Credit Control?

[Anne Jackson]

The message from [e-mail] (Steve Firth) contains these words:

(?) Can't?

[Bob Eager]

They own it. It's a council house. Different kind of permission, of course.

[Brian Sharrock]

But; you wrote; "the council, having given permission for the building of the porch/conservatory" ! Exactly _how_ does a council _give permission_ for any buillding work to be done? Please elaborate; I'm confused by your statement.

You've lready said (writen) that the council 'had given permission' ... I'd have expected the 'client' to 'play it large' and brandihing a Certificate of Occupancy off the Council ... wondered why that doesn't seem yo have been played (little or large)?

The council's spokesperson's remarks are non-specific and can't be interpreted to imply that this particular tenant and/or builder had adhered to the building control requirements.

[fred]

In article , Brian Sharrock writes

Do give me a shout when you have anything that even hints that this is a planning consent issue.

[Steve Firth]

Corrected above, I think.

[Andy Hall]

OK. It was what I thought you meant but thought I'd ask in case you had a different perspective that I hadn't considered before.

[The Medway Handyman]

Far from being a pikey builder, I have a near perfect credit score & a 100% positive bank reference. Since I started 2 years ago I have always paid my suppliers when ordering materials using my business acount debit card. I prefer this method as I know exactly where I am finacially.

This means however that I don't have any suppliers I can use as 'trade references', therefore opening a credit acount with my timber supplier is likely to be a problem.

Hoist by my own petard?

[Andy Hall]

This is pretty easy to fix. Try opening accounts with a couple of small suppliers (even in an unrelated or semi-unrelated area) - e.g. the printer for your business cards. Once that has been in place for a few months then use those as references for larger suppliers. Having the facilities in place is the useful thing and with some suppliers may earn you better pricing. There's nothing to stop you from still paying as you always have done. Like anything else involving a credit facility, the important thing is to be crisp about and pay attention to what you are doing. If that means running with net zero days balances then you can do it.

[nightjar]

....

Exactly what I did with a new limited company I started a couple of years ago. It now has credit facilities of up to £15k with all its suppliers.

I suspect there are quite a few people running small businesses who would not understand that last sentence.

Colin Bignell

[Brian Sharrock]

snip

That'll be shortly after you've demonstrated that " ... the council had given permission ...".

BTW; I've forked out nearly a thousand quid to the self same Adur District Council in planning application; building control submissions and BCO service fees for my humble alterations yet I know of many illicit building alterations for which 'the council has given permission _NOT_!

[Brian Sharrock]

Follow up to my earler post:

According to the local / regional newpaper 'The Argus'; the property is in Elizabeth Road, Shoreham.

The Adur District Council's webiste contains a planning application / decision/ appeals series of pages which indicates that there are no planning applications / approvals for any property in 'Elizabeth Rd'. [A porch may not require planning consent and a 'conservatory' may be within 'Permitted development']

[<me9]

I would have thought the builder would have recycled them, rather than letting them fall of and be likely to be broken. He seemed very careful with the conservatory.

Perhaps it was for the benefit of the TV crew.

[John Rumm]

IIRC, the first time we required a trade reference for something, I simply listed our company bank as one source, and someone like CPC (with who we had a couple of hundred credit limit at the time) as another. Once you have one or two, its easy to step on to more (as long as your ratings are sound).

[Andy Hall]

Mmm...

Be it buying or selling.