Ferdinand

Sonic sender transmits wirelessly to a receiver in the house. That's why I said add a penalty clause so it costs them not you . That is quite a tricky area where you have landlord obligations on one side and (in England at least) a tenant common law duty to behave in a "tenant-like" manner on the other. Again, an English legal perspective - Scotland may be different since they have redefined all their regulations and duties in the last decade. Providing the heating appliance will be down to the LL and it would depend on whether the annual boiler refill comes down to the T doing the little jobs. Is an annual refueling of an oil boiler part of the basic maintenance or part of the use? A T would not be expected to organise the repair of a gas leak, but should they be expected to watch for oil to run out? My judgement would be that the LL should probably have an annual inspection/service and it could be argued that refueling is or is not part of that. *That* could be a matter for a clause in the contract, but liability would be limited as per contract law. See, for example, page 75 of this short 123 page "Unfair Terms in Rental Contracts" document from the OFT: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/284440/oft356.pdf Or the classic Lord Denning ruling on Tenant Responsiilities in Warren v Keen 1954, discussed here: http://www.letlink.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=300%3Arepairs-the-responsibilities-of-the-landlord-and-tenant&catid=19%3Adisrepair&Itemid=53 I expect that there is something in eg the Scottish Rental Standard, and that will be the place to check. Suggest a conversation with the Scottish Association of Landlords on 0131 564 0100 for a start. They should be willing to have a short chat without charge, or point the new LL to good advice. Ferdinand

Again - Scottish Law. In England you need one. Checked - see link below - yes you need one. For me the argument against storage heaters is that good tenants just won't take on a place with storage heaters or single glazing (and why should they?), and if you have a house costing £1500-2000 a year in energy and say £5k a year in rent tenants would be more inclined to move, and a tenant change can cost as much as a new boiler, as you know. Do it properly and you can justify extra rent in years 2 onwards more easily. Also - in England some councils may try and enforce on storage heaters them if they happen to get a complaint under the requirement for controllable heating. They may also try to enforce eg 250mm loft insulation. It is all nebulous but the process is the punishment. Again ... Scottish Rules are different. May be worth asking in the Scotland forum of Landlordzone. He will also need to register as an LL. At least in Scotland this is cheap at about £69 for property 1 plus £10 for others for 3 years (if it has not changed), while in England it tends to be about £500-£700 per property for 5 years. https://www.gov.uk/renting-out-your-property-scotland/landlord-responsibilities Ferdinand

What is the EPC? In England they have to be E or better from I think 2018. Around here I am seeing F properties at what seem to be about 5% lower prices already, though that is subjective. No idea what the requirement is in Scotland but presumably at some stage the Scottish Government was trying to prove its virility vis a vis Westminster so it will need to be arguably better. Will he have to invest for that? And how well is it insulated / ventilated? Giving tenants a multifuel stove is probably playing with fire . Ferdinand

Total payment before the job starts is worrying in any circs. Ferdinand

It's not exactly easy to live with, though :-) Ferdinand

The art is tough to handle. With my dad's multi decades of art ... mainly hundreds of pictures and sketches ... we ended up giving pieces to all his friends, keeping a couple of each type, and disposing of the rest. Ferdinand

THe more I look at that word, the more I think it was coined in Cambridge,

All good advice, plus if they are running a business with your knowledge you need to check everything against that of course, eg insurance, mortgage etc. Ferdinand

I think the issue with setting u systems is firstly that the govt has spent the last 3 years working how to spank landlords without loopholes, and there are now general principles in place for all sorts of reviews. Secondly it is difficult to adjust your arrangement later unless there is trust. I did take high powered advice when going for PP does my housing estate plot, and the advice from specialist accountants was that it was not generally worth the candle trying to be too clever. I suppose you could get into the right type of 50:50 ownership with your wife, and sell it to them as 2 halves, which would let you use 2 cut allowances if there is any chat there, or you could do a shared ownership, and treat the money as a progressive purchase, which is a normal way to do it. But it is still all marginal in benefit. FErdinand

You will need advice. If it has been used partly as a business then that part should not be exempt unless there is a specific rule. Also cut calculations are not what they were,but otoh since prices have not home up very far for a looooooong time that will mitigate. Ferdinand.

I looked at a couple of rent to buys as a way of letting family friends who were not mortgage viable as they had just gone self-employed get onto the housing ladder. It would have worked, but in these circs it is people you trust enough or get it totally legalled. You could I suppose inject it into a limited company, but that will have an overhead of 500 to 1k per annum probably and a small setup cost. And that tends to delay tax or let you move it in time rather than avoid it. I think you have to eat the income tax liability, unless you mitigated by eg adjusting the rent level down and the purchase price up slightly as there is undoubtedly a defensible market variation in prices. BUt that is back to trust. In the scheme of things the tax liability is perhaps a small factor. Or you could invest all the money in the property to offset it against tax . Ferdinand

Agree with Sensus' last comments. I think that if you give one lot of people tools that do a lot more, the limitation on what happens will be set by how much time they have available rather than that is sensible to be done. The RIBA or CIOB or whoever will recommend new practices that require the extra capability to be used to the max, which will create more work for everyone else driven by the new tool. I would suggest that if you find a tool that doubles productivity you probably need to halve the workforce to stop the amount of work to be doubled too !! (being a little anti-Panglossian for a moment). It requires judgement AND self-discipline from decision makers, and a willingness to limit their own influence. Ferdinand

But .. the point that the Parliament session ignore .. The answer to wrong use is right use not disuse. EVen if that includes user education or control system simplification. Agter all, we all use gas boilers without being gas boiler technicians. Ferdinand

PErhaps a letter to Ms Roaf herself requesting her evidence base and participation in this thread would not go amiss.

