Ferdinand

I might be tempted to a la Jeremy write to the legal department, or get a solicitor who knows to write and tell them what the law says. But that will cost money. A neat way might be to write or email despairingly and tell the Valuation Officer what the Council lady said (with email address ?), and ask them to forward a copy of the decision direct. Perhaps you could provoke the Council lady to confirm it by email first - for forwarding the 'neigh' that came from the horses mouth to the VOA for a response. They might not do it, mind. F

The separation distances and relationships are also affected by local policy, how that policy is interpreted, the leeway they may give you, and if they are being more generous today for reasons unknown. So you need also to be aware of local policy and practice if you are anywhere near skating any boundaries. LPAs have a lot of leeway in what they do, and a lot of options. Check the exact way in which the policies are interpreted and tested - you may be able to walk the line with something very close to what you really want. A Planning Officer might come out with something as nebulous as "seems too cramped" as a reason for refusal, which may or may not stand up if challenged. There are many ways of challenging. The only recommendation I can give is to take time, take care, do as much homework as possible, and really sweat the detail. Unfortunately there is a whole bookshop of things you can usefully know about Planning Gain contributions :-). And it is likely to be a different bookshop with a different selection of books in every Local Authority. For example if they do not spend it in 5 years you can get it back (may not apply to Affordable Contributions). Around the time your previous PP was obtained there was a precedent setting Court Case which ruled out Section 106 for small (<10 dwellings?) developments. I believe there was some action by Govt to mitigate the impact, but I do not know the outcome. Needs a check or someone may know. One option would be 1 - To take time to read the entire previous PP, and also read the entire file (which may not all be on the website) - perhaps submit an FOI request. 2 - Then study all the local relevant planning policies. Then come up with a list of questions from your notes and a specification as to what you actually want. 3 - Then - looking at your questions and how many you have not got the foggiest notion about - if you need pay (up to several hundred £££) a local consultant to spend some time reviewing your information, and arrange a meeting for 1-2 hours where you discuss your list of questions. To navigate the planning system can sometimes need someone almost like a ghillie (the hunting guide not the dancing shoe). Call it an insurance policy. 4 - The consultant acid test is that they know the LPA inside out and has done a number of similar planning apps, and knows the individual planning officers and their styles by name. You need to test their knowledge / experience not that they seem to know more than you; the latter could just be a skilled bullshitter. That may be tedious, and you may have done some of it, but at the end you will be in a far better position to understand the circumstances you are operating in, and there may be nuggets that will save you thousands and a lot of frustration. Best of luck. Ferdinand

You would need to ask Mr Putin for that. May get some free Vodka, mind.

HOw often are you there and how well insulated is it? Is it an option to run it at a constant temperature, perhaps even a bit below what you need and boost it when you are there, at nearly zero cost rather than buying lots of control technology? COuld you improve that flat to make that a viable alternative? I have known people who had 2 or 3 bedroom flats in cities, and rented out the rooms except one which they kept for their own use. IN that case you could be a live in landlord renting out a spare room or two under the spare rooms allowance i.e. tax free up to I think 7.5k, and help solve the housing crisis! F

YOu could try asking MBC for feedback on a paid consultancy basis. Or an engineer or consultant who works for them on the relevant design tasks. No idea whether they would do it. F

I think I mentioned about 19 pages ago that we were going to need to talk about your evils of insulation etc, which will affect how much you run it. Has that time arrived? Frost setting in the wings of the house you do not use, and perhaps even draughtbproofing those doors sounds like an option. I am sure that even Bess of Hardwick used to seal up parts of the house in winter. ELizabeth I probably just stayed in the South. F

YOu need to check the Planning Gain contributions with a toothcomb. I am not clear whether they can currently be levied on single dwelling developments, and Shropshire have a substantial history of utter chaos on these points, and the original PP is around the time of maximum confusion. I would recommend checking the national policy position with the Planning Aid service of the RTPI at http://www.rtpi.org.uk/planning-aid/, then checking locally. Ferdinand

