Help - indemnity insurance - why?

papermoney

is it needed?

I have a letter this morning asking for some money (which I just don't have)to provide indemnity insurance for the lack of planning permission and building regulation consent for the consevatory and roof.

I'm confused as we only bought the house 18 months ago and the conservatory was built long before we moved in. So would have thought it should have been picked up when we bought the property if it didn't have planning permission.

Help - anyone?

silvercar

I don't know why the solicitor didn't pick up on this when you bought. If you are using the same solicitor I would query it.

You often don't need planning permission for conservatories, so query this with your solicitor. The indemnity is unneccesary as councils only have a year to take action on lack of building regs. If you have a pernickety buyers solicitor you may feel forced to get it for your buyers peace of mind. A couple of hundred pound to keep the buyer on track.

papermoney

Thanks - i'll be ringing the previous solicitor on Monday - it's sods law the letter comes through on the weekend.

dexters_mum_2

Basically your conveyancer should have picked this up last time, but there are exceptions, I think if the extension was built prior to mid- 80's, you may be exempt, however, double check with your current and previous conveyancer.

You would buy the indemnity in the event the council came to the house, after you have sold it, and told the buyers that they would have to knock down the conservatory. It could also be that the council have no records but it may conform to building regs or vice versa. The policy would cover you and the buyer in the event of work and subsequent costs.

silvercar

You would buy the indemnity in the event the council came to the house, after you have sold it, and told the buyers that they would have to knock down the conservatory.

They would never be told they would have to knock down the conservatory! The very worst is they would have to apply for planning permission, though I don't think this is required for conservatories.


The rules are 4 years for planning permission and 1 year for building regs; so they would have to come knocking pretty quick! After that time it is too late to be ordered to take action, hence most imdemnities are not worth buying.

papermoney

I will obvious check on Monday but i'm pretty sure the conservatory has been built for longer than 4 years. I'm all confused now.

lotto-dreamer

Just to get this straight -

1) You bought a house 18 months ago?

2) You have only now had a letter from your solicitors asking for money to pay for indemnity insurance?

Indemnity insurance, if it was required, should have been put "on risk" on the day you completed (very often paid for by sellers but you would have been told it was necessary and if sellers refused to pay you would have been asked to do so).

To be asked for money to pay for it 18 months later is a bit odd -you should ask for a copy of policy and check the date was day you completed.

If solicitors cannot produce it then it sounds like they have not done what they were supposed to do

papermoney

lotto-dreamer wrote: »

Just to get this straight -

1) You bought a house 18 months ago?

2) You have only now had a letter from your solicitors asking for money to pay for indemnity insurance?

Indemnity insurance, if it was required, should have been put "on risk" on the day you completed (very often paid for by sellers but you would have been told it was necessary and if sellers refused to pay you would have been asked to do so).

To be asked for money to pay for it 18 months later is a bit odd -you should ask for a copy of policy and check the date was day you completed.

If solicitors cannot produce it then it sounds like they have not done what they were supposed to do

Sorry i haven't explain very well have I?

We bought the house in Sept 2005 and have just sold it. It is in the process of going through the solicitors at the minute. When we bought the property the previous owners didn't have to pay any insurance.

We are now selling - 18 months later- and have been asked by ours buyers solicitors to pay for this.

lotto-dreamer

Ah, now I understand!

The fact that it wasn't picked up when you bought the property doesn't count I'm afraid. If your current buyers' solicitors are insisting on the relevant paperwork or indemnity insurance it is probably best to go along with it to help speed up the process.

Unfortunately, a lot of solicitors are indemnity insurance mad at the moment and even if it is highly unlikely there would be any repercussions from works done so long ago - if they are insisting on it, indemnity insurance is the quickest way to go.

I think I might be inclined to take the chance and say you won't pay, you didn't have it when you bought so if they want it they should pay- if they then starting muttering about not proceeding you could then agree to pay.

As other posters have said, some conservatories would not have required permission anyway (local council websites usually list the criteria).

Just a word of warning - if you are going the indemnity insurance route do not telephone the council for advice (it alerts them that there might be a problem and invalidates the insurance) Highly unlikely there is a problem if works done long ago though.

papermoney

Thanks - I thought that too - just a little too late because my husband had already writen an email asking for advice - i'm not a happy bunny about it.

Although part of me thinks if they did come round it would save me the hassle of packing anymore boxes.



I get the feeling that it was built about 5-7 years ago so hopefully the council won't be bothered.

lotto-dreamer

This might be helpful -

http://www.conservatoryinfo.co.uk/buildregulations.html

If you have alerted council then solution would be to get inspector to come round to either confirm in writing (to send to other solicitor) that not required or if it was then to give retrospective planning permission if all ok.

Hope it all works out ok!