How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

Aside from the moral issue about tax and all that it does not alter any contract obligations.

Unless its a cash in hand, no invoice, nothing happening here gov sort of arrangement

Unless its a cash in hand, no invoice, nothing happening here gov sort of arrangement

and if so, 10% off seems like a poor deal for you

It is likely to be that though isn't it? They will be trying to hide the income for one tax reason or another. Which means if you ever needed to enforce, there's a risk they don't have a record of the transaction / can't admit to it

If there's still an invoice & it's showing the cash discount then that's totally legit & fine for you - sometimes for businesses cashflow is more important than revenue.

If it's cash in hand & no invoice - you're both indulging in a bit of tax avoidance (whether the discount is enough for your risk profile is up to you). Realistically your risk (other than HMRC) is you've got no official support if there's an issue, though you can still communicate with them & threaten their reputation.

Has anyone fitted a wood burner? I want to install one in our Victorian Terrace. At the moment the chimney breast is sealed. I just want a rough idea of what may be involved.

Usual disclaimer and it may not matter but they are not great for your health, or those of your neighbours.

Yeah that's the issue, one thing that is annoying is a lot of these schools now have biomass boilers and they say within about .5 of a mile of places that use them the increase in cancer is massive.

They’ll uncap the chimney and drop a liner down it. You’ll need a new pot too so a bit of remedial work required if it’s a mess up there. Depending on what’s going on in your fireplace there might be some work required there too. Then it’s a case of hooking the burner up to the liner.

Obvs. the bigger the mess up there and the more difficult the access the more pricey it is.

We had one fitted a few years ago, we originally had an open fire but wanted to convert to a burner for efficiency. We had an endless supply of wood from my brother's tree surgery business.

I think the total cost was around 3K for the (Burley) burner, flue liner, cowling, widening the opening, granite hearth and making good (plastering etc).

Always use seasoned wood (do not buy kiln dried, season it yourself for at least 12 months) and always burn hot (do not slumber).

We paid around £4k a few years ago:

Wiking Stove
Slate hearth
Metal plate to close internal chimney aperture (was previously an open fire)
Flue
Some flue packing Vermiculite stuff (quite a few bags)
New chimney pot and a tiny bit of rendering work
Removal of some very old dead birds

We don’t use it daily but being up in Scotland and having access to fallen wood we dry as much as we can and use it when it’s super cold.

Cheers all. Something to think about. I'm not sure it's something we'd do, but I was curious about the general ramifications.

Pretty sure (iirc) from an evidential pov an invoice is proof of sale - ie beneficial for the service provider. If I have a new drive layed + texts with quotes/prices + a bank account with a £2k withdrawal then I don't think not having an invoice changes my rights (such that they are in practice).

Also, if you're a member of a professional body that expects you to be aware of and report potential money laundering offences (accountant, lawyer, etc) you may get booted for aiding tax evasion.

Strikes me as bollocks but if you can find an example I’d be interested to see (as someone that has acted as an MLRO in the past).

No the one about the guy’s train tickets is not a relevant comparator.

Ima say paying cash for a legal thing is pretty much the opposite of money laundering.

Moot really tho, if you get a criminal record for aiding tax evasion you’ll not be accounting or lawyering at all.

I am actually going to bake my neighbour a cake, and not even put nails or frozen sausages in it.

Can't hurt, and logic and reason will just fail.

Edit: Scratch that, turns out there is some 2 month period during party wall, not part of the 14 day or 10 day, which means Ive left it too late to get sorted as neighbour will defo drag heels and prevent so loft off (for now).

Fruitcake?

did lol; would rep

It was a big issue just after all the legislation first came in (maybe ten years, maybe more, I lose track) and no-one was quite sure what the rules were. One accountant certainly got done with the Institute arguing that he should have been aware given his professional knowledge (there was the suggestion that it was a convenient excuse but who knows).

This seems like the place to ask. I need to replace 5 internal doors on a 20s semi detached house. Any suggestions for places to look that might have something interesting? Open to new or reclaimed. I've never really thought about doors before...

Some options: I got a lovely fluted glass one for the bathroom from Aladdin's cave in New cross for £40 recently, and in another room used a plywood 'blank' sanded and oiled, which was ~£70 from a builders merchant, albeit had to try a few places to find one with nice grain and in the colour i wanted.

When we were idly looking for doors ebay seemed to have lots. You need to be really on top of sizing though.

Thanks! I'll get the measurements and keep an eye on eBay I reckon. There's no massive rush.

If you're prepared to deal with the people on it, can be worth checking Facebook marketplace. We picked up a full set from some guy renovating an old place for 20 a door. Should have paid a bit more attention to how square they were, but have made them work.

That's not a bad shout actually, I'll keep an eye on there as well.

We picked up a full set from some guy renovating an old place for 20 a door. Should have paid a bit more attention to how square they were, but have made them work.

This is what to watch with old doors. If they’re warped or out of square your £20 door will quickly become a £250 door once a carpenter has had to mess about with it to make it fit.

The doors in our house are oversize so I had to cut them from 8x4 blanks. Each one took two days to cut, edge, swing, fill and decorate.