Welcome. 16m face to face for habitable rooms sounds (from memory) tight for direct facing, but you need to check the exact policy of your Council and find a form acceptable to you that meets that policy. Some have variable distances depending on the angles, and it may vary depending on whether it is 1st vs ground, whether their rooms are habitable etc. ALternatively you can stretch the policy and make an argument which may or may not work, and then or Appeal it if it fails and the Appeal may or may not work. You could possibly do eg skirting level windows in a bedroom so you see only your garden downwards or with restricted views such that you cannot see into their rooms. OR at an angle eg side viewing oriel window. AT GND level you could eg propose a 2m fence and a condition to retain it permanently. Lots of options, but you need to know the policy limitations first. Given that one neighbour is built at an angle, there may be scope for an angled window viewing parallel to their angled back wall. TIme to dust off those geometry skills. Ferdinand.

My comment was from a member of GBF. I have not run it it through the EPC software to check yet.

I have these in my list of things to look at for future rental refurbs, on a single shower version, because 1 They should give some benefit. 2 They have been around enough that prices may soon reach non Green-gadget levels. 3 They should be fit and forget with no moving parts. 4 I am told they are low hanging fruit for a couple of points off the EPC, and I am regulated on that basis but the definition changes every few years so it may be a useful buffer against the slings and arrows. Remember to think about furring up of pipes if in a hard water area. Ferdinand

That is the classic field drain pattern used by farmers.

Welcome, @Scotrock

@BBCRenovationShow Welcome to the forum. I would like to see a show renovating some of the houses built to substandard by the major companies. You are very prolific in "outraged of WC2" tabloid heartstring twanging. But I am fed up of consumer so-called champions rabbiting on about problems just generating so,etimes overdone outrage. Let's have some programmes about solutions. I am sure that many of us would take part in that ... say in a similar style to the former Radio 4 Punters but with an answer. 5-10 minutes on the problem then 15-20 on the solution. Be a giraffe and stick your neck out. Ferdinand

But are we sustainable nuts? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/02/is-it-ok-to-buy-nuts-from-california

HOping to comment on this later. But at least one Grand Designs person turned it into a career .. the chap who rebuilt his thatched cottage after a fire with the huge cathedral type window on the back became a project manager for small build projects. Outside there are many people who do serial small builds but they tend to have cone from a specialism eg builder and so are really mini-developers. One of my plumbers :-) is trying to get into building as well as btl, but is struggling for plot sourcing nouse and capital. F

This is similar in some respecks to the conversation we were having about fees for written confirmation of fulfilment of Discharge of Planning Conditions a few weeks ago. Here - potentially - be dragons. Here:

It seems a strange distinction between householder and developer. By definition you cannot get to pre-app advice until you at least have some idea, and some things can't be discussed in writing by their nature. SO the way to do it could be to have the conversation about appearance and all the other stuff first as a renovation, and then keep from mentioning the flattening until the end, and / or framing the conversation as you would for Planning Aid in terms of policy and principles not a specific site. But since I get charged full whack for everything regardless, I am not sure I want to encourage that :-). But then my local council still operates a Duty Planner system ! To clarify you could phone up as Mr Smith and ask them where the lines are drawn.

I refuse to believe that this is only 2 years old. I am unanimous in that. On inserting the embrace behind the pipes and the mesh, my plumber normally does the stuff at the back first. Perhaps I am being obtuse. And I am wondering whether @Onoff's Gollum avatar for the bathroom project is inspired by the 78 years that Gollum waited to catch Baggins and the recover his Precious.

mediator = very lucrative if you are trained and have the contacts. For commercial mediators / facilitators you could get your £280 per hour. Maybe

I think you probably want a recording when the War and Peace document is being explained in all its gory glory, for future reference when you are unclear on something in 2 or 6 years time. And probably at some point to confirm your restrictions in writing. What about "Network Rail workers will only be allowed in chicken suits"?

