Ecology - SAP 85

[Bitpipe]

49 minutes ago, Alex C said:

I think it was me. I drew down 10k straight off then used my savings before drawing down more months later. saved over 6 months interest on the full amount at the end of the 2 year period.

 

You can pant wrestle @jack to get the credit back

 

This is the clever way to do it.

 

11 hours ago, willbish said:

 

My ecology mistake was to withdraw too much too early on. I was under the (incorrect) impression that I would be paying for a valuation before each draw down. Now that I have enquired about withdrawing some more I have been told that because of my LTV I can continue to withdraw without a valuation or even administration fee upto a surprising amount. 

The process is also very fast, so from applying for more funds to cash in account has been 48hrs.

 

Yep, I remember going to our solicitor after the initial draw was spent and asking what the process was for more. He said - just send them an email, nothing to do with me.

 

Was as easy as that.

[Alex C]

1 hour ago, Bitpipe said:

 

 

Yep, I remember going to our solicitor after the initial draw was spent and asking what the process was for more. He said - just send them an email, nothing to do with me.

 

Was as easy as that.

I would often email them in the morning and have the money in my account by the afternoon. No charges and no minimum transfer amount. Couldn't have been easier.

[Taff]

Is there a minimum drawdown, thought I read 30k somewhere?

[Alex C]

2 hours ago, Taff said:

Is there a minimum drawdown, thought I read 30k somewhere?

Rules for this sort of thing will change and may be dependant on other factors such as LTV. I definately did not have a minimum draw down with Ecology. They were very flexible but my LTV was very in my favour.

[Taff]

Ah that’s great as I just want small amounts at a time, I hate paying interest. Mine too LTV  in our favour too. Spend wisely me thinks

[Taff]

Ecology have said minimum drawdown is £30k. I’m hoping the positive virus effect will reduce their rates ??

[davejura]

We are thinking of going with Ecology. We have a good LTV (plot owned and enough money to get drains, founds and under build done). Any advice? Do you only pay interest on the money you draw down from the time you get it? Do you just need the SAP calculation at 85 plus (ours is 86) or do they want evidence of more energy efficient measures? What sort of build cost estimate do they need? Do you still not need a warranty if you go with them? So many questions! Thanks.

[LA3222]

9 minutes ago, davejura said:

We are thinking of going with Ecology. We have a good LTV (plot owned and enough money to get drains, founds and under build done). Any advice? Do you only pay interest on the money you draw down from the time you get it? Do you just need the SAP calculation at 85 plus (ours is 86) or do they want evidence of more energy efficient measures? What sort of build cost estimate do they need? Do you still not need a warranty if you go with them? So many questions! Thanks.

1. Interest is only paid on what you draw down.

2. SAP report from a SAP assessor is all that is required (some may suggest doing your own SAP - not worth the hassle imho for a tiny saving - mine cost about £120).

3. Estimate - I used estjmators online as it gave me the bones of the costs, I then downloaded that into excel format and tweaked accordingly. You can do it yourself but for a couple of hundred quid the estimators online one gives you a really good starting point imo.

4. Dont need a warranty - if you intend to remortgage you will likely need a warranty. I took out a warranty purely so I can remortgage post build to a much more favourable rate. Yes it is a few grand for nothing, but over a 30yr mortgage, dropping down to a better rate will far outweigh that cost.

[PeterW]

Keep your own money in the bank and draw down to lock in your offer, even if it is only £20 for groundworks

 

[LA3222]

You are in a very similar position to where I was @davejura I managed to get foundations done, services in etc all on my own funds. I needed the mortgage to come through for the big 2nd stage TF payment. Ecology are very good to deal with.

[Ralph]

I like that their re-valuations are not tied to stages. You can crack on and when the money starts getting low get a valuation and increase the amount available for draw down.

[davejura]

Thanks folks. I didn't think about needing a warranty for a remortgage! Was hoping to avoid the extra £4k cost for a piece of paper, when due to our location they would probably only visit a couple of times.

 

[SuperJohnG]

On 17/04/2020 at 12:02, davejura said:

Thanks folks. I didn't think about needing a warranty for a remortgage! Was hoping to avoid the extra £4k cost for a piece of paper, when due to our location they would probably only visit a couple of times.

 

If you have an architect cert you shouldn't need a warranty if it's just for the purpose of remortgaging or selling. So dont get caught out by paying twice  just get one or the other.  I am currently just looking at this stage to ensure the architect certificate will give me everything I need an also check the costs 

[Bitpipe]

On 17/04/2020 at 11:56, Ralph said:

I like that their re-valuations are not tied to stages. You can crack on and when the money starts getting low get a valuation and increase the amount available for draw down.

