Archived Entries
February 2010
Orchard Planning Solutions welcomes David Acreman
Orchard Planning Solutions is pleased to welcome David Acreman to the site this month. David is the author of 'Field and Farm', a book demonstrating how to live, build property, and start a business on ordinary agricultural land in the UK, and all without planning permission! The book takes you through all the steps starting with a field and up to getting planning permission for a house. It tells you everything that you need to know making it possible to turn a relatively modest investment in agricultural land into a substantial asset, uncovering all the loopholes in the current planning system along the way!
David Acreman has been involved in planning for over 30 years in various capacities, mostly as a consultant to the agricultural industry, and has written to redress the balance between the planning system and the individual with regard to agricultural planning matters.The book cannot cover every circumstance or eventuality so for any questions the book doesn't answer, David is happy to answer your questions using an online forum: http://www.fieldtofarm.com/forum/.
Part 2: Confessions of a House Move - The Inside Story
After an anxious few days of waiting, our second offer has finally been accepted. The vendors initially rejected it, obviously hoping we would just keep on increasing our offer. We decided to leave it a few days and see what happened. Actually, we were so concerned that another potential buyer would view the house we had fallen in love with and offer more than us that we decided we would increase our offer to the full asking price. However, the waiting paid off and just before I called the agent to increase our offer, she rang me and asked in a worried tone if we were still interested. I read the signals and said that we were still interested but were not willing to increase our offer. Half an hour later she called back to say that the vendors would accept.
It's obviously a great moment when your offer is accepted, but it's best not to start celebrating until you put the key in the door as so much can go wrong. The first thing you have to do is chose a solicitor. In our case the estate agent recommended one that they use regularly. You could easily assume that this is because they get a cut of the fee which may be the case, but it is more than likely that they like to recommend one that they know from experience will do a good job. After all, they want the sale to complete smoothly as well.
It is worth negotiating on the solicitor's fee as in a tough market they will want your business. We told them we had received a much lower quote elsewhere (we hadn't) and they matched it immediately. Next begins the long process of waiting for all the searches to be done and signing documents. The other advantage we are finding of using a local solicitor is that you can easily drop off all the important documents by hand without having to rely on the postal service. The sale is unable to proceed any further until the solicitors have had some documents back so you don't want to be delayed by a postal strike. Our vendors have specified an exchange of contracts within 28 days of contracts going out which I am told is fairly standard. We will obviously be doing everything we can to ensure we meet this deadline.
How to Fight Back when it comes to Household Fuel Bills
A sure way to end light-hearted conversation is to mention household fuel bills and their meteoric rise over the past seven years. According to the comparison website moneysupermarket.com household bills have doubled since 2003. Fuel poverty is a real issue amongst the vulnerable and occurs when more than 10% of household income is dedicated to paying fuel bills. However, with a degree of guile and imagination, we can do our best to reduce our energy consumption in the following ways:-
- Be savvy and search out competitive deals from other suppliers. There is nothing a service supplier likes more than a customer who is compliant and loyal to them. One thing I have begun to recognise in life is that there is little personal gain in being a loyal customer. Make your supplier be it your telephone provider or utility supplier work for their money and above all, take the time to search out more competitive deals. Also, avoid being caught in the trap of thinking that you have to stay with a supplier for a certain period of time. You can in some circumstances, change supplier after as little as 6 weeks for example but do check that the tariff you are on does not incur any penalties for doing this. I changed my dual fuel supplier last year and was rewarded with a more competitive tariff and Nectar bonus points which paid for my turkey!
- Be Proactive and submit your meter readings. Again, we are all too comfortable in paying estimated bills which falls right into the hands of the utility supplier. If your gas and electricity meters are not regularly read, estimated readings mean that you could be paying more for gas or electricity than you actually use. More importantly, if you do not submit your own meter readings, you will not be entitled to a refund should you find you have overpaid.
- Take the exercise and switch your appliance off at the plug. It is something we all do with unerring regularity and will ultimately cost us in the long run. Leaving appliance on standby is a real no no and can cost us up to £10 per month per appliance.
- Invest in Mastic and Foam. If you feel a draft, that will often indicate a potential heat loss source. In this case, try if possible to seal any gaps by either using mastic or expandable foam.
- Get those Curtains lined or shutters ordered. Sadly windows are one of the most efficient ways of losing heat from your property. This is a real issue if you live in a listed property with single pane windows and the potential to have them replaced not possible on historic building grounds.
- Last but not least, wrap up warm and turn that thermostatic control down by 1 or 2 degrees.
If you have imaginative ways of reducing your fuel bills, we look forward to hearing them.
