Happy Valley

We have a well insulated 160 sq m house with an Ecodan 8.5kW ASHP. Cost was £10000 less the then £5000 govt grant for the supply and fit of the heat pump a 210 litre hot water tank, buffer tank plus all the associated pipework towards the manifolds. This was fitted in Sept 2022.

Yep it sits directly onto caberboard or screed. There is a lot of insulation between the floors but some noise does permeate down. Doesn't bother us as we have an unconventional layout.

Too late - already sold one of ours. The EPC was not the only reason as managed to get it through before the CGT allowance changes in April. This govt and others have been targeting Landlords as the reason for poor property supply to the nation. Complete nonsense as we all know it's the lack of new build homes that is the problem.

We have an ASHP which cost around £10000 to install including the hot water tank. £5000 came back in the form of govt grant. The house is new and fairly airtight. We didn't want gas as was uncertain as to it's long term future and the possibility of changing the boiler for a new hybrid one. Also gas boilers generally have a poor reliability record, are expensive to fix and rarely last more than 10 years in our experience. We have no gas which means we save on the daily standing charge which in our area is £0.30 per day or £110 a year.

I'd like to see the figure for 2022. This has only really started gaining momentum very recently.

You'd also need to get the consent of the Freeholder. Most flats don't have gas for safety reasons.

We sold a leasehold flat which completed in March this year for two reasons: 1) The EPC was a D and the proposed requirement to get to a C or less would be too costly and a PITA because it was leasehold. 2) The CGT allowance was about to half in the next (now current) tax year and will do so again next year. We still own 2 others with great long term tenants and no EPC issues so will sit the current downturn out and review again in 5 to 8 years time. The govt better start building some property for the rented sector and quickly. As Pocster states private landlords are being driven out of the market and there'll be more people on the streets/living in tents/mobile homes/canal boats etc.

Strange - they covered us from July 2022 and we got our building completion cert in Jan 2023. Maybe their insurers have altered their terms.

Well as if by magic the post has arrived at midday with a large package from HMRC. Just two invoices with a total VAT amount over £2000 were rejected as I only had Pro-forma invoices and they want originals. Time to talk to Polysteel and get all the money back!!

We were living in the house prior to sign off and used Intelligent Insurance. They wanted to know at various stages how the works were going. https://www.intelligentinsurance.co.uk/

Checked the bank account last night and there was a hefty sum in there from HMRC. No notice that it was going to arrive and is approximately 91% of the amount claimed. Don't know why they refused the 9%. Timeline went like this: Mid Jan 2023 claim sent Confirmation letter of receipt from HMRC in early March End of March ask for a Completion Certificate (not available when sent) - sent immediately End May same letter as early March stating they've received the documents 20 June - payment made Did not claim for any professional fees or kitchen appliances etc so not sure what exactly they've not allowed. Hopefully shall find out soon. Now going to look at Autotrader as I can feel a car upgrade coming on for the 13 year old estate!!

Well done. Slightly frustrated with ours as put the claim in back in January 2023. Got a letter confirming they got it in March and then another letter in May stating they wanted the Building Certificate despite providing them with confirmation via Council Tax that we were in. We did not have a signed off BC at the time of the claim and their forms said they'd accept Council Tax as proof of being finished.

We have 3 4G wifi in our new house - I didn't want anybody drilling holes in the walls and we do not have an external aerial. It costs £20 pcm for all you can eat data and it runs our PCs phones and television (Amazon Netflix without any issue). You need the check the coverage where you are. I believe EE and Vodaphone may do something similar. We do however have a ducting to the adopted road in the event that we ever need to put a hardwired line in.

@Dave JonesWhere abouts in the country are those rates? Here in Cheshire/Sth Manchester they would be very low! You can add another 10 to 25% to some of those here.

Your legal fees etc looks a little low - herewith are some items that you may need to pay for: Architect Soil survey Ecologist survey Topography survey Water/drain consultant Planning applications Planning consultant (not mandatory but for us worth their cost - about £1500 all in) Landscape designer Structural engineer Building control We managed to get ours in at under £20k and that was cheap. Also you need connections costs and app fees - if you digging up an adopted road this will cost ££££'s. We built in ICF but had a builder on board and sub contractors for metal roof, electrics, plumbing and ASHP and we came in at around £2000 sq m for a build in 2021/22. Taking out the labour element out it we would have come in at around £1500/ sq m Good luck with your plans.