Buying an underpinned house - who guarantee's it?

mickburkejnr

We've placed an offer on a house that's perfect really, and when we made the offer we were then told the house was underpinned in 2012 and we were provided with a solicitors letter, certificate of the work, and the schedule or work done.

I've read through the documents, and it's made out to the people who owned the property before the people we're buying from were there. I've called the solicitor regarding this, and they said they were notified that there would be a change in tennant at which point they said this would have to be confirmed on purchase of the house, and this never happened. They have told me that the owners of the house who had the work done need to contact them and inform them that the house was actually sold, and then the certificate can be transferred to us when (more like if now) buy the house. It also transpires that it was the executors of the estate were the ones who had the work done.

So I have a few thoughts in my head about this work:

1) If the certificate wasn't in the current tennants name could they have still insured the house and the work that had been carried out?

2) Who actually guarentees the work? The insurer who initially did the work, the contractors, or the house insurance of the tennant?

3) If it turns out that the current tennants didn't carry on the insurance of the people who did the work, or because of the certificate in the wrong name, does this mean we're going to be absolutely screwed if something goes wrong in the future?

Personally, I like the fact the work has been done, and the cost of insurance doesn't worry me as I'm used to paying stupid money for car insurance. But what worries me is if the house can't be insured at all, or if the underpinning goes wrong in the future that we'll be truly stuck with a house we can't afford to fix or sell.

eddddy

You're confusing a few things. These comments might help:

- A contractor underpins a house. They guarantee their work (maybe for 12 or 20 or 25 years).

- If a problem with the contractor's workmanship or materials shows up during the guarantee period, the contractors come back and fix it.

- But just in case the contractor goes bust (before the guarantee finishes), the contractor can take out an insurance policy. It is then an 'insurance backed gurantee'.

So the contractor's insurance company will payout if the contractor's workmanship/materials were bad, and the contractor has gone bust.

- The 'insurance backed guarantee' is nothing to do with home insurance. (Home insurance policies don't cover bad workmanship/materials.)

- It should be possible to transfer the guarantee to each new owner of the house

- Now, regarding home insurance, if may be easiest to continue insuring with whoever the current home insurer is.

(- if you did want to use a different home insurer, you would have to go to a specialist insurer and tell them about the underpinning. And they may ask you if the contractor provided an 'insurance backed guarantee')