indemnity insurance

emptypocket_2

I am selling my house and have been asked to supply buildings indemnity insurance for a porch that was put on my property over 13 years ago (before I owned it) . There was a court case a couple of years ago and it now seems all solicitors are paranoid about being sued ! I know a similar post was on here a couple of years ago but has anyone found a way of avoiding this ridiculous system ? The porch does not measure enough to require building regulations and I cannot imagine the local planners wasting their time with the lack of planning permission after all these years so why should I pay out £180 for this insurance? We all have porches in this road, they are all different and mine only measures about 3 square metres.
Any advice out there before I tear my hair out ?
Thanks

Thrugelmir

emptypocket wrote: »

I am selling my house and have been asked to supply buildings indemnity insurance for a porch that was put on my property over 13 years ago (before I owned it) . There was a court case a couple of years ago and it now seems all solicitors are paranoid about being sued ! I know a similar post was on here a couple of years ago but has anyone found a way of avoiding this ridiculous system ? The porch does not measure enough to require building regulations and I cannot imagine the local planners wasting their time with the lack of planning permission after all these years so why should I pay out £180 for this insurance? We all have porches in this road, they are all different and mine only measures about 3 square metres.
Any advice out there before I tear my hair out ?
Thanks

A £180 seems very high for insurance.

We live in an age where people sue for sorts of issues.

The buyers solicitor will being advising his client as well.

Shakethedisease

We had sort of a similar problem. Only we are buyers and there was a bit of hassle over the indemnity policy.

However, the policy itself that our seller had taken out ( via her solicitor ) only cost £35.. and is transferable to every person buying the house subsequently without having to pay again ( it was via Countrywide ). That was for a building a porch, changing a bedroom into a kitchen, a kitchen into a dining room and adding a sunlounge 20 years ago.

Get onto your solicitor and have a google and read up on indemnity policies. £180 seems very steep.

planning_officer

Once 4 years have elapsed, the porch won't need planning permission as it's lawful. However, that's assuming it ever needed permission in the first place - if it is less than 3m high, more than 2m from the front boundary, and is no more than 3 sqm in area (measured externally) then it wouldn't have needed permission in the first place.

emptypocket_2

Shakethedisease wrote: »

We had sort of a similar problem. Only we are buyers and there was a bit of hassle over the indemnity policy.

However, the policy itself that our seller had taken out ( via her solicitor ) only cost £35.. and is transferable to every person buying the house subsequently without having to pay again ( it was via Countrywide ). That was for a building a porch, changing a bedroom into a kitchen, a kitchen into a dining room and adding a sunlounge 20 years ago.

Get onto your solicitor and have a google and read up on indemnity policies. £180 seems very steep.

thanks, I'l try them.....

Richard_Webster

Anything built 13 years ago is completely immune from any kind of Planning enforcement.

I would suspect that a porch under a certain size does not require to comply with Building Regulations as well. The first thing to do would be to get your solicitor to research the relevant regulations and go back to the buyer's solicitors telling them why this is the case and saying that if the buyers want a policy they will have to pay for it.

If having done that he concludes that compliance might have been necessary, a Building Regulation Indemnity Policy may be necessary but should not cost as much as £180 unless yours is quite an expensive property - I can get cover for properties worth up to £300K for £53, and less for lower values.

The major problem solicitors have is mortgage lenders. They have to rely on their surveyor to tell them that a 100 year old house is in a mortgageable condition. It could have various features in it that do not meet modern building regulation standards. Lenders don't worry about that. Surveyor looks at a modern extension and doesn't find any obvious problems with it but adds the caveat that solicitors should check that all statutory consents have been obtained for it. So if there is no approval or completion certificate we make sure there is an indemnity policy. They don't seem to apply the same standards to old property as they do to new.

The alternative is to write to the lender telling them the whole business is a load of nonsense and they should not be bothering with possible breaches of building regulations that are 13 years old. We could be ages waiting for a reply and when it comes it could be that the seller ought to get the Council in to check it. (Building Inspector comes in after being paid something like £140 for an inspection and tells seller he has got spend money to do something to make it comply that neither he nor buyer is concerned about).

Some lenders such as Nationwide Building Society do not require us to go back more than 10 yaers for Building Regulation matters but Halifax, for instance, imposes no limit on how far back we are supposed to investigate matters. This is unrealistic but the average buyer would be waiting for weeks or months if a humble solicitor such as myself were to write to Halifax suggesting their policy was wrong and should be changed. So it is easier to get an indemnity policy.

If anyone out there can get lenders to be more sensible about this kind of point I am sure a lot of solicitors would be very grateful!

Shakethedisease

I so agree Richard. We had loads of hassle over our purchase. The sellers solicitor took out the policy THEN went to the council and enquired about building certificates. Micro-fiche had been lost, etc etc.. and to cut a long story short the entire purchase hung on whether a £35 policy was valid or not for nearly 3 weeks !

Everything was sorted out in the end, but it was certainly a headache we could have done without.

pereiram

I too have to take out this insurance (although I am the buyer and as I understand it is the sellers responsibility!!), however I cant seem to get a quote anywhere.
My solicitor has quoted me what seems and extortionate amount and also charged me for arranging the quote!!
Does anyone know where I can get this insurance myself??????

:mad: