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sign off for completion


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I have had a search around the forum but cant find what I am looking for.

 

We are now, I hope, only weeks off being complete inside...outside still a quagmire but if the weather holds we may make progress there too.

 

I have been trying to find a list of what we need to have ready to get the house signed off to live in. I’m trying to get ahead of myself a bit and get all my papers ready.

 

I think gas and electricity certificates and an epc but beyond that I have no idea. whatsoever.

 

House is in England if that has any bearing.

 

If anyone could point me at the relevant info I would be gratful.

 

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@lizzie

The short answer is to simply ask your inspector what he needs from you in order to sign it off - on my own build all he asked for was the 3 items you've mentioned + they did a final visit to check that we had actually finished.

 

IMHO it's pointless spending hours of your time getting items of information together that the inspector may not need.

 

Ian

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4 minutes ago, Ian said:

 

IMHO it's pointless spending hours of your time getting items of information together that the inspector may not need.

 

 

+1. 

 

I just filled in the completion form and they came out and did the inspection, and provided a list of things to be corrected or certificates they wanted to see before sign off. Things I thought they might be interested in they weren’t bothered about and things that looked ok to me they picked up on. It really wasn’t a big list in the great scheme of things. Once those things were addressed they came back to check and I got the completion certificate. 

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1 minute ago, ragg987 said:

Agree with @Ian. Our inspector sent a list and lef the organisation soon after. I submitted the items on his list and the new inspector added a new one. Will also depend on your method of build, I think.

 

I had to get a Form Q to show that the roof could take the weight of the solar panels as they hadn’t been part of the original design and I was also asked to prove that they weren’t a fire risk :S

 

It does seem to be inspector dependent as a different one came round for the final inspection and tried to add things that weren’t on the original list. I complained and a third one came out who wasn’t bothered by those things and signed it off. 

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Guest Alphonsox

Have you got the ramped wheelchair access in place ? or is that still waiting to be solved as part of the quagmire ?

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I'm trying to juggle the vat aspect with getting sign off asap.  I need to get my road and things booked at zero rate even if they dont go down for a few weeks ....saying that I cant move in without a road surface down so its a never ending circle.  Paying 2k a month rent for way longer than we ever anticipated has cost a lot just need to get out of this expensive rented hovel and into my own home. 2 years is way way to long to be paying rent. I don't factor that rent into the massive overspend either. It's the labour costs that have been absolutely crippling they were hugely underestimated, everything has taken very much longer than anticipated so hence higher costs.

 

After all the stress now the sciatica has notched up to screaming pain levels so I can barely walk I  probably need that wheelchair ramp myself!

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11 minutes ago, lizzie said:

 I don't factor that rent into the massive overspend either. It's the labour costs that have been absolutely crippling they were hugely underestimated, everything has taken very much longer than anticipated so hence higher costs.

 

Ready or not we just moved in / squatted, call it what you will, and lived in a couple of rooms. We didn’t have an issue with access however. I did bring the build in on budget pretty much (budget, payments  and paperwork were my only responsibilities initially) but in order to do that I compromised / reduced costs in some areas that I wish I now hadn’t, so don’t beat yourself up over anything, if you’ve ended up with the place of your dreams it will all be worth it when you finally move in. 

 

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This is what our BCO has asked for:

 

Before the completion visit we will require titled pdf copies of the following certificates (where applicable):
a)            Building Control Completion certificate (this is what he will be issuing)
c)            Air test
d)            As built SAP
e)            EPC
h)            Water efficiency G2
j)             Electrical
k)            Gas, Benchmark
l)             HETAS (N/A for our build)
m)          Heating system commissioning
n)            Ventilation system commissioning
o)            BBA Certificates and 10 year registered insurance backed guarantee for the product and installation of: tanking and basement water proofing systems, slate roof, flat roof, green roofs, dormers, large secret gutters, cavity wall injection, and external wall systems, including render systems (N/A for our build except the slate roof - not sure why he needs this)
p)            Flow tests results will be required for the extractor fans (we have MVHR, and I've sent him my commissioning report which he's happy with).

 

The visit will involve looking down manholes and into roofs and around the property

 

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8 minutes ago, RandAbuild said:

10 year registered insurance backed guarantee for the product and installation of

Our combined BC and build warranty provider started down this route at the end, after we had finished most of the build. I objected as they were retrospectively adding conditions that were not in there when I purchased the service. They backed off without explanation.

 

The cynic in me thinks that they are either trying to back-off their risk with the 10-year build warranty or to sell additional warranty (which they suggested when I said that we did not have this in place for e.g. our external render). Naughty.

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3 hours ago, Declan52 said:

Just don't forget that once that piece of paper is signed then you pay vat on anything else from that date. 

I think this is not so clear. Our claim had some materials after sign-off date, VAT refunded no questions asked. The notes also allow for e.g. snagging to happen prior to claim submission.

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18 minutes ago, ragg987 said:

Our combined BC and build warranty provider started down this route at the end, after we had finished most of the build. I objected as they were retrospectively adding conditions that were not in there when I purchased the service. They backed off without explanation.

 

The cynic in me thinks that they are either trying to back-off their risk with the 10-year build warranty or to sell additional warranty (which they suggested when I said that we did not have this in place for e.g. our external render). Naughty.

Good point - our BCO acts for the warranty provider (Self Build Zone) too and you're right about them shifting the responsibility to someone else. To my mind a slate roof should not need an insurance backed guarantee as a) our roofer can't supply one even if I asked for it and b) that's what I'm paying  SBZ for!

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4 hours ago, Declan52 said:

Just don't forget that once that piece of paper is signed then you pay vat on anything else from that date. 

Actually the deadline for submission of your Vat reclaim is 3 months from the date of your completion certificate 

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27 minutes ago, Ian said:

Actually the deadline for submission of your Vat reclaim is 3 months from the date of your completion certificate 

You have 3 months to get the form sent in but anything else you buy after your completion date you will pay vat on.

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47 minutes ago, Declan52 said:

You have 3 months to get the form sent in but anything else you buy after your completion date you will pay vat on.

Sorry but that’s not correct. We bought all our external works materials such as garden fencing and driveway materials after the date of our completion certificate and we were able to claim the Vat back successfully on them with the rest of the claim.

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21 minutes ago, Ian said:

Sorry but that’s not correct. We bought all our external works materials such as garden fencing and driveway materials after the date of our completion certificate and we were able to claim the Vat back successfully on them with the rest of the claim.

That's seems at odds with all the other advice and comments so great to read! England?

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Just now, readiescards said:

That's seems at odds with all the other advice and comments so great to read! England?

England & Wales are treated the same way. I don’t know about Scotland or N Ireland.

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1 hour ago, Ian said:

England & Wales are treated the same way. I don’t know about Scotland or N Ireland.

 

It's all the same scheme so I imagine it's the same throughout the UK. My claim for a house in Scotland was just sent to Newcastle and the form to be completed was the same. 

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