Are searches really required for a FLAT?

Richard_Webster

someone suggests putting a new bypass in at the bottom of your garden.

If it is a defintie highway proposal by the Highway Authority within 200m of the property then it will show on a local search - not the same as a planning proposal by some third party.

AlexMac

I'm with Katy, and sceptical about the increasingly 'risk averse' culture whereby unless you tell them not to, solicitors will check for everything on top of the basic local authority planning search (which only costs about £150 from memory of our most recent two transactions a year ago); chancel liability (which can add £10-£20 for the basic check or in our case, £100 for indemnity; as they always claim to have found a faint liklihood of liability) , plansearch plus (or equivalent) - for the faint likelihood of pits, tanks, noxious chemicals, landfill sites plus a wholly redundant catalogue of local leisure facilities, shops, school OFSTEDS etc...

So last time we bought cash, we told the solicitor to do her usual fine tooth-comb job on the lease and title, but otherwise said forget the lot except the basic local authority search. And as for a Homebuyers check... call me a cynic but I can turn on the c/h and all the taps, flush the loos, count roof tiles, power points and look at the consumer unit, the roof and inspect for superficial cracks, damp and movement.

So skimp!

Maybe different if you were planning to sell on in the next year or so

Cara79

We recently sold, albeit a house, to a friend. My dh has owned that house 10 years & has known the friend that long. The solicitor even advised not doing searches but taking out some sort of indemnity (for about £10 or £20 less than the searches would have cost).

Friend still paid for searches. You just never know....

Thrugelmir

AlexMac wrote: »

I'm with Katy, and sceptical about the increasingly 'risk averse' culture whereby unless you tell them not to,

I bought a new property on a small developement in a rural location in 1991. When I sold the property in 2007. Searches then revealed that a chemical works had been located on the site in the 1850's. Needless to say. This caused immense hassle with the vendors.

I recall my solicitor saying that he had another case. Where a property had been build on the site of an old brickworks. Insurers where unwilling to offer indemnity insurance as considered risk too high.

You never know what lies beneath you.