Buying a new Build a few questions

dprovan

Hi

we are buying a new build in Northern Ireland we are also selling and have a short chain.... Currently everyone is getting surveys done and waiting for mortgages to be agreed.... I am trying to get ready and prepare for stages and have a few questions...

1. At what stage do I start committing to buying kitchens/bathrooms etc... My solicitor says we don't have exchange here just contracts signed as soon as mortgagges are all agreed and I should do it then...is that right?

2. I was under impression purchases for house ie carpets/flooring etc is VAT free, if so how does that work? Do I claim it back or what?

I am sure I have more questions, but I will leave it at that for now, and post more if they come to mind...

thanks

jennifernil

Is this a house you are having built for you, or a speculative build by a developer?

foiled

When we bought new build we had to chose the kitchen and bathroom, at the stage when the roof was going on.

As far as I know you have to pay VAT on carpets, at least we did.

lovelldr

With our new build, we never got to pick and choose the kitchen units. But they put the ones in that we liked anyway. We did manage to get in time to choose the tiles though, wo we managed to choose some which suited us, rather than the tack which they put in some of the others. They were automatically choosing things for the other plots, so that each plot looked a little different...

adr0ck

carpets are never vat free in any circumstances

dmg24

Are you buying a property where you will have to fit your own kitchen and bathroom? Your post implies this, but the other posters are referring to where the kitchen and bathroom are in with the price of the property, so a different situation.

Purchases for the house are not VAT free.

dprovan

yes, it is new but from a developer, we get PC sums to spend at designated outlets....obviously these go nowhere near far enough to pay for the whole kitchen etc...so say the pc sum for the kitchen is £3000 and the kitchen will cost £9000, I owe the kitchen guy £6000....Hence why Id rather not committ to this before being sure everything will go ahead, otherwise Im paying for whoever gets the house to get a kitchen

cheers

ukmonkey

what is a PC sum?

ginger_nuts

ukmonkey wrote:

what is a PC sum?

its the amount a builder will allow for kitchens ,bathrooms ,fireplaces in new builds .
The bulider will say ,house cost £200 ,000 I will allow £3000 for a kitchen but you must use ABC suppliers .
If you find a kitchen at £6000 you have to pay the kitchen supplier £3000 .
Builders dont allow much for PC sums so you have to pay the extra .

terrierlady

think I would rather have our old fashioned system where one selects from a choice on display in the showroom/sales office of the developer and the earlier the better as kitchen still need to be ordered, vat is payable on carpets , usually able to get them as part of incentives from a range developer has on show, or possible to upgrade to say 80/20 or 100 wool for a small fee.
Most developers of new homes have a selection programme maybe called , choice or options etc to get you to upgrade but they can sometimes work out expensive, worth considering for extra t.v. points or electric points etc.
Plan ahead where you would like these items put and get a plan from the sales rep MARKED DATED AND SIGNED BY YOURSELF, that way no room for error.
Developers have a nasty trick of forgetting to include prepaid items saying they were ordered too late in the build stage. the plan will cover that

Lil_Dee_2

And keep hold of any original paperwork (even if they are copies or carbon copies) no matter how minimal the event/change made. When we moved into our new build, we found the kitchen door & draw handles were wrong. On the developers instructions there were two different handle options quoted. On our copy there was no mention of the second handle type, which was the one they had installed. I'll let you figure out which one we'd ordered !!!

The VAT question has been raised on this board before, and although carpets aren't included a lot of things are - use the 'search' option at the top of the page, and you should be able to find some more stuff mentioned.