Hecateh

Trial holes not good enough for my structural engineer. 4 bore holes to 4 metres and then Atterberg testing on the samples - constantly putting the build further out although they have started ground clearance today so we should have a more level playing field so to speak. Clearing the ground and also diffing the hole for the porosity testing. I was told to start with that Atterberg testing on the soil samples takes a week but now they are suggesting it may be closer to a fortnight. Does anyone know how long the testing takes. Even googling it isn't helping me Photo one hour in on ground clearance. They wer here before 8 ready to start at 8 on the dot

A bit tongue in cheek BUT my immediate reaction was 'those that don't care' (not necessarily conservative) and 'those that can't care'

@ProDave It's priced at a level that anyone would be mad to buy at - but at the top end of what will be realistic when everything is finished. If someone really really wants it at that price then I would be prepared to move in with my son and rent for a while. If my builder is right and it only takes 3 months to build (yeah right!) then I could probably delay completion until moving day anyway. If it sells, there is plenty of delay I can build in as there would be all sorts of legal issues as the boundary won't be properly sorted.

The house that I hope to live in whilst the new one is being built is now up for sale!!!! I'm funding the build with a bridging loan and one of the company's conditions is that the house that is security is up for sale because statistics say it take 8 to 9 months in this area to sell an house. It's not ready to sell and I'm certainly not ready to sell it BUT for sale it is. Thank **** that there is a new breed of Estate Agents, £99 and within 2 hours, - my own photos and description, and it is up there on Right Move etc,

Please could you give me the site address for Self Build Insurance as searching that brings up lots of companies but I can't find one with that name Thanks Oops - No worries - just found it - thanks anyway

Being nearly a year into this already and hoping to break ground next week I am invested in making it work and having my own purpose build space. AND I've always owned my own home and don't want to start paying rent now. My parents both lived into their 90's and Mum's 3 sisters all made 95 - so I could easily have another 30 years to go.

In many circumstances yes - certainly if I was intending renting the property long term. My thought was though for me just to rent for a few months whilst my new property is built. As my new property is in the garden of the old one I can't sell the old one in the normal way at this stage as no one would buy a house at full value whilst building work is going on. So if I got 75%, that covers the cost of my new house plus about 30k, which. The other 25% being invested with them for a few years. So long as I was happy to have that money invested for that length of time. AND supposing it was all safe and above board. Then I would have saved the cost of arranging my mortgage, (which with all the extra insurances and warranties is costing around 5k) and the interest payments on it for the months that my house was being built (Around 1k each month). All against about £700 monthly rent. So yes they would make money from me but I would still be better off. Moot point though as it's not available in my area and It sounds dodgy anyway.

Found out that they are not in my area anyway so definitely no good for me. But they don't charge anything - they pay solicitors and valuation so you can't lose many at that stage I think @MikeSharp01 that is why they don't guarantee to rent back to you. They keep the 2 agreements separate - legal? who knows My other concern would be about the money that remains owing - What if they go bust. Suspect that works like an investment and if they go bust so do you. On paper I can see it as potentially a good thing - them paying market value but retaining some, which the then pay you interest on at above bank rates. So long as you don't need the money in the mean time it's a win win. They are making money out of the investment but so are you. In practice - well, I think if it was that good there would be a lot more companies doing it. I'll pay my dues and go down the bridging mortgage route, despite the cost.

In their blurb they say they pay above market value BUT on reading further they operate in Surrey and not in my 'deprived' area of Yorkshire. So even if they do pay above market value they are still likely to get a huge return. Much less of a guarantee in an old pit village

Just browsing around Zoopla (as you do) and came across something called a 'deferred sale'. Started following links and came upon this site http://realpropertysolutions.co.uk/index.htm It seems that they buy the property - with no fees to the seller - and at market value or above. The seller gets between 50 and 75% up front and interest on the remainder until a set period is up (eg 5 years) and the agent lets the property out. They are happy to let the property to the seller. This seems to mean I can get 75% of the value of my property and then still live there paying rent until I have built my new property at which time I move and they let my old property to someone else. When things look to good to be true I know that usually they are but this does seem a good deal Any thoughts anyone.

