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Cowboy shower installation jeopardising my house sale
evilcartman
Posts: 69 Forumite
I'm currently trying to sell my house, pay off the mortgage and then buy a house outright with the remainder of the proceeds. I've accepted an offer and have been busy househunting.
However, I've handed my forms in to the solicitor and been hit with a bombshell. Three years ago, I started on a training course for a new job in London. As it was my intention to return to my home in the north once I had qualified, I decided to let my house out through a letting agent.
Apparently the agents had been having trouble finding a tenant for it at first because it didn't have a shower. But then they informed me that a couple who they regarded as good customers of theirs liked the house and wanted to know if I would be willing to let them install a shower at their own expense. They put it to me that the man was a qualified builder and would do a professional job and that it would add value to the house.
I had my concerns about the standard of the work etc but I felt like I had a gun to my head, especially as my new employers were being tinpot Nazis about not allowing us to use our mobile phones except during breaks during the training course, making it very difficult to manage the situation from 200 miles away. The "at our own expense" offer then became a "can we have a rent reduction if we install the shower?" request. In hindsight, I should have told them to eff off at this point but, in the circumstances I was in, I made a deal to meet them half-way on this.
As it happened, an old back injury recurred during this training course (it was a vocational degree as an NHS professional) and for various reasons that I won't go into here, I ended up being slung off the course and at this point unable to return to my own home until the tenants' initial six months had expired. What a mess, eh?
But eventually, I was able to return to my house and the shower installation looked like it had been a competent job. A new circuit and circuit breaker had been added to the fusebox, a pullcord switch was installed in the bathroom etc. However, I was completely oblivious to the change in building regulations that required that any such work carried out after 1 Jan 2005 needed to have either a certificate by a qualified person or approval from building control.
This has now arisen as an issue because of the conveyancing process and my solicitor wanted to know what certification there was for this work and of course I have nothing to show for it. She has said we could get indemnity insurance to cover the fact that it's non-compliant with building regs (even though I understand that the council could only do something about it one year after the work was done and that time has expired, so the indemnity is a pointless waste of money). The trouble with this, I understand, is that it may not surprisingly alarm the buyer and lead to them pulling out or expecting a price reduction.
I believe the former tenants are still in the area and I should be able to find them. I wonder if it is worth approaching them with a view to rectifying the situation? If he has made a cowboy installation without notifying building control etc, then he'll be in deep doo-doo if I report him, won't he?
I could also try chasing the letting agent. I still have some correspondence about this offer on Gmail. There was also some discussion on the phone about it, which I don't have a record of, but the emails are still evidence that this offer was made - and with the agent's full knowledge. The agent at no time mentioned certification was necessary and they do have a duty of care to keep abreast of relevant legislation, surely? So I'm also minded to approach this agent direct and demand that they sort this mess out, e.g. by getting their in-house maintenance people to inspect the work, reinstall if necessary and certify it. If they don't, I will report them to the council and to their professional body (ARLA - association of residential letting agents, of which the agent boasts so much about being a member), find my own electrician to do the remedial work and sue them in small claims for the costs.
Or should I just pay through the nose for all this myself like a mug and just put it down to bad experience? This could cost several hundred pounds to put right and it's money I just don't have. I'm actually unemployed at the moment and I'm selling the house to escape a benefits trap (if I take on a temporary job for a few weeks, for example, and then have to sign back on, I end up losing the mortgage interest payments). Selling the house and buying somewhere outright means I'm free to take up whatever work I please without having to worry about mortgage or rent and housing benefit etc.
However, I've handed my forms in to the solicitor and been hit with a bombshell. Three years ago, I started on a training course for a new job in London. As it was my intention to return to my home in the north once I had qualified, I decided to let my house out through a letting agent.
Apparently the agents had been having trouble finding a tenant for it at first because it didn't have a shower. But then they informed me that a couple who they regarded as good customers of theirs liked the house and wanted to know if I would be willing to let them install a shower at their own expense. They put it to me that the man was a qualified builder and would do a professional job and that it would add value to the house.
I had my concerns about the standard of the work etc but I felt like I had a gun to my head, especially as my new employers were being tinpot Nazis about not allowing us to use our mobile phones except during breaks during the training course, making it very difficult to manage the situation from 200 miles away. The "at our own expense" offer then became a "can we have a rent reduction if we install the shower?" request. In hindsight, I should have told them to eff off at this point but, in the circumstances I was in, I made a deal to meet them half-way on this.
As it happened, an old back injury recurred during this training course (it was a vocational degree as an NHS professional) and for various reasons that I won't go into here, I ended up being slung off the course and at this point unable to return to my own home until the tenants' initial six months had expired. What a mess, eh?