WHich then puts you into potential conflict with the Council, when their officer tries to decide whether it is lifestyle condensation, lack of ventilation, penetrating damp etc and whose fault it is. And the Officer may have been on a 2 or 3 day training course to learn how to evaluate, assess and enforce the HHSRS which is a Health and Safety Standard supported by about 500 pages of docs which will take that long just to read once, covering everything from trips and slips to asbestos to electric installations and damp. Then if the officer does enforce, it may be and informal demand to do things a LL does not have to do in law, on a timescale shorter than it takes to book a tradsman locally - though they may be open to reasonable discussion. But if they send a formal notice the admin fees a start at about £400. And then it will have to be declared on a license application, which may mean a condition to have a professional manager, which will top slice 12-13% off the top of the turnover for all properties, which for normal rentals may be nearly all the profit ! F

PErhaps model your water usage potable vs non-potable eg do you have a big garden that needs water to get a scientific gut feel. Or replace the swimming pool with a natural swimming hole filled with borehole water... ! Ferdinand

Perhaps compare borehole cost to solar PoV plus a Sunsmp.

What type of soil? LEvel of water table? Consider an untreated borehole for the build now and garden later, and a posh one if it becomes viable later. Can you do a simple one, and treat above ground fitted as a stage 2? F

Good points Jamie. Can anyone comment on whether Sue Roaf should have made clear that she is a former Local Councillor in Oxford, involved in I think the ruling party. I don't know the detail of committee procedures at Holyrood. I see that more as affecting her status as an independent witness rather than the particular affiliation, since her views may be affected by that affiliation. Up to 2007 I think. Ferdinand

WIth your brother is that just that the knowledge needs to be general knowledge not specialised knowledge, and is down to education. Some people struggle to make a Yorkshire pudding or a pancake or a chapatti, and I wonder how many of the experienced male members of the forum would know how to apply a lipstick or an eyeshadow competently rot themselves, or walk in 3" or 4" heels. AGree with most of that, which is the joy of fabric first, and the Achilles heel of the Sustainable Homes System introduced by Mr Brown which was just too complicated. BIll of Ockham rules ! There is a certain advantage to making off switches difficult to reach, eg in the case of trickle fans or bathroom fans. For the new kitchen/ damp proof course I was rabbiting on about before my trip to Oz (the current hotel have given me a duplex suite with a living room!) I am actually wondering about painting the walls behind the cupboards with one of those humidity controlling paints used in metal sheds fro an extra damp buffer. On the Tesla, Aeroplanes use autopilot all the time of course. I think the thing was that the driver was being a bit of a bonehead and he may qualify for a Darwin Award, as he was relying on a camera going into the sun and it didn't detect a white lorry. I think I am right on that. I can see ways to fix that, which might be as simple as a black outline on the lorry. Ferdinand

Can I request that anyone submitting comments to the Parliament consider posting them here Cheers, F

I think it is fair to say that Roaf is criticising the passive 'approach' ie fabric first / air tightness / very high Insulation / low thermal mass / ultra low energy requirement, and that thinks it is embodied in recent changes to building regs. I think the general opinion here is that changes to building regs go nowhere near a realistic attempt to introduce passive principles thoroughly, and perhaps go 25-30% of the way before such a characterisation could be made. I think the principles are embraced by most here, but that there are thought to be some quite serious weakness, not including the probable Passivehaus Institute desire to certify that all housespiders in an official PassiveHaus have exactly 8 legs of proven identical length. God help them if Shelob turns up. Things that may be done differently include heat management via water circulation in the slab, and variations on the MVHR systems, and I think here we pay much attention to the issue of solar gain and potential overheating, and the detail of heating systems - ph favouring something electric in the MVHR if I recall. I am sure there are other aspects. TBH As a community of practice by people running small projects we are ahead of the official researchers in some aspects. Ferdinand

My project layout designer used a CAD plugin to Fuzzy the lines to make it look hand drawn. No longer available I think. Gone to the useful programs trashcan in the sky along with Lotus Magellan and Gorilla.bas . Old drawing boards should go to art or fashion students, who will use them. Ferdinand

Para 3 of her first contribution I think she is fundamentally wrong on how much energy can be saved in even existing buildings with proper work, perhaps 75%, and how much of a contribution can be made by solar panels (in Scotland FFS !!!) . There is also a strong element if the various Greenies - GP, WWF, FOE - needing to take up ever more extreme positions driven by their political position. They CANNOT recognise as a matter of fundamental identity if a solution is reached, as that would be self-liquidation. Ferdinand

Roaf (please let her have a big tough dog so the normal summons process can be reversed) made her name with The Oxford House here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Ecohouse That was 1995 and I am not sure about the numbers. Pre-passive, and I am not sure how mant PHs there are in Scotland to provide a 'plague' of problems and an evidence base. There are no witnesses at all who actually build houses. Ferdinand