I'm still confused about building indemnity policies

Mrs_Arkwright

Hello

We've sold our house. It has an extension that was already here when we bought it over 10 years ago. We don't have any paperwork, planning permission or building reg documents, but the house has been surveyed and nothing to do with the extension was mentioned, apart from 'the house has been extended to the rear'.

Our solicitor is saying we need to buy an indemnity policy because of the lack of paperwork, to avoid the local authority coming along and ordering work/demolition. But my understanding is that if the extension is over 4 years old, they can't do that. Is this right? And if so, what exactly is the indemnity policy going to cover?

Any advice most grateful - am off to work in a mo so will check back later.

Thanks

Richard_Webster

I am rather sad that you haven't asked your solicitor to explain further.

Don't confuse Planning with Building Regulations. If the extension has been up for more than 10 years it will be legally immune form Planning Enforcement action. The law actually stiplutes the periods invovled, which in most cases is 4 years, but occasionally could be 10 years.

However, under building control there is no such period after which work becomes immune. Once some work is over 12 months old the Council lose the right to prosecute for a breach of the regualtions in the Magistrates Court, which is the easiest method for theme to use if they wanted to do anything. Unfortunately they still retain in theory the right to go to a civil court to seek an injunction to have the works removed/breach remedied. The courts will not be very sympathetic if they have left it many years and the local papers will have a field day making fun of the Council for wasting staff resources on such an issue!

The risk of enforcement is actually very small and that is all a Building Regulation Indemnity Policy protects against - it does not give any guarantees about the structural condition of the property. If your buyer were not getting a mortgae to purchase then he might want to take the risk because the chances of enforcement are very small indeed or indeed if you wnat to argue the point you could say that if he wants a policy he can pay for one.

Mortgage lenders are bureaucratic institutions and whatever his solicitor may think about the matter, the fact is that it could take weeks to get an answer from a lender about a point like this and they might eventually make some really unrealistic requirement like calling in the Building Control inspector to see what needs to be done to meet the standards - which is probably the last thing you will want, quite apart from the delay in waiting for the answer. So regrettably the practical answer is often to provide one of these policies. For most people the delay caused by arguing about the point is not worth it, given the relatively low cost of such a policy.

As a conveyancing solicitor I believe the information given in the post to be useful but I accept no liability except to fee-paying clients

Mrs_Arkwright

Thanks Guess I'm going to have to buy one then!

I did ask my solicitor all about this, but didn't really understand his answer, and I didn't want to look thick by phoning him again and asking him to explain it again. Silly, I know. I'd rather look thick on this forum! But you've explained it more clearly than he did, so thanks again.

silvercar

My sellers refused to provide any indemnity policies due to the time that has lapsed since the extensions were done. My solicitor said they were not worth the paper they are written on and we proceeded without any (and I have a large mortgage). I think it all depends on your solicitor's view and how difficult they want to be.