labour rates for inner & outer skin have increased 5.2% annually (35% overall) over the 2013-19 period. Seems to conflict?

I'm not really, but I've got to start somewhere, right? ? I have figures from old vs. new Housebuilders Bible, but wanted to see what others real experiences were like too. Good suggestion though - I'll track down some house price data for the local area and run some calcs to see what figures come out.

So, that's 17 years between builds, and total costs increase of 54%, which by my calculations, is 2.7% per annum. According to the BoE, inflation over that time was 2.9% PA. So you have managed to up-spec slightly and come in below inflation - gold star to you!!! How do you think you did it? ⭐

Hi, I'm trying to work out a budget for a new project based on my previous build costs, but my last build was 10 years ago, and I don't know how much costs have increased since then. Does anyone have any real-world examples of any build cost increases over the past 10 years or so, no matter how large or small? Perhaps you've done two similar bits of work in different years? Or you did a whole self-build a few years back, and then another one of a similar standard more recently? Price per square foot or metre, and which years each were done, would be a great help. Alternatively, what's your gut feel for annual increase? UK inflation over the past 10 years averaged 2.7%, according to the Bank of England Inflation Calculator (clicky), but I think build costs have increased more than that, right??

Thanks @Gus Potter. This is the approach I'm planning anyway, but that'll be a few months down the line. Lots of work for me to do alone before bringing others in. You guys have bolstered my confidence that it's a good site. The TPOs are inconvenient but not insurmountable in this instance. Oh, and OP = Original Poster (me!). ?

Ace, thanks for the replies guys. I've not bought the site yet (with solicitors) but I thought it would be good to have a view on that before I'm 100% committed. Glad to see there is still a thriving self-build community and it's not been crushed by the credit crunch and covid! Been a few years since I was last on the scene. ?

Hi folks, My first time here after being a veteran of the old ebuild forum back in the day. ? Scenario: You are planning to build within the RPA of tree(s) protected by a TPO, and you supply the council with a method statement signed-off by the required experts (arboriculturalist or whoever else may be required) as providing adequate protection for the tree (e.g. piling etc.). Assuming the council doesn't dispute the expert's statement, can the council still refuse to grant planning on the basis of the construction being within the RPA of the TPO?