Out of date searches?

Locky

Hello everyone,

I've been lurking here for years and am now in the process of buying a house!

We're FTBs and have just received a letter from our solicitors stating that the results of the Local Authority and Water + Drainage searches (from the HIP) are out of date and unacceptable for mortgage purposes.

We can either pay £170 for them to be re-submitted or get indemnity insurance for £20.

What is the best option here? I don't really understand what the solicitor has written. Obviously we'd prefer to pay £20 but not if it will cause problems in the future!

Thanks for your help!

Richard_Webster

The local search is more important than the drainage/water search. Even then usually it will be OK to take out insurance - it is usually very unlikely that there will be changed s since the search was done and if there are and they affect value then the insurance covers that.

As far as the drainage/water search is concerned apart from establishing the fact of mains drainage connection (which you can do from seeing a water/sewerage bill) I don't know why solicitors think they must do these searches. They provide information which may be useful to buyers in some circumstances but honestly in most cases if the old search shows mains drainage conneciton and public sewers in a certain location, how likely is it that the seller quietly decideed to have a cesspit installed in his garden in the past few months and disconnected himself from mains drainage?

It would be interesting to hear why a lender would require such a search to be done - what information on a search would cause a lender not to lend?

So I cannot really see the point generally in worrying about the drainage search being renewed.

Locky

Thanks for that, Richard.

I doubt anything has changed with the property - it has been empty for several months after the seller moved into sheltered housing.