legal advice please

Rebeccadobbo1

Hi, I'm posting here for some advice please. I am in the process of selling my property, we purchased in 2009. Our roof has had some spray foam insulation which at the time of our purchase had a guarantee. It turns out that this guarantee is from a company which has gone bust. As far as we can tell there is no damage to the roof, it is in very good condition (roofing company actually declined work on it due to it not needing anything doing). My question is that our previous solicitor didn't pick up on the fact that the company was bust (from quick google can see that it was bust at least a year before we purchased) and our guarantee was invalid. Do we have a legal leg to stand on with regards to providing info for our buyers? As in if they reduce the price they pay due to this, is our solicitor liable as we were not told that the company was bust during the conveyance process? Does anyone know??

Guest101

No. It's not up to your solicitor to check this kind of thing.


It's really up to you as buyers, with some level of culpability on your vendors.


However I see no reason to reduce any offers. The survey wont pick up any problems (presumably).


Guarantees are worth very little after 7 years, there could be a number of reasons why insulation fails and the guarantee will only cover the culpability of the installer.

AnotherJoe

It doesn't have a guarantee. End of. Lots of things dont have a guarantee. This must happen all the time especially with window guarantees where companies come and go faster than members of Corbyns shadow cabinet.

Its a pity you found out they've gone bust since otherwise you could just have had plausible deniability and handed over your (worthless) certificate, as it is should anyone ask for the guarantees I'd just say there isnt one unless no one else knows you know in which case you could just hand it over.

Or you could fess up and say since in any case, it would really only have two years to run anyway (assuming it was ten years?) so as there's nothing wrong with the roof now it would not be of use to them in any case. So if they ask for a discount point that out and tell them no discount.

davidmcn

You don't say when the work was done or how long the guarantee was meant to be for, or what it actually covered, but I doubt it actually makes any difference to the value of your house. After all, the rest of the house doesn't have a guarantee either, does it?

On several occasions I've gone back to surveyors to check whether the lack of a guarantee affects their valuation (which assumed that damp work etc had valid guarantees), and the answer has always been no.

Nobbie1967

I suspect the roofing company declined work on the roof as it will be a massive PITA to work on with foam sprayed all over the underside glueing everything together. Makes it very difficult to strip and refit faulty tiles.

bris

Did the solicitor check the boilers guarantee, or the windows, doors, maybe the built in fire? No of course not it's not their job to get a list of appliances and investigate guarantees on them all.


It is however in the best interests of the buyer for their solicitor to check and ask for guarantees and if they are transferable, which a lot of them aren't, but that's not your problem it's the buyers.

Grenage

Nobbie1967 wrote: »

I suspect the roofing company declined work on the roof as it will be a massive PITA to work on with foam sprayed all over the underside glueing everything together. Makes it very difficult to strip and refit faulty tiles.

Almost certainly, the salesmen for that snake-oil product should be shot.

nkkingston

Is that the stuff you can get with for free with the ECO scheme for insulating roofs where the attic has been converted? We've been considering it because our house is definitely losing heat that way, but if it screws up with repairs then maybe not.

G_M

Lessons:

1) When getting work done (windows, roofs etc) with a long guarantee/warranty like this, always make sure is an 'insurance-backed' warranty. Then if the company goes out of business the insureance company pays out under the warranty.

2) don't get these spray foam products sprayed onto your roof's underside, either for insulation reasons, or 'better weather-proofing', nor as an alternative to re-tiling an old roof.

They are a nightmare to maintain. Personalky I wouldn't buy a house that had had this installed.

As for your questions

3) no, your solicitor is not liable.

4) no you cannot tell your buyer there is a waranty. There isn't.