But eventually, I was able to return to my house and the shower installation looked like it had been a competent job. A new circuit and circuit breaker had been added to the fusebox, a pullcord switch was installed in the bathroom etc. However, I was completely oblivious to the change in building regulations that required that any such work carried out after 1 Jan 2005 needed to have either a certificate by a qualified person or approval from building control.
This has now arisen as an issue because of the conveyancing process and my solicitor wanted to know what certification there was for this work and of course I have nothing to show for it. She has said we could get indemnity insurance to cover the fact that it's non-compliant with building regs (even though I understand that the council could only do something about it one year after the work was done and that time has expired, so the indemnity is a pointless waste of money). The trouble with this, I understand, is that it may not surprisingly alarm the buyer and lead to them pulling out or expecting a price reduction.
I believe the former tenants are still in the area and I should be able to find them. I wonder if it is worth approaching them with a view to rectifying the situation? If he has made a cowboy installation without notifying building control etc, then he'll be in deep doo-doo if I report him, won't he?
I could also try chasing the letting agent. I still have some correspondence about this offer on Gmail. There was also some discussion on the phone about it, which I don't have a record of, but the emails are still evidence that this offer was made - and with the agent's full knowledge. The agent at no time mentioned certification was necessary and they do have a duty of care to keep abreast of relevant legislation, surely? So I'm also minded to approach this agent direct and demand that they sort this mess out, e.g. by getting their in-house maintenance people to inspect the work, reinstall if necessary and certify it. If they don't, I will report them to the council and to their professional body (ARLA - association of residential letting agents, of which the agent boasts so much about being a member), find my own electrician to do the remedial work and sue them in small claims for the costs.
Or should I just pay through the nose for all this myself like a mug and just put it down to bad experience? This could cost several hundred pounds to put right and it's money I just don't have. I'm actually unemployed at the moment and I'm selling the house to escape a benefits trap (if I take on a temporary job for a few weeks, for example, and then have to sign back on, I end up losing the mortgage interest payments). Selling the house and buying somewhere outright means I'm free to take up whatever work I please without having to worry about mortgage or rent and housing benefit etc.
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Comments
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It is unreadable without paragraphs. Sorry.0
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Why don't you contact the tenant, ask for the electricians number then call him Abd ask him to provide the certification.0
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Take out the indemnity insurance.:footie:
Regular savers earn 6% interest (HSBC, First Direct, M&S) Loans cost 2.9% per year (Nationwide) = FREE money. 0 -
Take out the indemnity insurance.
As I understand it, this is a useless waste of money. There is nothing to actually indemnify against, as the installation is now time-expired as far as building control enforcement by the council goes. However, I am still left with a property that is potentially unsellable until the certification is sorted out.0 -
I reckon if someone really wants to buy, they will sort the shower themselves.This is an open forum, anyone can post and I just did !0
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evilcartman wrote: »As I understand it, this is a useless waste of money. There is nothing to actually indemnify against, as the installation is now time-expired as far as building control enforcement by the council goes. However, I am still left with a property that is potentially unsellable until the certification is sorted out.
This may be so but, trust me, mortgage lenders and, I'm afraid to say, some solicitors, are not very 'up' with indemnity insurances.
Have been in the position myself and the easiest way is to take out the insurance. Forget whether it is 'useless' just do what the solicitor/mortgage lender is asking. In the grand scheme of things it is a small amount of money.
It's saves so much hassle and stops you worrying about this while you are trying to find yourself a home.0 -
I reckon if someone really wants to buy, they will sort the shower themselves.
But will probably want a price reduction in order to do so, which puts me back to square one. Had I known about this change in law at the time, I would never have allowed this installation. In my defence, I was not (and never intend to be) a professional landlord. However, the 'professional' letting agent should have been aware of this situation and had a duty of care to inform me of the pitfalls, surely?0 -
Why is it a "cowboy" install, would a piece of paper make it automatically safe? Given that most installations will be missing paperwork your solicitor will have seen seen it all before and should be sorting it out for you.0
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Why is it a "cowboy" install, would a piece of paper make it automatically safe? Given that most installations will be missing paperwork your solicitor will have seen seen it all before and should be sorting it out for you.
I would agree with you, phead. It seems to be one of the many pieces of pointless and badly thought-out pieces of legislation that was churned out by the last government. I'm no fan of the present one, either, before anyone has a go at me about that.
But nevertheless, the law has been passed and I'm now having to deal with the consequences of it.
It is a cowboy install because if the installer was a competent person as defined in law, they would be well aware of the need to inform building control and provide the necessary certification.0
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