Moving in but not moving in & VAT

[Conor]

We've sold our current house and are moving in to a rental in January for 12months during the build. It's a PITA contacting banks, employers, DVLA etc about changing address... And I don't want to have to do it twice.

 

Can I have our "site" as our primary address (it's an existing house with postal address (post box on the gate) during the build or could we fall foul of the VAT man when we do our VAT reclaim? I've read here about people being caught out moving in before works competed etc. Wondering if this is a risk of we have all our correspondence going here?

 

[nod]

56 minutes ago, Conor said:

We've sold our current house and are moving in to a rental in January for 12months during the build. It's a PITA contacting banks, employers, DVLA etc about changing address... And I don't want to have to do it twice.

 

Can I have our "site" as our primary address (it's an existing house with postal address (post box on the gate) during the build or could we fall foul of the VAT man when we do our VAT reclaim? I've read here about people being caught out moving in before works competed etc. Wondering if this is a risk of we have all our correspondence going here?

 

Good thinking 

I wouldn’t have it would matter 

When we submitted the questions where more geared to when had we moved into the new build Rather than when we had moved out ours 

Quite a lot of invoices and other bits where delivered to site and posted through to next door 

We really should have installed a temporary box 

[joe90]

I don’t think it will matter, I fell foul of HMRC changing the rules from 3 months of BC sign off to 3 months moving in but managed to get some receipts changed to a newer date to show work was still being done. I had a billing address for building materials at the site but this  was not questioned, bills going to site is no indication of you living there especially as it sound like me there was a house there before.

[ProDave]

I can't see it matters for a VAT claim. You could quite legitimately be living on site in a caravan and using the site address during the build.

[Temp]

Make sure the box is secure as building sites and empty houses tend to attract thieves.

[Gone West]

We lived in our bungalow while we built the replacement house in the garden. We have always used the same address throughout the build.

[newhome]

I used 3 addresses while we were building and no one cared. Of course you will need to have building materials delivered to your site so makes sense to have that as the invoice address assuming that there is somewhere safe to leave the post and the postman knows where to deliver to. I used to write ‘next to’ and then the name of the house next door as the second line of my address to ensure that everyone could find it as the sat nav takes you into the farm at the back. 

[Roundtuit]

8 minutes ago, newhome said:

I used 3 addresses while we were building and no one cared. 

 

Me too, and 4 delivery addresses.  I included a note with the vat claim explaining what they all were (old house, rented house, new house/ plot, work address) and no one queried it, so I'd say do whatever  ever suits you best.

[ragg987]

12 hours ago, Conor said:

it's an existing house with postal address

Are you demolishing prior to build? And presumably you would then want to de-register the old house so you no longer pay rates?

 

If so the address disappears and this change will cascade through databases of households e.g. royal mail etc.

 

Reason this might matter is that it may cease to be a legal address e.g. for DVLA, voting register etc. And might it also affect your credit records?

[joe90]

9 hours ago, ragg987 said:

Are you demolishing prior to build? And presumably you would then want to de-register the old house so you no longer pay rates?

 

If so the address disappears and this change will cascade through databases of households e.g. royal mail etc.

 

This did not happen with us, demolished bungalow, stopped council tax, continued to receive mail (with mail box on the gate), caravan on site (for builders facilities!!!!!!). Moved into house on completion, rebanded fir council tax. I don’t think any databases erased us at all (continued to receive junk mail).

[ProDave]

10 hours ago, ragg987 said:

Are you demolishing prior to build? And presumably you would then want to de-register the old house so you no longer pay rates?

 

If so the address disappears and this change will cascade through databases of households e.g. royal mail etc.

 

Reason this might matter is that it may cease to be a legal address e.g. for DVLA, voting register etc. And might it also affect your credit records?

Nothing automaticatlly cascades through the system, least of all the Postcode Address File.

 

Our new house is on all sorts of address databases, including the Councils own house name / number database, DNO's database, electroal register, DVLA, HMRC etc.  The house name is even on the OS map used by the Land Registry, where the outline of the house is mapped quite accurately.  The one it is NOT on is the PAF because I refuse on principle to pay £100 just for the council to notify the address to Royal Mail.  So don't worry there is no fear of your address dropping off the PAF unless someone pays for it to be de listed.

[ragg987]

4 hours ago, ProDave said:

Nothing automaticatlly cascades through the system, least of all the Postcode Address File.

My experience is different. Our address started to disappear over a few months, including sales history off Rightmove. I believe the trigger was when my council notified the VOA after I told them of the demolition.

 

It was not until I registered the new build with the VOA did it start to return to the address databases. I think it was a few weeks before royal mail had it.

[Conor]

Thanks everybody. We will be applying for a rates revaluation in December, we'll enquire with the LA about the residential address status after that happens.