 

My experience was I didn't need to present anything to draw down more money, they will give you what ever you ask for (by email or phone) whenever you need it no need to bother your solicitor once the mge has been set up..

 

We did 3 chunks of 50%, 25% and 25% of the loan value - should have pulled down a nominal amount early on to start the 2 year clock but we were using our own cash for the first bit and wanted to avoid running up interest but ended up on their mge for 3-4 months longer than we needed to be. However we got an as built SAP A rating (just) so that made the last year a but cheaper (think it was 0.75% discount).

 

Ecology were so nice, when their surveyor firm was backed up with work, they let us find a local one that could do the job quicker and even refunded the difference between their fee and the amount allocated in the offer!

 

Remortgaging off Ecology to a high st brand at a lower rate was easy - their surveyor asked if we had a warranty (answer, yes but technically it's not active as we don't have BCO sign off yet) but never asked to see it.

 

 

[Ralph]

3 hours ago, Bitpipe said:

My experience was I didn't need to present anything to draw down more money, they will give you what ever you ask for (by email or phone) whenever you need it no need to bother your solicitor once the mge has been set 

True but only up to 80% of the value of what you're borrowing against (might depend on finally LTV etc). Once you've maxed that out you need a revaluation so you can borrow against that minus what you've already drawn down.

 

We found them great to deal with as well. Always helpful and pleasant.

[Taff]

We have drawn down 30k beginning of month, first one to get the ball running. We haven’t paid the first instalment yet and have just received our ecology letter to advice of 0.5% reduction to their rate due to the current climate, so a good start, think we’ll be saving a tenner or so ?? every little helps.

[Ralph]

1 hour ago, Taff said:

We have drawn down 30k beginning of month, first one to get the ball running. We haven’t paid the first instalment yet and have just received our ecology letter to advice of 0.5% reduction to their rate due to the current climate, so a good start, think we’ll be saving a tenner or so ?? every little helps.

 We drew down quite a bit more because we were expecting to pay the ground works plus the fist two kit installments in quick succession, it's now just sitting in the account. Annoying but not a disaster. 

[Taff]

1 bonus the clock has started ?

[eandg]

On 09/03/2020 at 19:27, Taff said:

We used these they were quick and provided a thorough report for our predicted assessment. Cost £120.00 inc

 

JSP SUSTAINABILITY LIMITED
York Science Park
Innovation Centre, Innovation Way Heslington, York
North Yorkshire
YO10, 5DG
Tel : +44(0)1904 435 325
Email : info@jspsustainability.co.uk VAT Reg No: 141994591

 

On 09/03/2020 at 20:55, Neil said:

I used this company a couple of years ago for both pre-build and post build assessments. Very good to deal with, (all by e-mail). Completed reports were produced in 3 to 4 days.Current cost appears to be £90.

 

https://sapeasy.co.uk/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw0pfzBRCOARIsANi0g0sBB4Edui1eo6FafgHc083V9gwsavZtKEjOiMVdNqSUb_iUPB8WcpoaAhflEALw_wcB

 

Edit: Just looked and found the answer myself, sorry. 

Edited June 3, 2020 by eandg

[Taff]

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[John latimer]

Just out of interest what did you all build with to get the SAP rating over 85? I have just applied to go with Ecology and am in the process of working out how to build. I’ve got some SIP quotes but using SIPS will use up over half of my budget not leaving much for Groundworks and the rest of the build. ICF looks favorable. Or I build brick and timber frame but not sure how the energy ratings will turn out to get the mortgage.

[Ralph]

We're using Scotframe Val-U-Therm, sort of hybrid timber/SIP. The price was not far off getting the builder to do a timber frame.

As has been said before you also just need to show that the design is capable of hitting the target to get the mortgage. It could be that some solar will get you over the SAP line. Nothing says that you have to put it in, you just wont get the full discounts after completion.

[Mike_scotland]

For ecology what sort of information dis you have to give to get started with the mortgage? 

 

Do they times your wages by 4 or something? 

[Conor]

25 minutes ago, Mike_scotland said:

For ecology what sort of information dis you have to give to get started with the mortgage? 

 

Do they times your wages by 4 or something? 

They have no firm rules like that - they'll analyze all your finances they state whether they can offer you a loan. For us, the total we were looking for was 3.5 our gross incomes. No issues.

[LA3222]

@Mike_scotland they gave me a costings spreadsheet which tells you how much they could potentially lend you.

 

Then its 3 months of wage slips, a costings spreadsheet you can do yourself and not a lot else to be honest. You have a phone interview to go through everything, pay the fee, the valuer does their bit, solicitor does theirs and then job done.

 

They are very easy to deal with.