Possessory Title Indemnity - who should pay?

R&C

Hi all,
In the middle of selling my house & some paperwork arrived from my solicitor this morning. Including two quotes from Countrywide Legal Indemnities, one is for Unknown Restrictive Convenants, Rughts & Easements (£242) & the other is a quote for a Possessory Title Indemnity (£222).

Just double checking that it's us who should definitely pay for both? Fine if so, but thought it was worth asking before we part with almost £500 that we weren't expecting 😭

Sale price is £407k & it's an Edwardian house that we bought in 2009, if that's at all relevant.

Thanks

goodwithsaving

I would expect the seller to pay.

silvercar

If you bought in 2009, why do you need possessory title indemnity?

If there was some concern over the title deeds in 2009, a policy would have been taken out at the time. If there wasn't a concern, why is there a problem now?

Richard_Webster

Yes, if you bought in 2009 your sellers should have provided policies so they could be with your "deeds". Unfortunately, since lenders stopped keeping paper documents a lot of things have got lost but it is still worth asking the solicitors who dealt with the purchase in 2009 about it.

You may have to pay to upgrade the insured value of the policies and sometimes these are more expensive than the new policies!

R&C

silvercar wrote: »

If you bought in 2009, why do you need possessory title indemnity?

If there was some concern over the title deeds in 2009, a policy would have been taken out at the time. If there wasn't a concern, why is there a problem now?

I'm not 100% sure what the policy is for to be honest, I've done a quick Google & if I'm correct & have understood it correctly then it could be because the house stayed in the family from when it was built in the early 1900s until it was sold to us. It was a probate property. Presumably either the seller or ourselves would've taken out the same policy back in 2009? Would it still be applicable or would it always need to be renewed? Have a feeling it only covers you for the price you pay, and as we paid less 8 years ago, the chances are we need a new one?

R&C

Richard_Webster wrote: »

Yes, if you bought in 2009 your sellers should have provided policies so they could be with your "deeds". Unfortunately, since lenders stopped keeping paper documents a lot of things have got lost but it is still worth asking the solicitors who dealt with the purchase in 2009 about it.

You may have to pay to upgrade the insured value of the policies and sometimes these are more expensive than the new policies!

Sorry I didn't see your reply before I posted. Thanks I'll dig out our old solicitors details. Worth a try I guess!

da_rule

So is your title possessory or absolute? If it is absolute then it is hard to see why these policies would be necessary.

I know when my sister bought her house her solicitor tried to get them to buy an insurance policy as it meant that they did not have to properly investigate the title.