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Would you buy a house with building indemnity insurance

supa_nan
Posts: 28 Forumite
We bought our excouncil house in 1999. The house is sound and built 1930s. Before we bought the house under right to buy, we got permission from housing dept to erect a conservatory with clear roof. The building was constructed with damp proofing, proper floor and roof joists, roof insulation etc, and has been standing for over 11 years. Once we bought the house we replaced the roof with a solid one. Now we have come to sell this changes the building into an extension and would require bilding control approval. We initially offered this to our buyers solicitor, however when i made a general enquiry at the council i was advised not to apply for consent as the building would probably not pass today, and that if i wanted to get indemnity insurance dont get council involved. On the advice of his solicitor my buyer is now reluctant to buy my house, with an indemnity, i think they are dubious because i initially offered building regs approval, then retracted on this and offered indemnity. I have arranged for a independant surveyor to come and inspect the building and write a proffessional report and hope my buyer will accept this together with indemnity policy. Are these policys transferable ? can my buyer offer this when he eventually sells the house. Would you consider buying a property under these circumstances. I am confident the building is structually safe, there is no evidence of any movement, no cracks in the plastered walls or ceiling. No movement in the coving or skirting boards. I know if we replace the solid roof with a transulent one we wouldnt have this problem. And it is below 50 sq cubic metres so would fall below building regs. I would really appreciate any of your opinions or experience as i dont want to lose my buyer, they are such a lovely couple i feel bad if they pull out and end up out of pocket for loss of survey, solicitors fees etc. And i appreciate he needs to be assured that the building is safe. Thank you
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Comments
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Is this the same question as you raised in your earlier thread?
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1098379"Now to trolling as a concept. .... Personally, I've always found it a little sad that people choose to spend such a large proportion of their lives in this way but they do, and we have to deal with it." - MSE Forum Manager 6th July 20100 -
Yes, it is i am desperate for any advice or comments.0
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Personally, I'd probably run a mile from any property that involved an extension without appropriate building regs approval, especially if that was only discovered at the time of conveyancing. If the vendor held this information from me at the time of viewing, I'd be wondering what other possible nightmares could be being covered up.
In the unlikely event I was so smitten with the property that I was still interested in buying, I'd ensure a full structural survey was carried out and get a couple of quotes from reputable builders for the costs involved in carrying out the remedial work necessary and obtaining the necessary building regs approval. The cost of this (plus perhaps a little extra for the inconvenience caused by having the builders in after I purchased it) would be deducted from the original offer price.
I would also want the indemnity insurance you refer to."Now to trolling as a concept. .... Personally, I've always found it a little sad that people choose to spend such a large proportion of their lives in this way but they do, and we have to deal with it." - MSE Forum Manager 6th July 20100 -
ok. think the answer may have to be, to replace the hard roof with a clear roof. Thanks for your comments premier, would still welcome other opinions0
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.... we got permission from housing dept to erect a conservatory with clear roof. The building was constructed with damp proofing, proper floor and roof joists, roof insulation etc, and has been standing for over 11 years. Once we bought the house we replaced the roof with a solid one.
Now we have come to sell this changes the building into an extension and would require bilding control approval. We initially offered this to our buyers solicitor, however when i made a general enquiry at the council i was advised not to apply for consent as the building would probably not pass today, and that if i wanted to get indemnity insurance dont get council involved..On the advice of his solicitor my buyer is now reluctant to buy my house, with an indemnity, i think they are dubious because i initially offered building regs approval, then retracted on this and offered indemnity. ............... I am confident the building is structually safe, there is no evidence of any movement, no cracks in the plastered walls or ceiling. No movement in the coving or skirting boards. I know if we replace the solid roof with a transulent one we wouldnt have this problem.....And it is below 50 sq cubic metres so would fall below building regs.
IMO the best thing to do is to be open and honest with your buyers and ask them what would need to be done for them to feel happy to proceed: getting that extra surveyor's report at your expense is a good move towards that. It's not an insurmountable problem and much of it depends on how much this couple really want your property, and how much negotiation you are prepared to do around any potential costs involved.
I think Doozergirl, Debt Free Chick or Richard Webster are probably the posters who'll be most helpful to you on this issue, and do make your own solicitor work for his money, especially if he's on a Fixed Fee.
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It's all up to your buyer, not much you can do except hope that their solicitor has explained things properly to them and hope that they can apply common sense.
The fact that your house was built in the 1930s mean that formal building regs didn't exist. So your house won't have regs, but they won't buy it with an 11 year old extension that doesn't have regs either
After 11 years, it's going to be fairly easy for a surveyor to say that it's safe. A piece of paper to say that it met regs back then shouldn't be the thing that provides peace of mind now, IMVHO. I'd simply want to know that it was structurally sound.
Certain parts of Building Regulations don't apply to conservatories with a floor space of under 30 square metres. If you have a proper roof then it will be classed as a normal extension which would need regs. So yes, if you have a conservatory roof you wouldn't have needed to comply when you built it as the regs regarding windows weren't in place.
You're going to have to explain to them exactly why you haven't asked Building Control to come round now. I bet they don't understand. Building Control won't enforce any rectification of work now so a certificate is really worthless as the building doesn't comply to current regs either. All it's saying is that it complied to regs back then which might be obsolete now!Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
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