Indemnity Insurance

moving_2

we are in the process of buying a house...long saga,,,hopefully now close to getting sorted.

our solicitor has adviced us that the gargage conversation at the house needs
either
bulding regulation from teh council
or
letter from council saying no buildings regs required/needed

because this will take time and they waana move out on 5th June !!
us and the solicitor has suggested we out imdemnity insurance on the garage conversation...can anyone tell me how this works, how mcuh etc.:eek:

solicitor says seller normally pays this, we will ask them at later date, but for now looing to pay it outselves so as too not loss house.

any info appreciated.

nej

We had this on our house when we bought it (few years ago now). Our loft conversion was done a long time ago and has no permission.

Nobody thought it would be a problem and we split the indemnity insurance 50/50 between us and the seller. It was only about £50 or something.

We're going to be selling this year, so I expect it'll come up again.

moving_2

silly question but does it have to cover a certain amount ...?

dont suppose you know any website that are useful for getting quotes etc.....it wits end and cant seem to find any.

Richard_Webster

Because there are legal technicalities involved you need to be a solr or licensed conveyancer to get access to the websites etc. Mortgage lenders usually expect the indemnity insurance to be for the full market value of the property, which is not all that logical, but there it is.

A leading company charges £75 for cover on a property worth between £200K & £250K, if that is any help.

Policies can usually be arranged by a solr very quickly - either on line or a policy is taken from a looseleaf folder and filled in and sent off! By the way, solrs get no commission on these at all. Also remebere they only pay out if the Council takes enforcement action, not if there is some loss because of structural failure etc caused by a breach of the regs. It is highly unlikely the Council will take enforcment action.

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.

Woody69_2

You can only buy indemnity policies through your solicitor so you wont be able to get any quotes yourself. I recently had to buy one for no building regs for an extension. It only cost £37, but the price varies according to the purchase price of the property. It is the vendors responsibility to buy the indemnity. I wouldn't get it yourself, once you do that they will never give you the money for it.

RobertinHerts

moving wrote: »

they waana move out on 5th June !!
us and the solicitor has suggested we out imdemnity insurance on the garage conversation...

solicitor says seller normally pays this, we will ask them at later date, but for now looing to pay it outselves so as too not loss house.

any info appreciated.

Going through similar ourselves at present. Have I got this right? 1) Your solicitor considers an indemnity necessary 2) your seller want to complete on 5th June? If so maybe scope for making one conditional on the other if it suits you. That's what our solicitor recommended. However if nothing happens by next Wednesday we'll get indemnity at our expense rather than lose the purchase but of course we've not told the sellers this.

Robert

moving_2

oh dear my spelling was bad....opps rushed typing im afraid.

Well we been through so much hassle trying to get everything sorted that if this last stage we will pay it rather than loss the house.

What has your solicitor recommended it to you for ?

any idea on cost etc ??

Why is it so complicated LOL

RobertinHerts

moving wrote: »

oh dear my spelling was bad....opps rushed typing im afraid.

Well we been through so much hassle trying to get everything sorted that if this last stage we will pay it rather than loss the house.

What has your solicitor recommended it to you for ?

any idea on cost etc ??

Why is it so complicated LOL

Our solicitor quotes about £255 presumably with VAT to be added. Our solicitor suggested that, if nothing happens by Wednesday, we pay on condition that they exchange next week and complete on June 11th - a date which currently appears agreeable to all parties. As we want the place and it's a small percentage of the total price we'll go along with that, albeit unhappily.

I don't think it IS complicated It's the plonkers that you have to deal with. Their EA 'could never get through' to their solicitor until our EA called him. Pure coincidence I'm sure;) NOw their EA is my best mate and calls their solicitor and me every day! Their solicitor never responded to ours despite lots of chasing. They don't get the basic information such as a plan of the property and, as their EA said, the solicitors don't know what the property is like - which was a joke coming from him as I had to describe the property to him i.e. the one he was supposed to be selling me:eek:

The buyers son is recommending his mother (owner) not to pay for an indemnity despite their EA telling them it was their responsibility. I pointed out to their EA and our solicitor that there was already an indemnity in place for works prior to their purchase which was 4 years ago. [So their EA tells me their solicitor told him] These just need to be forwarded to our solicitors - could have been done 2 months ago:eek: More recent works were carried out by the Council thus they are likely to have complied with the rules and so the son could pop round to the Council offices and get copies of the documentation probably FREE of charge! However their EA no longer wants to talk to his client due to frailty or her son due to his attitude.

I believe that each additional section of the chain does add further complication though - so join a long chain at your peril.

Good luck. We're off on holiday next week hence leaving the instructions with the solicitor.

By the way, anyone know the collective noun for plonkers?

Robert

jonf

So if you get one of these indemnitys, does it clear the new owners forever or is there a cutoff point where the work is so old that its not needed anymore or what? Also, what happens when they come to sell, do they pass it on?

Cheers,

Jon F

Richard_Webster

These policies are usually forever - as the risk of payout (which is very small anyway) goes down as the years go on. (This does not apply to all legal indemnities, those for legal problems on flats etc tend to be limited to say 25 years.)

As I said in my earlier post the policy has to be for the full value of the property so you may have to pay to "top-up" the cover if your house has gone up in value over the limit of the insurance. Most companies price policies in £50K bands, so it makes sense to get cover for the top of the band to provide some inflation proofing. Also some insurers have either an optional or automatic 5% per year for the first ten years increase in value of cover, which again gives some inflation proofing.

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.