Indemnity policy after council inspects

Nav_2

Hi, this is on my purchase of a house which does not have any building regs completion certificates. I requested that they get a retrospective approval and the sellers contacted the council accordingly. But once the inspector wanted the beam exposed (chipping away plaster), now the sellers do not want the retro inspection done.
My questions are:
1. at this stage is there any form of indemnity policy available to cover this (since the council knows about lack of approval, a ususal indemnity policy is invalid)
2. since the sellers did not disclose non-availability of approval of work and my offer and subsequent cost in employing solicitor, doing searches, survey, etc was based on their word, what action can I take to make the sellers compensate me, if the sale does not go ahead due to this?
(it seems that a policy is required, as per my solicitor, to take care of the legas side of things)

I would like to hear your advice. thanks.

clutton_2

""what action can I take to make the sellers compensate me"" - absolutely nothing, i'm afraid, its all part of the totally unsatisfactory conveyancing system we have to put up with.

matto

What sort of building work is it and any idea how long ago it was completed?

Not a lot you can do if you decide to walk away. It would depend on the nature of the work but I would certainly be considering that. You could see if you can get a quote for how much it would take to put things right and reduce the offer accordingly or just reduce your offer considerably anyway.

Doozergirl

1. There are no indemnity policies available once the council have been contacted. The whole point is that you don't contact them, otherwise you're inviting a claim.
2. They don't have to give you anything. After all, it was you that insisted they contact the ccouncil.

What was the work they did? How long ago? Did your surveyor have any particular concerns over saftey or were they ust asking for certificates as is teh norm? The answers to those questions would depend on whether I bought. You could always get a structural engineer to give it the nod if you're that worried.