NHBC - how necessary is it?

withabix

The builder should be abe to get an insurance-backed warranty, with you (or subsequent owners) named as the beneficiary.

You can get insurance for just about anyhting, providing you are willing to pay.

The builder will need to sort this out or he won't be selling his house any time soon.

Send him to Google for a start:

Here's one: http://www.build-zone.com/default.aspx?gclid=CM341bGczZoCFRK7Zwodmj9O3g&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

All the builder needs is copies of local authority Building Control inspections (and to pay for the warranty).

Your Solicitor should be advising you on this! That's part of their job.

TDanger

withabix wrote: »

Your Solicitor should be advising you on this! That's part of their job.

We can't afford to employ a solicitor yet, we thought it better to wait until we have an offer accepted on a house. Is this unusual? Do people normally employ a solicitor at this early stage?

PasturesNew

TDanger wrote: »

We can't afford to employ a solicitor yet, we thought it better to wait until we have an offer accepted on a house. Is this unusual? Do people normally employ a solicitor at this early stage?

No it's not normal - but the circumstances of the house you are chasing isn't normal either.

Normally a house built for resale would have an NHBC Certificate, or an Architect's Certificate. Both would declare "Hey, I built this house for resale, I know what I'm doing, it's sound and safe - and experts agree that it is".

Without either of those, it's saying "Hey, I'm a bit of an idiot and watched the teevee and built these houses because everybody's doing it and I have no idea about how I should have proceeded ... and it's probably OK, sort of, but that's not my problem."

It might even have been built with them intending to live in it and arrogant husband rushed off each day to build it "his way" and now they're strapped for cash and selling..

Who are these people selling? Is it a company? A one-man-build? What?

TDanger

The vendor's brother owns a building company who's name we don't know yet (the agent is calling me within the next hour). It has a completion certificate from the council but this is obviously not enough for the lender or ourselves.

mustang1

You should get the seller's solicitor to do some work and let you know what the official position is. If they want to sell their property, then they should be finding out the answers to basic questions like this now!

PasturesNew

TDanger wrote: »

The vendor's brother owns a building company who's name we don't know yet (the agent is calling me within the next hour). It has a completion certificate from the council but this is obviously not enough for the lender or ourselves.

A completion certificate just means it's been built to the satisfaction of the Building Control Surveyor, so meets Building Regs.

An NHBC gives a 10 year guarantee. You have no guarantee if there's some shoddiness that's gone on.

withabix

See my post above regarding insurance policy.

The ONLY solution in this case (other than not buying the house).

karenthemummy79

Hi - I am in a similar position at the mo but are much further down the line with my purchase!!! We are buying a repo and the day before exchange we discovered that there is no NHBC cert on the property (built 2004) OR Architect certificate!

I went to the next door neighbour who has lived there since new to find out who the architect was and he gave me the info, I contacted him and he sent me all he had which was an inspection certificate from Building Control (local council) which specified issues to be rectified - then an Occupancy certificate that had also been issued by Building control confirming that those issues had been sorted but there were 4 MINOR issues to sort before they would issue their FINAL certificate!!!

The Architect cannot issue his final certificate until Building Control issue theirs so I go building control to go to the property on Mon and 3 of the issues are sorted but 1 remains - the path to the front door IS wide enough for disabled access but because the drive has never been surfaced so is still stone, he said that a disabled person wouldnt be able to get out of the car and be pushed to the path!!! ridiculous!!

So, the asset management company dealing we are buying the house from are getting qtes to get the drive done so that we can get the final building control certificate then the architect certificate (which is going to cost £250).

This whole process has been a nightmare!! We still love the house though and will be happy once we get the certificate - thankfully, my Grandad knows the architect and he is a very well know architect who is highly thought of.

Can you find out which architect dealt with the property and whether building control have ever issued a final certificate??

TDanger

Agent says they have Architects Certificate, Building Control Completion Certificate and Indemnity insurance which will be arranged by our certificate. He told my fiancee that he has confirmed with NatWest that they will accept this.

Apparently Indemnity insurance is the equivalent of a structural warranty. Having not taken the call myself I am a little confused and will confirm the details with the agent tomorrow.

Any advice I could have before making that phone call would be much appreciated. I am still wary of engaging a solicitor until I know we have an offer accepted.

The vendor has accepted an offer on his own house so he may be less keen to sell this one now which is a little side tangent. I do really like the house still.

withabix

The NHBC warranty is only an insurance policy anyway, with the inspection carried out by NHBC.

NHBC is a mutual insurance company, not a government agency.

They cover approx 80% of new builds and conversion - ie there are 20% covered by other insurance companies.