Extension with no Building Regs - Indemnity Insurance confusion..!

pmlindyloo

As Richard Webster says your solicitor has a duty to comply with the regulations regarding information that your mortgage lender requires.

What does your solicitor say?

It is not a question of being exempt from needing one, it is a question of whether your morgage lender is insisting on one.

Just to illustrate - we bought a property which had a conservatory with no building regulations certificate.

Because we were cash buyers and didn't need a mortgage we could make the decision as to whether we had indemnity insurance. Since the conservatory had been built yonks ago (and hadn't fallen down/leaked etc etc) and the likelihood of the council checking was practically nil then we made the decision not to buy one.

A house we sold had a granny flat conversion (13 years old) and we couldn't find the building regulations certificate. The buyer's mortgage lender insisted that they had indemnity insurance.

Don't ask me why mortgage lenders insist on indemnity insurance because I have no idea and I suspect they have no idea either.

To be honest this can be easily dealt with your solicitor getting indemnity insurance - it isn't expensive when you look at the amount you are paying for the house. If you want you can ask the vendor to pay for it.

Indemnity insurance isn't worth stressing over. Just get it!

The more important thing is: is the building work safe and fit for purpose? (have you had a full survey done?) How long ago was it done - the longer the better.

Hope this helps.