Ferdinand

@PeterWI think @joe90 is relying on a different exemption, that the caravan is not his "sole or main residence". That used to be used by people with pied a terres near their offices, and I think landlords renting rooms in houses to travelling salesmen who had their main house somewhere else. It is now immensely more difficult to argue that one because there was a lot of flapping (much of it justified) about "second homes" and "empty homes" and Councils now have very considerable discretion to set the terms of their Council Tax on empty homes, and discounts available to people doing work on it etc. I now get clobbered if I take more than a month to renovate a house and get a tenant in - unless it is essentially gutted (back to brickwork, floors up). I am speaking about England and possibly Wales. Council Tax has many anomalies. One of the more interesting ones is that many Councils have taken to designating rooms with an ensuite shower in a shared house as a separate Band A Dwelling in order to extract 5 or 6 Council Taxes from one HMO, since it also gets them (but this abuse may have stopped) the Government New Homes Bonus incentive for "creating a new dwelling". This is to the extent that I am now formally advised not to create high end "all ensuite" shared houses, and not to put locks on bedroom doors, but rather to make tenants share. Ferdinand

Thanks. I will open a new thread to discuss that to avoid derailing this one. F

It is all upthread :-)

On the OP, this is my current setup (4 bed / 2 recep house) All RCBO, upgraded 3 years ago as we ran out of space to a double deck 10+10 model with 2 isolators. 100A fuse plus I think mains isolator. 6A Security Alarm. 6A Lights Upstairs. 6A Lights Ground Floor 1. 6A Lights Ground Floor 2. 6A Lights Ground Floor 3. 6A Smoke Alarms. 16A unlabelled (oops) 32A Upstairs Shower. 32A Oven. (replaced by range oven below.) 32A Downstairs Shower. 40A Range Cooker. 32A Sockets Upstairs. 32A Sockets Downstairs. 32A Sockets New (we added an extra double socket in the utility room). 40A Solar PV. (It is a 10 kWp array) 5 spares, and a box of spare RCBOs that came with the fusebox. Heating is a Combi Boiler and UFH, but with a couple of areas of Electric UFH which are take off the ring mains at those points. Cooking is Gas. The solar, and also a 7kW car charger, are on separate small consumer units. Not sure how the Car Charger is wired in without tracing it. The obvious things missing that would be added are an external socket, and electric gates. The Unit is a QFS-RRM24FLEXI 20-way from Control Gear, and seems quite solid. The upgrade was notably good value. http://www.controlgeardirect.co.uk/ Question for @PeterW - have you got several unused spares? You may need them. Ferdinand

I tend to agree. However...

There are some that can use 13A sockets. eg http://ao.com/product/oif22300x-beko-electric-single-oven-stainless-steel-16973-45.aspx

There is the title for the next Carry On film.

Let us know how long Council Services continue after it is up for demolition. I know of one where the collections continued for months after the demolition notice was served, used by the neighbour, but stopped within a month once it was an empty plot.

Any AGA should be worth money on EBay, and AGA specialists will turn up and collect it. It is a very finely tuned secondhand market. I think. As far as I know AGAs use Vermiculite insulation, and your assessor may be being cautious. Perhaps ask them. We got bang on £500 for a rust bucket 195x small coal burner AGA in 2012. They are designed to be moveable by one man. Find out what model it s and sell it, perhaps to a specialist service or as Buyer Collects no reserve. Even the latter will save you a day. Ferdinand

You will need their sig on the form.

You will need Building Control approval to take out structural and there may be something in your lease. You may also need to comply with Party Wall requirements. Probably no PP. In England we also have a Building Notice, where rather than asking Building Control for approval, you just tell them what you are doing. This might be appropriate here. The difference is that you do not get an external sanity check, so you take responsibility for not getting anything wrong. You proceed quickly, but bear that additional risk. Tends to be used for simple and clear cut situations and where people are experi need and confident. You could build a house under a Building Notice, but it gets expensive when you get it wrong and they tell you to add another 45cm to the bottom of the foundations you just built to ground level. Do they have Building Notices in Scotland? Not convinced that 70 sqm is especially large for a 3 bed, but financial return it may be very dependent on area. Run it past an estate agent? Ferdinand

I think you should be having an avatar demonstrating your healthy eating status by using a bag of Hula Hoops rather than a huge bag of crisps.

If it is a sycamore (check) that close and still that small I would want it out anyway - perhaps after the build having listened in above, provided the new foundations are specced to stand the potential heave, and insurance etc is in place. In due curse (deliberate typo!) it will possibly become a 60-80 ft weed which could be 50-60cm closer to your house, unless there is something severely restricting its growth. The difference in cost between removal now and in 15-20 years could be 300-500%. At the very least it will be a concern to any future purchaser, and may end up with a TPO if someone wants to put one on it. Replace with something interesting in a suitable place instead imo. Ferdinand

To me it seems to be a fairly limited application relating to basements under London terraces which has been a controversial area for a long time. eg Developers may be required to apply for PP for this type of operation. Judgement: http://www.landmarkchambers.co.uk/userfiles/documents/Eatherley Judgment.pdf and Summary from Landmark Chambers: http://www.landmarkchambers.co.uk/news.aspx?id=4483 Ferdinand

Perhaps we had better get back to topic...

No. Power is delightful so absolute power is absolutely delightful. Copyright LJK Setright. THat double capital ( <<--- example) is Apple's fault. The very occasional lack of correction is my laziness. F

Yep. 5 degrees is too steep. I have a sunroom roof at that angle roughly and when pottering around on it for maintenance it is very obviously sloping. Ferdinand * checked and certified typo free

Typose. Moi? *innocent face* (Sorry .. I thought that was an abbreviation, and I do appreciate your sorting out my variations.) Ferdinand

Tgis ? Terrapins Got Into my Socks? Thank God I'm Scottish? Therapy Goes In Spurts? Clarification would be welcome so I can be culturally enriched :-) . Cheers F

Considered rising butt hinges? Perhaps not applicable. That may help to minimise the area of adjustment to your slab.

It was a new roof put on about 8 years ago. The walls are brick and mortar, with joists across about 4.5m at ceiling height, and the glulam along the spine above. I think you just have to run the numbers and see what comes out. These chaps keep 12-15m lengths in stock, for an example: http://glulambeams.co.uk/about-glulam/specifications Ferdinand

This studio bungalow of mine has an approx 14m Glulam Beam as the ridge beam. It has intermediate support, though no idea whether this is necessary ... the longest span is about 9m. Presumably at some length road transport considerations come into play ! Ferdinand

SHeffield is actually only 40minutes for me, but for me the guarantee on a new one etc would mean that it would have to be just what I want and at least 40% off new price after all costs.

LOoking at these. The stung is 15% buyers premium plus VAT which is another 35% plus. There are bare brushless drill and impact driver Marita sets at £60 start, but for about 280 you get that plus 3 batteries plus a case plus a charger from a shop new. Saving may only be 50 to 100. THen you have to fetch from Sheffield. But there are a number of SK102Z laser levels from Marita RRP approx 100 starting at 60 ukp. ALso prob very marginal. Ferdinand

You get the answer to that question when the build is finished . Or not .