Chancel check? Help please

Toto

Hi

I am getting a bit fed up with my buyers firstly because when they offered 15k below asking price they told my agent they were a cash buyer and could complete by mid November. To be honest this was a major factor in my accepting their offer, I am saddled with a mortgage which now costs an arm and a leg each month so in order to get rid of it quickly I decided to accept. So, then after 3 weeks of nothing much happening and mid November drawing closer I find out that my buyer is in fact still waiting for his mortgage offer! No searches had been done and we were no closer to completion than we were in october. His solicitor has sent numerous requests for further information on seperate occasions which all feel like delay tactics. They have asked me of 3 occasions what council tax banding the property is and what the water rates are, not only have I told them 3 times but he owns the house next door, he knows what the council tax etc is.

So, they get their mortgage offer and do the searches. Yesterday I receive a letter from my solicitor saying they want me to pay £113.88 for an indemnity policy for potential chancel repair liability. I had never heard of this but it seems it is some medieval law which says local churches can ask for money from local residents for repair. Now, we don't even have a church locally and to be honest I think this is all taking the P***. My buyer has bought other houses in my street, he is a buy to letter, and this seems like another £113 for nothing.

I am actually seriously getting to the point with this sale where I back out and put tenants in myself. I was toying with the idea before this offer because I have a mortgage redemption which expires in October of next year.

Every day he delays completion is another £40 I lose to my IO mortgage. Now I realise my mortgage isn't his fault but he lied to me in the beginning, promising the cash was in his bank ready to go. I would not have accepted his offer if I knew I would be sitting here at christmas still waiting to complete.

So, I feel like telling him to shove his £113. Am I over reacting?

hjb123

No I dont think that you are over reacting, in fact if I was in the same position as you I would do the same. From what you have said it sounds like they are just messing you about and dragging things out. The amount of £113 against the price of the house is just nothing - he sounds like a realy grumpy nitpicker!

lynzpower

Sounds like delay tactics to me as well hun.

If its any consolation, I too have been given this sort of runaround and Im not amused. Ive bascially told my buyer to get his act together ( then it turned out its my sols a bit too ).

Chancel repair- b******s. Are you in a chancel area? if not then basically he can pay for one himself if hes not too bothered. I read on here yesterday liability insurance is £70. check out whether this is true. for a quick ( ie this week) exchange, Id offer to go halfers on it, otherwise he can go bloody whistle

Sorry to hear of your probs- we'll get there in the end im sure. :rolleyes:

Toto

Thanks guys I feel a bit better now, I think this £113 is just the final straw. I am going to put a time limit on this. We need to complete by Christmas or I am pulling out. Enough is enough already.

Sorry to hear you have issues to Lyn, our sales seemed so straight forward too. God knows how people deal with the chain thing! I hope it sorts itself out for you. xx

cwcw

To be fair, our solicitor requested that our seller paid for an indeminity policy as a result of the Chancel Repair search without even checking with us first, so your buyer might not even know anything about it.

silvercar

i would set a deadline for exchange / completion. if he can't meet it find tenants who will tide you over until the mortgage redemption penalties are out of the way. Your problem is going to be that tenant will be thin on the ground leading up to Xmas.

BargainJunky

My mum has just bought a bungalow and insured against a potential problem with the chancel search. Think the cost was around £60.00 and her solicitor did try to get the vendor to pay without success.

Good luck.

Woby_Tide

there is only one company offering the policy IIRC, the difference in price is how much they are 'covering' for

there are other threads on this already some people think it's the new must have insurance, others think it's just a complete scam, if they sent us this info in an email we'd be scrapping it without reading it

actually prices are

Residential ChancelSure® Insurance

The residential ChancelSure® Insurance range provides cover up to £1m for chancel repair liability claims and legal costs for 25 years, for properties up to 5 acres, from as little as £59.88 (inc all taxes and charges) for cover up to £250,000. Insured: The person who purchases policy (non-successor policies) or Successor policiesPremium: From £54.00 (inc IPT) + Admin fee of £5.88 (inc VAT) = Total £59.88Period of Insurance: 25 yearsUnderwriters: Hardy Conveyancing Insurances, underwritten by Syndicate 382 at Lloyd’s


for every extra £54 you get an extra £250k cover i.e. policies are £60/£114/£168 normally, anything different then question the figures

BobProperty

Interesting that it's a 25 year policy when the church has until 2013 to register the charges according to what I read.
http://icclaw.com/devs/uk/re/ukre_002.htm