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What a flat pack house quote should separate
A flat pack house price is the price of a kit plus the ground, the services and the approvals for a new building. Price the kit, the ground and the approvals as separate lines in the quote.
Last reviewed:A kit is a delivery. A house is a building.
Flat pack, for this quote, means a house or a large part of a house that arrives as panels or a frame and is assembled on a plot. The lorry does not remove the need to ask whether the building may stand there, or how it must be built. Split the quote before you compare anyone. One line is the kit. Another is the ground it sits on. Another is water, drains, power and heat. Another is the fees and the time of the approvals. A brochure that adds those up and calls the result "the house" is not yet a quote you can put next to a second firm.
The table is the split to insist on. VAT registration, when taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000, is a tax rule and not a house price [S4].
| Line | What a single brochure total hides |
|---|---|
| Kit supply: panels, frame, windows, roof covering, named | A shell is not a finished house |
| Foundations and the ground slab, designed for this plot | The kit drawing is not a soil survey |
| Planning application, prepared or excluded | Building something new is the planning question [S1] |
| Building control inspections for the construction | The Building Regulations 2010 cover construction [S2] |
| Water, drains, electrics and heating, each named | Services are trades, not a footnote |
| Waste, crane or delivery limits, and who insures the kit in transit | Ask before you pay |
| VAT on each of those lines | Included or not. Registration when taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000 [S4] |
Planning permission is about whether it may be built
GOV.UK's planning permission guide says you will probably need planning permission if you want to build something new, make a major change such as an extension, or change the use of a building [S1]. To find out, contact your local planning authority through your council [S1]. A flat pack house on an empty plot is the first of those cases until the authority says otherwise. An extension in kit form to a house that is already there is the second case, and you should say which one you mean so the quotes are not mixed.
An application can still be refused. A national brochure does not make a particular Cheshire street a suitable plot. Listed buildings and local directions are questions for that authority, not for a national brochure [S1].
Building regulations are about how it is built
GOV.UK's page on building regulations approval says you must check if you need approval before you construct or change buildings in certain ways [S2]. The Building Regulations 2010 cover the construction and extension of buildings [S2]. Approval is different from planning permission, and you might need both [S2]. You do not need to get approval yourself if you use someone registered with a competent person scheme [S2]. Read that as a rule about work a scheme actually covers. Do not read it as "the kit company replaces the building control body for the whole house". Ask the building control body. You can use your local authority's building control department or a private registered building control approver [S2].
For work that is not higher-risk, that is the route the page describes [S2]. Higher-risk buildings are a narrower set: at least 7 storeys or 18 metres high, and also 2 residential units, or a hospital, or a care home [S2]. Building a new higher-risk building needs approval from the Building Safety Regulator before you start [S2]. Say the height of what you are buying. If it is an ordinary house, say that you are not asking anyone to treat it as higher-risk, and that you still want the construction checked [S2].
From 1 October 2026, applications for building control approval for certain residential buildings may be subject to the Building Safety Levy [S2]. Ask whether that tax applies to your application. Ask the building control body for any levy figure. Without approval, GOV.UK says you will not have the certificates of compliance you may need when you sell [S2]. The person doing the work could be prosecuted and fined if they do not comply [S2]. Those are reasons to keep building control as its own line on the quote.
GOV.UK: building regulations approval. QuoteZila is not affiliated with this organisation.
Services are not included by the word "house"
Electricians, heating engineers and plumbers are separate competences. A kit that arrives without a consumer unit, a boiler or a drainage connection has not priced those trades. Ask each quote to say who employs them and whether their work is inside the total. Wiring, a gas connection and drainage stay with the trades who are competent for them. If the heat source is a gas appliance, the installer employed to fit it has to be Gas Safe registered. That registration check is yours to make. QuoteZila does not make it. The building regulations source for the new building is the GOV.UK approval guide linked in the section above.
How to compare two kit quotes
Citizens Advice says a quote is an agreed price and an estimate is a rough guess you should not treat as the bill [S3]. Get written quotes from at least three traders where you can [S3]. Be wary of a price far below the others: it may omit the slab, the services or the fees [S3]. The quote should show a fixed total, a breakdown, how long the price stays open, and whether VAT is included [S3]. Do not rely on a verbal package [S3].
A deposit on a house kit can be a large sum. Citizens Advice says avoid a deposit where you can. If you cannot, do not agree to more than 25%, get a receipt, and ask about deposit protection or escrow if the firm stops trading [S3]. Ask to see insurance and check it lasts until the work finishes [S3]. Some firms charge to prepare the quote. Ask before they visit.
Put both quotes on the table. If one of them is only the panels on a lorry, it is not the cheaper house. Ask each builder to say what is excluded in a short list, in their own words, so a missing slab cannot hide under a heading called extras.
