Lack of Zurich/NHBC guarantee on 4yo property - money off the price?

lucyd1978

Hi, I had an offer of £142,000 accepted on a property originally on the market at £153,000 back in July. It's 4 years old and is being sold by the builder/developer (and has been rented out until now). I've just found out that the vendor is unable to get an Zurich guarantee on the place, apparently for a legal rather than building-related issue. Instead he is going to get an architects certification, and I'm going to ask for a structural survey.

I'm wondering though whether I should ask for some money off the asking price, and how much is reasonable? There are going to be some extra costs (the survey, plus my mortgage offer is about to expire as it's taken so long to get to this point so I may have to pay to extend) which I'll ask the vendor to cover, but how about in addition to that? And is the lack of a Zurich/NHBC guarantee a big problem (especially in that being 4 years old some of the provisions e.g. sorting out snagging issues, are no longer relevant anyway)?

Thanks for your help!

Doozergirl

An architect's certificate should be an equivalent to NHBC. If there are any issues with it down the line then it's covered by his professional indemnity insurance.

Without any of them it would seriously affect value, but as long as the mortgage company is satisfied by the architect's certificate then I don't personally see why the property should be worth less as a direct result?

calypso_rhapsody

I found this thread because i am in a similar situation - buying a 2 year old house without any NHBC or equivalent warranty. There are reasons why the cert was not issued (the builder went bust after he'd built it - but other properties in the same terrace have got NHBC warranty so we assume that NHBC did inspect it as it was being built). NHBC will not issue the warranty retrospectively as it is more than 12 months since completion of the build.

I have been taking the view that this is a deal breaker as we want to be able to resell the property within the next 8 years (ie before it is 10 years old). The vendor is trying to put an alternative cover in place .... we had not discussed architects certificates.

I am not sure how Doozergirl can say that such a certificate is equivalent and that any problems would be covered by his PI policy? Surely you would have to show that the architect had been negligent in issuing the certificate - a different (and arguably more difficult) test than showing that a defect in the property was down to poor workmanship or materials?

What do others think - would you buy a newish property without an NHBC warranty (or equivalent)?

Richard_Webster

An architect's certificate is not quite as good as NHBC cover but from the point of view of getting a mortgage on the house it is usually acceptable, which is the main issue if you want to sell it before it is 10 yaers old.

However, unless an architect did check the construction while it was being built I can't see nay architect giving his certificate now. No architect's certificate, no mortgage, and it can only then be sold to cash buyer who will pay substantially less as a result.