Property damaged before completion of property

pinkshoes

notbritishgas wrote: »

I have just sold a property that was vacant for about six months.
When I insured the building at the outset there were several stipulations.
The water supply to be switched off, the hot water tanks to be drained, the central heating tank to be drained but not radiators.
Also property to be checked at least weekly.

^^^^^^ this.

When I sold my flat, it was vacant for about 6 weeks, so as the owner I had to meet the leasehold and buildings insurance requirements by turning the water off to keep the buildings insurance valid.

I would imagine the vendor would have had to do the same, so you could perhaps go down the route of negligence by deliberately invalidating the insurance, and thus becoming responsible for the cost.

If he lives in Australia, not sure how you will be able to get money off him...

TranceNRG

UPDATE 2 - Just received an email from my solicitor. Apparently seller has offered to send a £1000 cheque as compensation for damage. I'm happy with that and it seems some people do have conscience!

HouseBuyer77

Before you accept do check what the extent of the damage is. If it turns out to be significantly more than £1000 worth you may not be able to claim anything else from him as you accepted the initial compensation.

TranceNRG

HouseBuyer77 wrote: »

Before you accept do check what the extent of the damage is. If it turns out to be significantly more than £1000 worth you may not be able to claim anything else from him as you accepted the initial compensation.

Cheers, I will.

G_M

I seem to recall that cashing the cheque could be seen as accepting it 'in full and final payment', thus burning your boats if it transpires the damage is £5K

So unless I'm wrong, hang onto the cheque until you've had the damage properly evaluated and then decide what to do.

similarly, don't write back immediately thanking him - get the damage evaluated first.

If after that you're happy with the £1K, cash the cheque and write a nice letter thanking him (and enclosing a madeira).

edit: this applies also to any email reponse you give your solicitor! Beware just thanking him, which might be interpreted as acceptance, which he might pass on to the seller.

matttye

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think you could (and perhaps should) have got a building insurance policy that covered you from the point of exchange and suited your requirements.

You can have multiple policies in force covering the same property at the same time and any payout will be reduced if there are multiple policies. Ordinarily any reduction would be recouped by reducing the purchase price.

This happens where both the seller and buyer are required to insure a house after exchange. E.g. If the seller is paying off a mortgage the lender may require that insurance is kept until completion but it will also be in the buyer's interest to insure once exchange takes place.

At least the guy has offered to pay something. He may be reasonable if you send him a quotation for having the damage fixed.

Money_maker

#38 :spam:

movilogo

I'd say if you get the cheque without declaration that you relieve the seller from any further compensation, then better to encash it first

Technically, seller is owner till completion and buyer has no way to mitigate the damage as not having the key to property.

How long was the gap between contract exchange and completion? Did you inspect the property just before exchange?

Pjaitley

I feel your pain I have been in the same setuition, I believe you can take them to cort but it may not be worth it, it is horible position to be in, but I think you should just get it fixed and move on I did and simtimes the stress is not woth fighting for.

abinanthanb

Freecall wrote: »

Firstly, handing over the keys on completion is a largely symbolic act (and also for most house sales a practical one so that the new owner can get in).

It has little legal significance apart from positively identifying the seller's intention to transfer ownership.

Think what you might do if one day you simply lost your keys, you might perhaps break in. You don't have to have keys to gain access although it might be more difficult.

Also, consider the situation where the purchased property has no keys, a piece of land for example or even a derelict house with no door.

This does not fully answer the issue you raise however as in order to have checked in this case (and in most cases), the OP would have needed to have been granted access. If requested then the EA would probably have fulfilled this function.

On very large commercial sales it is not unusual for the buyer to have a second survey immediately prior to completion but in domestic sales this would generally be considered a somewhat excessive cost.

I thought my question was a rhetorical one, but this response takes the prize hands down...