Things to look for if your house or flat is in a city. The following problems could be missed by your builder or local company and could have unforeseen problems which will cost you extra money that you might not be aware of until its too late.

The problems are as follows:

If there is only one point of access into the flat. There may only be access through the front door. If there is no rear access to the property all the materials may have to go through the communal area or through the house. This could be at an extra cost as it will take longer. Plus no builder really wants to do this. As well as having to carry the materials up the 2/3 flights of stairs the team will have to go through tight turning corridors which is often very difficult.

If your house or flat is on a double yellow line or on a red route. It then might have a restriction like a certain day when the crane company can operate so it doesn’t restrict the flow of traffic. If its a Saturday or Sunday, the crane company could charge you or your company extra for a weekend slot and this cost is normally absorbed by the customer even though they may not know it at the start.

If there is a bus shelter and/or bus stop outside the property. This will cause similar problems to the point above but also you may not ever be able to use a crane for the build. This decision is made by the local council subject to health and safety to the general public. If you cant use a crane you/your company may have to use an electronic wench which is attached to the side of the scaffolding. It roughly costs the same amount as a crane but it takes alot longer to lift everything up onto the scaffolding and into the roof. Health and safety issues are also present with regards to storing materials on the front scaffold and working off it with such a busy street. One situation I’ve been in before is that there was a bus stop and shelter that where always in constant use, even on a Sunday the buses were running from 6am until midnight every 3 minutes… This is a major problem for a building company, the council and for your road. Also if the road is very slim it can cause issues for the crane delivering materials.

If your house is on or below a parade of shops there is also a major issues with the scaffolding. It will have to be netted, possibly have a scaffolding alarm fitted and be specially designed so the general public can safely walk underneath the building area. Costs are around £1000 on top of the quoted scaffolding cost.

Most of the points above will all need a scaffolding license as the health and safety implications are massive. There is also nowhere for the skip to go at the front of the property. If there is a side road you can apply for a permit form the council but if there are yellow lines on the side road there will be costs attached, approx £200+ a week which again will probably be missed but then get absorbed by the customer…

If there are no parking bays that can be suspended for the trades to park, the tickets will cost around £1 to £2 per hour in most cities. Trade permits can be available in some areas and are alot cheaper but will need to be arranged with the local council by the home owner.

Vat on Building work including lofts is to expensive and needs to be cut. By doing this millions of home owners will be able to stay where they are and extend their property. The FMB have put a petition together to try and crack down on cowboy builders on all trades to stop the gangsters doing cash deals with customers and then leaving them half way through a job without finishing it at the agreed the price, walking off the job and having no come back on themselves in court as the customer has avoided the VAT….

The FMB our are focused on lowering the 17.5% vat bracket down to just 5% which sounds like a good saving but with the cost of raw materials going up by upto 40% because of the works being done over the far east, building costs in this country are just spiraling out of control.

Get behind the Petition and go to cutthevat.co.uk for more details

If a builder say’s he will do a deal on cash to avoid the VAT…BEWARE!!! even though at first it might sound tempting to save £4,000 to £5,000 off the price. If he/they have said it to you they would have definitely said it to other clients. This means that the builder/company is a risk to you and your property.

The VAT are all over this industry and are closing companies down all over the country because of VAT fraud. If this happens to you and your chosen builder during or after the build, it won’t just be the builder who will be fined, you will have to pay an extra 17.5% on top of the “build price” and a heavy penalty. This is because there is no proof of the “build price” because you have paid cash, it will often be a heavier penalty decided by a crown court, a criminal record and possibly even a 6 month imprisonment sentance depending on the size of the building job.

IS IT REALLY WORTH THE RISK !!!

I have been told that alot of laundered money is going into lofts at the moment, where people are buying lot’s of houses legitimately and filtering laundered money through the tradesman direct avoiding all the VAT, claiming they built the loft themselves and selling their houses for a huge profit of just pure clean money.

Just think about your actions first, with cash you have no come back on the builder if any thing goes wrong. All he has to do is deny he built your loft, and you can’t do anything, it’s not like you can take him to court.

Now weigh all these negatives with one simple solution…

CHOOSE A COMPANY WHO ARE SAFE, ETHICAL AND MORALLY BASED. A COMPANY WHO PAY ALL THEIR VAT AND ARE PROUD OF IT. IF THEY’RE A LITTLE MORE EXPENSIVE IT SHOULDN’T MATTER TOO MUCH BECAUSE YOU’RE PAYING INTO THE COMFORT OF THEM BEING AROUND IN THE YEARS TO COME IF THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH YOUR JOB.

After all a 10 year guarantee isn’t worth that much once the builders out of business and unfortunately have been closed down…

There is probably equity in your property, is the cash route really the right way to go?