Indemnity Insurance for a Conservatory

harry_singh

The house I am buying has a conservatory which does not feature on the local searches. My solicitor has recommended taking out an indemnity insurance paid for by the Vendor (about £170).
a. Does anyone have experience of taking out similar insurance. What pitfalls there might be?

b. Would it be advisable to approach my local authority for retrospective planning consent? If so should it be done before or after the purchase?

c. FYI, my policy would invalidate if I were to approach for retrospective planning consent. Should I do it anyway to improve sales prospects in future? Are the council likely to take a hard approach in such cases?

Any information about costs and timescales of making such application would be appreciated.

Richard_Webster

Is the proposed indemnity policy for breach of Planning Law, breach of Building Regs, breach of a covenant in the deeds or a combination?

harry_singh

It is for lack of Building Regs/Planning Permission/Fensa Certificate. It covers me against an enforcement action by my local authority for breach of building regulations/planning permissions.

withabix

I think this is largely only relevant if there is no external door between your conservatory and the house.

Building regs do not apply unless there is a fixed heating source (ie a radiator) and no door to the house AFAIK.

Debt_Free_Chick

harry_singh wrote: »

It is for lack of Building Regs/Planning Permission/Fensa Certificate. It covers me against an enforcement action by my local authority for breach of building regulations/planning permissions.

When was it built? After 4 years, the LA is time-barred and can not take any action against you (or the owner) for lack of PP (the time limit is one year for no building regs). So you may well be buying a policy that will never pay out.

Jonbvn

Planning permission for conservatories is not always required. Check out this link and this link.

magyar

Thought I'd add a query to this thread rather than start a new one as it's basically the same question.

IN my circumstance, the water search identified a sewer running under the back garden. There is a covenant which precludes construction over the top of the sewer and any construction within a certain distance of the sewer must be with the permission of the water authority.

A conservatory was constructed (not by our vendors, but by a previous owner) and it is uncertain whether it is over the sewer or not. It appears that no permission was sought or granted by the water authorities. So we have asked for an insured indemnity from the vendors.

Unlike the planning permission issue, this would never lapse, as there would always remain the (slim) possibility of the water company needing access to the sewer and in the worst (and EXTREMELY unlikely) case, needing to go through the conservatory to mend a broken pipe, etc.

There doesn't seem any obvious point in applying for retrospective permission (and as pointed out above, planning permission would have lapsed anyway, as the conservatory is over ten years old). However, it does seem sensible to ask for the indemnity.

Does anyone have any experience of timescales (we were hoping to exchange tomorrow - which now seems unlikely...), or have any comments on the above?