Private road indemnity insurance?

yippeekiyay

Hi,

We have sold our house and the buyers solicitor wants us to pay for indemnity insurance because the house is in a "private road".

The road was built in the 1930's and is a totally regular- no restrictions, gates etc. The only difference is the road is maintained by a resident assoc for a small fee every year (about £50). In reality the road is totally normal and insurance cover is pointless, another expense we could really do without!

When we bought the house no cover was paid by us or seller. Our solicitor wrote "the road is a private street with a public right of way over it. This means that although the roads are not owned by the LA, the public have a right to pass and re-pass over them. This will allow you free access to the property... blah blah".

What would be the best way of dealing with this? thanks!

Mr_Moo_2

Have they explained to you exactly what risk they are asking you to indemnify your buyer against? Sounds like the maintenance issues are covered by the fact there is a resident's association, the only other potential issue could be disputes over RoW?

Ultimately you can decline to do this, but your buyer may in turn decline to proceed.

vivatifosi

I am a director of a resident's association. We have common areas that are unadopted (in reality these are parking areas rather than roads). Nobody has ever asked for indemnity insurance here, however we are able to demonstrate that we maintain a sinking fund, with a designated amount being paid in per householder per year, and the amount of funds available. It may be worth speaking to the association to see if they have similar and offering this back to the solicitor.

yippeekiyay

Thanks. I found that the scheme has a £5m (!) insurance policy. I'm going to renew the membership and send a reply saying that the road is a private street but has full public right of way (I'll attach copies of the info from when we bought). Hopefully that will shut them up.

Next problem... they also want building regs and planning certs for an extension done in the 70's (about 3 owners before us!) They've written that these were both granted at the time so not sure why they want them? We don't have them anyway.

My head hurts!

xylophone

they also want building regs and planning certs for an extension done in the 70's (about 3 owners before us!

)

Try the local planning department - I was able to obtain the original drawings/planning permission etc for a house built thirty years earlier.