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Buyers solicitor querying doors

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Comments

  • sultanabran
    sultanabran Posts: 172 Forumite
    davidmcn wrote: »
    Yes. It can get sorted one way or another, don't worry.

    Thanks for the reassurance. Any idea what the surveyor can tell him? Why would he even ask him?
  • davidmcn
    davidmcn Posts: 23,596 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post
    sultanabran wrote: »
    Any idea what the surveyor can tell him? Why would he even ask him?

    They ask the surveyor because the surveyor is the impartial professional who has actually looked at your house, and in the absence of any paperwork might be able to give an educated guess about what alterations have been made and what consents they might have needed.
  • sultanabran
    sultanabran Posts: 172 Forumite
    And so it goes on.

    My buyers solicitor has come back and basically asked for evidence that the alterations have been there for 20 years or for council consent.

    No mention of indemnity insurance. How am I supposed to prove something happened 20 years ago?! I can get proof of at least 16 years as the guy I bought the house from told me the patio doors were there when he bought the place in 2001.

    I don't want to go down the route of getting a Letter of Comfort from the local council as that can open up a whole can of worms as I imagine they will check the work against current regulations?

    Also curious as to why the surveyor never mentioned this when I bought the house!
  • ThePants999
    ThePants999 Posts: 1,748 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post
    edited 26 April 2017 at 6:39PM
    Just say "neither are available" and punt the ball back into their court - and if you have a channel to push the buyer into getting his solicitor to shut up and get over it, I'd be using it :)

    I bought a house with a conservatory and two extensions. My solicitor wanted evidence of planning permission / BR compliance, the vendors said "sorry, don't have it" and I told her to shut up and get over it. Everyone happy.
  • sultanabran
    sultanabran Posts: 172 Forumite
    ThePants999 wrote: »
    Just say "neither are available" and punt the ball back into their court - and if you have a channel to push the buyer into getting his solicitor to shut up and get over it, I'd be using it :)

    Did just that. The buyer wasn't even aware of the hold up, calling his solicitor tomorrow.
  • sultanabran
    sultanabran Posts: 172 Forumite
    edited 11 May 2017 at 7:57PM
    Just out of interest, is there any time limit for the local authority to enforce for a lack of a building warrant in Scotland?

    EDIT: If anyone ever stumbles across this in the future. It appears that online England, in Scotland, no, there isn't a time limit.
  • sultanabran
    sultanabran Posts: 172 Forumite
    Sigh, so I still haven't concluded missives. My neighbour is willing to sign an affidavit to say the alteration is more than 20 years old (they moved in next door in the early 90s and it had already been altered). My solicitors been waiting over a week for my buyers solicitor to come back and say this is okay.

    Do they get off on putting everyone's life on hold?! That'll be 10 weeks on Tuesday since I accepted his offer.

    Fuming but feel like there's nothing I can do. My buyer can't even get a hold of his own solicitor to chase him up.
  • Thrugelmir
    Thrugelmir Posts: 89,546 Forumite
    Name Dropper Photogenic First Anniversary First Post
    sultanabran wrote: »
    My neighbour is willing to sign an affidavit to say the alteration is more than 20 years old (they moved in next door in the early 90s and it had already been altered).

    Not proof though. Documentary evidence is proof.
  • sultanabran
    sultanabran Posts: 172 Forumite
    edited 11 May 2017 at 7:57PM
    Thrugelmir wrote: »
    Not proof though. Documentary evidence is proof.

    Guess I'll find out when he finally gets around to responding. If it's not sufficient then it's impossible to prove.

    Even if by some miracle, I was able to get in touch with the person that owned the house 20+ years ago, the likelihood of them having the paperwork for it is 0%

    When I spoke to the buyer yesterday, he said his solicitor still hasn't even mentioned any of this to him. He only knows about it because of me telling him! Another annoyance is none of this was ever raised as an issue when I bought the house.
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