help and advise

rdtaylor

I built a house on a self Build Mortgage.
Full architectural, structural drawing where drawn up and council approved.
We dispensed with the Architect when we had approval to build to save money, informed the council and they then took over.
I used friends and family to build the house who are all in the trade.
Each stage was managed by the council and by the Mortgage release agents.
All stages from the Council were on site inspections and documented.
The house had its final completion certificate and the Mortgage was transferred from Self build to a normal mortgage Sept 2006.

We have lived in the house now for four years now and we are trying to sell it.

I had planned to live in the house for the rest of my life, but sadly life doesn’t always go the way you want it!

My buyers have come up against the fact that I have no Architect Certificate and no indemnity Insurance and at this moment and time the Solicitors are try to find a way around this.(so they say!)


So I thought I would enquire myself, as Solicitors take forever to get thing sorted out.

As I said I have full documentation for everything, structural, electrical...you name it I got it
My question is this, is there a way of getting insurance for this house for the last 6 years that will satisfy the mortgage companies or any advise you can give me that will help resolve my problem

betsie

Yes. You can get a retrospective warranty I think NHBC, Zurich and Build zone will do them. They will cost more than what they would have if you had got one from the start but as only have 4 years left (only need warranty for 1st 10 years of new build) it might not be too bad. Anyone who wants to buy your house will not get a mortgage on it without one.

DVardysShadow

betsie wrote: »

Yes. You can get a retrospective warranty I think NHBC, Zurich and Build zone will do them. They will cost more than what they would have if you had got one from the start but as only have 4 years left (only need warranty for 1st 10 years of new build) it might not be too bad. Anyone who wants to buy your house will not get a mortgage on it without one.

What does the architect's certificate prove??? I have never had a newbuild, so I have never seen one and I imagine that the majority of houses don't have one.

Cannon_Fodder

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/584216 of any help?

Gwhiz

DVardysShadow wrote: »

What does the architect's certificate prove??? I have never had a newbuild, so I have never seen one and I imagine that the majority of houses don't have one.

For many self-builders they are only able to get an architects certificate as NHBC will not deal with self builders.

IMHO it's worth as much (if not more) as NHBC in terms of assurances to quality of build and adherence to building regs.

DVardysShadow

Cannon_Fodder wrote: »

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/584216 of any help?

Thanks, yes. It indicates that the Architect's cert expires after 6 years. It looks unreasonable to me to withhold a mortgage for want of an Architect's certificate - given that most houses won't have one and the lack can be dealt with by a survey to give confidence comparable to an older house.

betsie

To get an architects cert, the architect looks at the build at various key stages. You haven't got a certificate so this wasn't done. As a delf builder you can get an NHBC, Buildzone or zurich warranty - again their surveyors come and look at the build at various key stages - this is in addition to the local council building inspector visits. We self built a house 2 years ago so I am talking from experience. I looked into which warranties mortgage providers accepted before we took our warranty out. As I said you should look at getting a retrospective one or maybe you can buy some kind of indemnity insurance.