Plots in Cheshire
QuoteZila is starting in Cheshire, beginning with Crewe, Nantwich and Sandbach. Anyone in the UK can still post a job or register a business [QZ5]. Name the plot, say whether a house already stands there, and ask for the kit, the ground and the approvals as separate lines. How many builders reply depends on who has joined [QZ5].
Honest status: QuoteZila is new. We're starting in Cheshire, beginning with Crewe, Nantwich and Sandbach, and growing area by area. Anyone in the UK can still post a job or register a business. How fast you get quotes depends on how many local businesses have joined near you. Businesses can register and receive jobs straight away. We don't check insurance, qualifications or registrations, so please check these yourself before you hire.
Up to five matched local businesses can send quotes [QZ2]. QuoteZila is free for customers and local businesses [QZ1].
Posting a job is not open yet
Trade pages: builders, electricians and heating engineers. Other written-price guides: driveway cost, fencing cost and plumber cost.
This page is general information, not professional or legal advice. QuoteZila does not check Gas Safe, WaterSafe, NFRC, NICEIC or other registrations against the register on your behalf: look them up yourself.
Read the exclusions before you read the total. A kit that names panels and windows, and a build that also names the slab, the drains and the electrical connection, are different jobs even when both are called a house. Ask who applies for planning permission and who meets the building control inspector, and whether those fees sit inside the figure or beside it. Keep a short list of what is left out, in the builder's own words, on the front page. If one quote assumes the ground is already prepared and another includes the ground, do not treat the lower total as the cheaper house.
Jobs you might post
These are examples, not taken from real job posts.
- "Empty plot in Crewe. I want a flat pack house quoted as kit, foundations, services and approvals on separate lines. I have not applied for planning permission."
- "Nantwich. House already stands. I am asking about a kit extension, not a new dwelling. Please do not price a whole house."
- "Sandbach. Two-storey kit, not a high building. I want the builder to say which building control body they expect to use. No levy figure unless you can point at it."
Questions about flat pack houses
Is a kit exempt from planning permission because it arrives in pieces?
GOV.UK says you will probably need planning permission to build something new, to make a major change such as an extension, or to change the use of a building. A house that was not there before is a new building, whether the walls arrive flat or are built in place. Contact the local planning authority through the council. The local planning authority decides whether a plot in Cheshire is allowed. The kit brochure is not the permission.
Do building regulations cover a whole new house?
The Building Regulations 2010 cover the construction and extension of buildings. GOV.UK says you must check if you need approval before you construct or change buildings in certain ways, and that building regulations approval is different from planning permission. You may need both. You do not need to arrange approval yourself if you use someone registered with a competent person scheme. A scheme for one trade is not cover for an entire house. Ask a building control body which parts they will inspect.
When is a building higher-risk?
GOV.UK says higher-risk buildings are at least 7 storeys or 18 metres high, and are also any of the following: 2 residential units, a hospital, or a care home. Work to build a new higher-risk building needs building control approval from the Building Safety Regulator before you start. A two-storey house is outside that height line. It is still the construction of a building, so the ordinary approval question remains. An ordinary two-storey house is not in that higher-risk set.
What is the Building Safety Levy sentence for?
From 1 October 2026, GOV.UK says applications for building control approval for certain residential buildings may be subject to the Building Safety Levy. Ask the building control body whether a levy applies to the application you are about to make. Ask the building control body for any amount. A kit brochure is not the levy. The date is a rule about applications, not a kit price.
How should a deposit work on a large build?
Citizens Advice says that if a deposit cannot be avoided you should not agree to more than 25%, you should get a receipt, and you should ask whether the money is protected if the firm stops trading. A kit is a large material order. Ask who owns the panels if you pay before they arrive. Some traders charge to prepare a quote. Ask first. VAT registration starts when taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000.
Does QuoteZila check the businesses?
No. We don't check insurance, qualifications or registrations, so please check these yourself before you hire. You can report a quote or a business from your job page.
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Related pages
- Flat Roof Extension Cost: What Changes It. What changes the cost of a flat roof extension in Cheshire: size, foundations, roof covering, glazing, planning limits and building control. No price printed.
- Floor Screed Cost: What Changes the Price. Screed type, area, depth, underfloor heating, insulation and drying: what moves a floor screed quote in Cheshire, and what each written quote should list.
Sources
- QZ1: QuoteZila product fact. QuoteZila public pricing line.
- QZ2: QuoteZila product fact. QuoteZila terms, customers.
- QZ5: QuoteZila product fact. QuoteZila coverage wording.
- S1: Planning permission: when you need it, GOV.UK. Accessed 2026-10-25. https://www.gov.uk/planning-permission-england-wales
- S2: Building regulations approval, GOV.UK. Accessed 2026-10-25. https://www.gov.uk/building-regulations-approval
- S3: Before you get work done on your home, Citizens Advice. Accessed 2026-10-25. https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/getting-home-improvements-done/before-you-get-building-work-done/
- S4: Register for VAT, GOV.UK. Accessed 2026-10-25. https://www.gov.uk/register-for-vat