No extension completion certificates on repossesion

bikingbarney

Hi all.

I am in the process of buying a repo and am due to exchange contracts on friday but my solicitors enquries have come back with some bits I need help with.

The house has had two extensions(ground floor in 1993 and then first floor in 2003) and a conservatory in 2006 added to it.

As it is being sold by an asset management company they have no access to the completion certificates etc for the extensions and conservatory?/

Ho do I go about getting hold of these for when I come to sell the house?

Also there is a garage en block with the property. There is meant to be access from the back gate of the garden to the back of the garage via a wlakway but in the title deeds it shows that I only have access to the alleyway for the width of the property and no more which means I cant use the rest of the walkway to access the garage?

The Solicitor is trying to put in place an indemnity insurance to cover both things ?? is this right?


Any ideas??

Thanks

BB

G_M

Indemnity insurance will protect you against the council enforcing compliance with the Building Regs.

It may also help when you come to sell, if the buyers are naive.

Because the indemnity insurance will not protect you against any defects in the building work causing it to fall down or be very cold etc.

After so long, the council will in any case not enforce, so the policy is just a paper excercise. A section 36 enforcement notice cannot be served on you after the expiration of 12 months from the date of completion of the building work.

You could check with the council - they will have records of planning permission and building regs if they were obtained. However, alerting the council will invalidate any indemnity insurance.

Once you've bought, you could apply retrospectively for BRs - however, the inspectors will need to cause some damage (eg to expose foundations to check depth), and if they find non-compliance, then they will enforce (by which time your indemnity policy will be invalid since you called the council in.

Rectifying any non-complince could be very expensive.

bikingbarney

So for the completion certificates am I better off just keeping schtum and just pay for the indemnity insurance.

Any ideas on costing?

What about the access ? HOw can I get around this ?

from going down to the property its obvious that I will be able to use the alleyway from the garden to the garage but it isnt on the tite deeds, I believe the next door nieghbour has the same issue from her garden to her garage?

kaya

Indemnity policy cost me £130 yesterday, it's amazing how you can ignore the building regs , do as you please then buy a "get out of jail free card" for a mere £130. As above I would contact the council for copies, if you do buy and find it was all bodged up and needs re-doing a £130 bit of paper won't be much use to you when you need £50,000 to replace an unsafe double storey extension and conservatory, maybe get a proper surveyor in before exchange to give an idea of how well it was done?

silvercar

kaya wrote: »

Indemnity policy cost me £130 yesterday, it's amazing how you can ignore the building regs , do as you please then buy a "get out of jail free card" for a mere £130. As above I would contact the council for copies, if you do buy and find it was all bodged up and needs re-doing a £130 bit of paper won't be much use to you when you need £50,000 to replace an unsafe double storey extension and conservatory, maybe get a proper surveyor in before exchange to give an idea of how well it was done?

Don't contact the council as that will invalidate your indemnity policy.

If there are no certificates you still won't know if it was fine or bodged. Better to ask your surveyor's opinion.

bikingbarney

Thanks for the replies.

Hopefullly the solicitor can sort an indemnity policy that can cover both issues(building stuff and access to garage)

below is a scan of the plot showing the boundary line and also where the garage is. You can see the bit of the alleyway I will own in yellow but I need to cross the rest to get to the back of the garage marked blue.



Is it a non issue really???

kiddakidda

In these cases there is no point in chasing paperwork that doesn't exist. Indemnity insurance may be for naive buyers but what other options do you have?

1, Go for regularisation from local authority
2, Get a builder/surveyor to check the quality of the extensions
3, See No 2 and go for indemnity policy to cover you against local authority action.
4, Walk away

Limited choices so it's down to how you feel about the property and how brave you are

Doozergirl

Which solicitor are you using?

On the garage issue, it looks like the deeds should show you and your neighbours all owning the piece of land at the back of each garden, but affording each other a right of way. I take it there is nothing written in the deeds either?

An indemnity should help you protect your interest in the right of way over that land, should you need to. On a practical note, it looks like if anyone wanted to block your access further down, that you could could block everyone's access immediately and hold a trump card?

You'll have to judge the liklihood of access being blocked. If it's all in use regularly, then the liklihood of a problem is going to be low.

G_M

I don't see how an indemnity policy can grant a right of access where none exists.

If the owner of the land you need to cross (a ransome strip) suddenly decides to erect a fence or otherwise deny access, no insurance can force him to do otherwise surely? It is, after all, presumably his to do with as he wishes.

Doozergirl

G_M wrote: »

I don't see how an indemnity policy can grant a right of access where none exists.

If the owner of the land you need to cross (a ransome strip) suddenly decides to erect a fence or otherwise deny access, no insurance can force him to do otherwise surely? It is, after all, presumably his to do with as he wishes.

The indemnity would pay to either purchase the easement or cover the value of the garage to the property, depending on what is insured under the policy if access were lost. The value would be the best thing to insure, but while it is apparantly the most convenient access to the garage it isn't the main one. I'd say the loss of value would be near enough zero.

OP, has the solicitor run a search on the title of the strip across the back of the next two houses? Looking at the door numbers and length of path, this arrangement seems to suit your house particularly. It almost looks like it's under separate title. You'll have to pay, of course, for the search, unless it comes up freely on a land registry online search you do yourself. These are the original deeds from when the houses are built. It's trying to show something.

Paul_the_Painter

As far as I can see, nothing you have said precludes your neighbours at 74 and 75 having a clause/term in their deeds granting you access over the strip of land.