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Agh! owner refusing to provide documents
Comments
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Not really making a positive contribution to this thread so apologies to the OP in advance but it really does make me cross that indemnity insurance is even necessary. A 30 year old extension !!!!!! ! Surely the answer to anything of this nature is to satisfy yourself beforehand with a full survery if you have any concerns at all.
Before long we will need indemnity insurance to cover the indemnity insurance !!!0 -
You are worrying about nothing.
The extension. An indemnity insurance policy will protect you against the council enforcing Building Regs and/or planning rules only. It will NOT insure against quality of workmanship which should be checked via your survey.
The council have time limits on enforcement of B. Regs/Planning. I believe they are 12 months for building regs and 3 years for Planning (happy to be corrected on this) but they are certainly nothing like 30 years, so there is absolutely no need for, or point to, insurance.
The heating. What certificate are you looking for? Corgi/GasSafe installation? Buildings Regs? Indemnity Insurance?
Again, Building Regs won't be enforced by the council after 3/4 years so forget it. As for the installers sign-off certificate all that does is show it was safe ... in 2007. It says nothing about the condition/safety of the boiler/systme today. If you want to know if the systems is safe and reliable today, then commission a GasSafe engineer to do an inspection (just as presumably you commissioned a surveyor to check other aspects of the property).
The current owners (or their predecessors) have lived with this extension for 30 years, with no adverse consequences. It hasn't fallen down; No legal action has been taken against them (I assume); There is no on-going dispute with the neighbours or council (again I assume).
So I quite understand why they se no need to put in place a pointless insurance policy they've lived happily without for.... however long they've owned the property.0 -
A 4 yr old central heating system, you lucky thing.0
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You are worrying about nothing.
The extension. An indemnity insurance policy will protect you against the council enforcing Building Regs and/or planning rules only. It will NOT insure against quality of workmanship which should be checked via your survey.
The council have time limits on enforcement of B. Regs/Planning. I believe they are 12 months for building regs and 3 years for Planning (happy to be corrected on this) but they are certainly nothing like 30 years, so there is absolutely no need for, or point to, insurance.
The heating. What certificate are you looking for? Corgi/GasSafe installation? Buildings Regs? Indemnity Insurance?
Again, Building Regs won't be enforced by the council after 3/4 years so forget it. As for the installers sign-off certificate all that does is show it was safe ... in 2007. It says nothing about the condition/safety of the boiler/systme today. If you want to know if the systems is safe and reliable today, then commission a GasSafe engineer to do an inspection (just as presumably you commissioned a surveyor to check other aspects of the property).
The current owners (or their predecessors) have lived with this extension for 30 years, with no adverse consequences. It hasn't fallen down; No legal action has been taken against them (I assume); There is no on-going dispute with the neighbours or council (again I assume).
So I quite understand why they se no need to put in place a pointless insurance policy they've lived happily without for.... however long they've owned the property.
Whilst all true and kind of what I had posted in less detail - the OP said they may lose their mortgage offer if not adhered to. Whether this is accurate or not obviously it may be that the mortgage company simply require some pointless box ticking otherwise they don't release the money. None of whch really is the vendors fault.
Pointless yes, but necessary to complete the purchase - maybe?0 -
Hanky_Panky wrote: »A 30 year old extension !!!!!! ! Surely the answer to anything of this nature is to satisfy yourself beforehand with a full survey if you have any concerns at all.
I entirely agree. The correct procedure is to survey then revise your offer in light of any structural/remedial matters or issues regarding lack of appropriate documentation. The vendor is not required to eliminate your doubts about the place - although they can sweeten the deal with largely worthless insurance if they feel like it.
As G_M says You are worrying about nothing.
Have the mortgage company explicitly asked about any of this ? If so who alerted them to it ?0 -
sunshinetours wrote: »Whilst all true and kind of what I had posted in less detail - the OP said they may lose their mortgage offer if not adhered to. Whether this is accurate or not obviously it may be that the mortgage company simply require some pointless box ticking otherwise they don't release the money. None of whch really is the vendors fault.
Pointless yes, but necessary to complete the purchase - maybe?
Sorry sunshinetours - that was directed at the OP, not you!0 -
If a pointless insurance policy is required by YOUR lender, to secure YOUR loan, then why not buy one yourself?
Sorry sunshinetours - that was directed at the OP, not you!
The OP can of course do that.
It's whether or not they want to fight it out over who pays rather than whether or not the sale goes through.
I doubt anyone really wants to lose this for the sake of a couple of hundred quid. Indemnity policy will cover both aspects. It doesn't matter who pays - there is no rule.
Your point on the safety of the boiler is of course the most salient. You want to know it is safe now, 4 years ago is irrelevant.
(The indemnity policy is needed for BRs. Whilst it's difficult and expensive for them to enforce after 12 months, it is still in theory possible to enforce, not that we ever hear about it happening - and how many conversations do we have like this every day?!)Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
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Basically this is mortgage companys taking risk aversion too far - it is to do with covering their financial investment for all eventualities regardless of how unlikely they are and nothing to do with protecting the safety/integrity of the building itself. All the lender wants to know is that if the house falls down, regardless of how it impacts the buyer, they will still get their money.
The gas and electric safety certificate requirements really annoy me - just because a wiring system is not up to current code does not mean that the system is inherently unsafe - mortgage companies seem to believe it does. There is no requirement on owners to have any, never mind regular, safety inspections on their gas and electric services while living in a property but all of a sudden when a mortgage is considered - oh! you have to have these pieces of paper that say at this particular day the system is safe - no one cares if its not safe the following day - risk aversion bureacracy gone mad! (Sorry, mini-rant there!)
When buying my first place the mortgage company would not release funds until they had a gas safety certificate - took a week of phone calls from me to get the numptys to understand that without a gas meter (removed by Transco as property empty for over a year) there was no gas supply so no-one not even the best gas expert in the world could test for gas safety and until I owned the property I couldn't get a meter installed to reinstate the gas supply and the vendor quite rightly wasn't interested in arranging for a meter to be installed in a property he was selling. Finally I managed to get past the front-line call centre advisers and spoke to someone a little more senior, with a little more sense who signed off the mortgage immediately without the gas safety certificate.0 -
Last bit before exhange..chase the owner for the indemnity insurance policy for the extesnion at teh back of the house and also for the gas cert for the central heating they had installed in 2007.
They have said no to both.....
They don't see why they have to?!
If they don't then it looks like our mortgage offer will be withdrawn..They say if we want to prove the gas/extension are safe then we are to do it?!
I'm not amused
I knew i shouldn't have started the bloody packing
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