THank you for a clear post with full information. WOuld you care to do an introduction over on the Introduce Yourself sub-forum ... it is always good to have ? I think this probably depends mainly on how much your neighbours value their extra 300mm vs the potential delay. Your Council will tell you how long it would take depending on what is involved permissions-wise etc, as I assume your neighbours have PP to go that close to the boundary. Perhaps it could go through as a minor change? Technically I see no reason why the two have to be built together, as you could tie into the party wall afterwards (leave bricks sticking out or sockets)? But in that case watertight agreements will be crucial and you need to know you will be supported, and there are a few risks such as if yours does not get PP. Personally I think I would want my PP Application in with a neighbour letter of support before they start building. IF they have to change their PP that should give you more time. If you build later, then I think the key to risk management will be to build as quickly as is humanly possible after theirs. I think that you will need to accept certain constraints to join the two together. Roof profile at the boundary sounds like one of these to me. THe foundation are surely best built together if you so need? I am not sure whether sticking a bit of extra foundations on the side is a major Planning Sin; I don't see it, myself. I would build the full strip foundations and cover it up if I want to keep it quiet. Alternatively if you wanted you could temporarily call it something that does not need planing permission, such as a patio base, that happens to be built to extension standards. THat would need professional advice; my personal opinion is that it might work as a defence. One issue is that you may need to decide how you will both be managing a 300mm wide gap, when it gets full of gunk in a few years. I hate gaps that I cannot get down myself, and 4-5m is a very long pole. Ferdinand

Found it F

MY practice for solicitors now is that I go for long established local firms of perhaps 2-3 offices and a small number of principals and up to a few 10s of staff, rather than regionals with a couple of hundred staff and prestige offices who want to believe they are on a par with the Magic Circle, and charge accordingly. Really that comes down to firms small enough that they still all know each other and do not have umpteen overheads and employ a pot plant service to keep the office green. I try and find the appropriate experienced principal. And I have spent quite a lot with solicitors in the last few years because we sold a field to a big developer and the contract was huuuuuuge, with added elephant traps. If you have somebody expensive (even though you will get estra support time per billed hour) then perhaps @lizzie could advise how to manage costs? The other route to go might be to source your own solicitor eg from pertinent legal bloggers, though it has perhaps gone past that point. My thought would be a tight brief and very regular verbal updates, and fixed prices for sub packages if they can do it - all probably confirmed from your side by email so you write the record. Unless you earn more than £280 an hour yourself so can make a profit on it, but that would require you to work as an Interim Director or BBC football pundit. Or lawyer . (*) Ferdinand (*) Felt the Planning Officers deserved a break.

NEtwork Rail arsecovering and/or red herring. 1 - The doc applies that statement to Principal Contractors. Are you a Principal Contractor to Network Rail? Yes or No ? 2 - They have published it unprotected on the Internet. I think you can assume they are happy for people to read it. 3 - They have published it on their own website. It would be an interesting world where you cannot refer to material on an organisation's own website when talking to them. You should be fine. F

I rather suspect it may be for a senior solicitor, but it may be towards the top end of the band. Ouch. I am generally staying out of this because it is Scottish Property Law, which is beyond my ken, however just in case it is useful 1 - Your first set of photos here seems to include a clause where you can tell them which route to take over your land. If the bit they are parking on belongs to you or your neighbour and that applies, then you have that right. 2 - If you have a Right of Way to your garage, and parking is obstructing it, then you potentially have comeback. In English law the terms used would be things like "substantive interference" and similar. Down here you could stop on a RoW to unload and block it for a reasonable time, but not to sit in your car and eat your lunch. 3 - Have you considered a video camera discreetly trained in that direction for evidence - just in case? People on BH can recommend "site security" cameras which can be monitored remotely. The only issue would be power. I feel your pain on expensive solicitors with good reputations. Ours delayed the sale of our last house by 2 months by misfiling our deeds then saying they could not find them, so we went most of the way through the "possessory title" process, and then they found them again. Quite how you misfile a pile of papers about a foot thick with vellum (I think) and handwritten copperplate going back to 1800 or so is one of the irreducible mysteries of the universe. Ferdinand