Exchange Today. Hurrah? Maybe!

dalia_2

As the title suggests we are exchanging today on our house.
One sticking point yesterday came up and that is that we have been asked to pay for two indemnity policies that cover our conservatory.
One is for building regs and the other a restrictive covenant consent, whatever that is.
Anyway to secure exchange we have agreed to pay these but our solicitor is adamant we shouldn't pay as they are unnecessary as we didn't build the conservatory here and has been in place for over 15 years.The subject never even came up when we bought the house ourselves.
Do you think our solicitor is right to say we shouldn't budge or do we accept this is the way buyers work and cut our losses, and get on and exchange
today.
I don't want to be still arguing about this in a weeks time with no chance of winning!

Does anyone have any experience of this?

Bossyboots

Conservatories were not subject to building regs 15 years ago. We had one built about then and the council didn't want to know. It would be worth checking with your local council what their policy is and whether anyone knows what it was all those years back.

dalia_2

I have checked with them and they said that it would have been more of a planning issue and due to the size of it (its very small)
not very likely to have had needed planning as is well inside the boundary of our garden.Deep down I think our solicitor is right in what hes saying but its difficult when you are so close to closing your sale, as our buyer well knows no doubt!!:rolleyes:

JennyW_2

it's also quite amazing how these things crop up just before exchange isn't it? :cool:

WestonDave

Not sure if its the same thing but my parents had an extension that they didn't have landlords permission for (they have a ground rent so techincally only own the house not the land), however as it had been built more than 12 years ago the landlord was no longer able to take any action (statue barred) and so they didn't need an indemnity policy - that may be the same with your conservatory (or it may not but similar).

Having said that the policies are likely only to be about a hundred quid each and would give your buyer peace of mind that awkward questions in the future can be avoided. You need to decide whether saving the cash is worth the stress of the brinkmanship - I'd hang on as they won't lose all the money they've put into this for a few quid.

tifnstav

Its often to satisfy mortgage lenders that indemnity policies are asked for.
If you don't pay for it the buyer might end up having to, which could prove a sticking point before exchange.
And by contacting the council you would have already invalidated the policy anyway!