@Ferdinand Thanks for that thought A combination of moving the house forward half a metre or so and pushing the boundary should achieve that - and like you say, nothing to lose. Will let you know if I manage it. Hopefully ground clearance starts beginning of December -

Looking at my photo to discover how you knew it was a Town centre location made me realise how much info I had left on there. Not that I think identity theft is likely on here but postcode, email etc on internet - not really a good idea lol. I have now edited the photo. Did you decide it was town centre just because of the photo or did you look up the location. As far as access is concerned - sounds great in principle and there could just about be room to put one in BUT I only just got this one passed as Barnsley (currently) won't approve tandem developments and a local councillor was trying to object on those grounds as the current bungalow has a garage (which will become just a store) under the lounge. The ground slopes a lot more than can be seen from the photo. Garden grabbing from all gardens without my new build would certainly have had scope for half a dozen houses with modern sized gardens. The main reason I want to stay in that location. Small town centre to the North and views to the South, New propety wont' have quite the same views as will lose depth but still amazing

Thanks Yes I've done that. In fact, they went to the trouble of doing a quick desktop survey before quoting so they brought the topic up. They said the requirement was probably unnecessary and that it was mainly about box ticking.

The plot is in the garden of my bungalow, the red roofed one in the picture. You can see the trees to the south west of the site

Yep - I'm not unhappy about doing that - I just get scared when everyone I speak to - who is supposed to have knowledge gives me different answers. Add to that an increasing lack of confidence in my architect. (Her instructions to building control said 'no new sewer or water connection' for example) I am going to get the testing done but I also think I am going to look into finishing my connection with the architect.

Acronym overload - yes TPO not TOP There was no reference to the trees in my planning conditions. They are about 25 metres from my boundary but very tall

It seems like I am going to have to go with it just to tick the box to get the useless warranty - to get the bridging mortgage

This is the issue. My architect got me one quote and one quote only for over 2k and with a 3 week lead time. I have got other quotes and arranged one for £600 it's just that the guy who is doing the ground work is very experienced and says it is not necessary because of the sandstone at a shallow depth.

I wish I could. I am sure they grew as weeds initially as I am forever removing small ones from my garden - and they grow so uickly. However they are not in my garden and have TOPs.

This is my thinking - except it isn't something I have any experience in so am not able to put forward a valid argument. I think a big issue is my architect. She shows no sign of understanding the issue just repeating what what she has said previously. Maybe she does understand but just isn't communicating BUT it I have less and less confidence in her as time goes on. I know some things have to be done not because they are needed but just to tick boxes

So my architect says we need ground investigation for my building plot. I understand the need for this and it also states in the warranty, (which I have to get for the mortgage). The warranty wording is Site/Ground Investigation report and any relevant reports identified from this i.e. Tree survey. My architect is saying "We suggest four BH’s down to say, 4 metres as a maximum, with SPT’s at 1200 intervals. There are some trees and certainly larger shrubs in the vicinity of the plot and we’re expecting clay-based soils, so please allow for lab. testing – say, up to six sets of MCs / Atterbergs, plus a couple of root ID’s as well please.." So SPTs I understand are to do with resistance to penetration. What she hasn't said is that although the soil is clay based we are likely to hit sandstone less than half a metre down. My groundworker says "The best i can offer you at this point is a excavator which would create test holes where necessary to the depth of 3.3 metres. Let me know your thoughts on this." This is cheaper, though doesn't include analysis of any tree roots. There is a well established beech hedge a metre away and a couple of huge ash trees a couple of metres away. My research shows that, though there may be ash roots they will be shallow and won't cause any problem - neither will the beech hedge. Any thoughts, opinions and suggestions welcome.

Just had a thought - is there any mileage in advertising locally for anyone that wants some hedging removing. They get their hedge removed free of charge and you get mature hedging free. I dug out some privet hedging and - leaving it to dry for burning it just started regrowing where I had left it, putting roots down into the soil. Some laurels I removed didn't regrow were they were left but would have done if they had been replanted as they took a while to die off.

Real nice guy at KIS too - small company, get to talk with one of the partners AND was happy to go back with things I wasn't happy with. EG originally they said the 'security' had to be on the market before they would release the money. Pointed out that this couldn't happen for 2 reasons. To start with there would be the total stupidity of trying to get the best price for a house whilst building was going on in the garden. (obviously didn't phrase it quite like that) AND, more importantly from their point of view, the boundary would not be set until the new property was (almost) finished. Can't sell something without a defined boundary LOL. The mortgage company at least saw the sense in this.

Maybe worth trying these https://dolphinfinancialltd.co.uk/ I got so far with the build store people but didn't like the fact that they were the only people I got prices from. Eventually found these and got (agreement in principle so far) an offer with the same company for £2000 less - They only charge 1% rather than 2 as arrangement fee and they don't charge direct commission. That was what made me determined to look in the end. I didn't mind paying commission but I found that the mortgage company was giving them good commission and they were charging me as well. KIS get their commission from the mortgage company and don't charge the customer as well

I was also going to suggest laurel. I gave a friend some very small ones (less than a foot) about 4 years ago. that had grown following me removing some. and they are now about 5 ft. Look better than leylandii. don't get out of hand in the same way and you can cut them back without killing off part of the tree