PRC Repair Schemes HELP

MrMJN

I’m hoping someone out there will be able to offer me some advice.

I have a rather complicated situation with my house. I own a Cornish house in the midlands (bought in 2004)– I found out last year that the house was in fact what I now know as a PRC home; on the face of it the property looks like a normal house (brick/block)

It all came about when I tried to sell the property last year and the buyers mortgage lender asked for the PRC certificate – at the time I had no idea at all what this was or in fact where it would be held as I do not have a copy myself. Unfortunately the sale fell through as a result; I now understand this to be a common story.

I’m now fully versed in PRC homes and PRC certificates and have spoken to some extremely helpful people along the way, here comes my predicament (in a condensed version)

I had the property inspected by Michael Dyson Associates against their repair scheme 016 – their report shows that the repair done on the home is not inline with their expectations - 016. Whilst this was ongoing I also managed to locate (which took great effort) a copy of my conveyancing file from when I purchased the property – in there is a copy ONLY of a PRC certificate issued in the late 1980s showing the property was repaired to licence scheme 015 – it lists owner at the time, who made the repair and the engineer who signed the repair off cost etc etc. I have tried to contact all these people – unfortunately this hasn’t provided me any information.

It’s clear that potentially the lender at the time or my solicitor at the time was negligent in not requesting the original; I wasn’t even made aware of the construction type at time of purchase by either – I know that I would not have proceeded with the purchase without the original documentation; I now have to try and deal with the situation as I am only stuck with a copy of the original certificate.

Does anyone have an idea on how I could get a replacement for the scheme 015 – Michael Dyson Associates are not interested and will only assess against their own recognised repair scheme 016.

Would a mortgage lender accept only a copy ?

Any advice / thoughts etc greatly appreciated ?

Mal

stator

You don't have a claim against the solicitor. They confirmed there was a PRC certificate, this was sufficient for the lender.
They can't know that in the future other lenders will want more. IT's also not the solicitor's job to advise you on the construction of the property you have selected. That might be mentioned by your building surveyor, if you hired one.

So now you have a copy of the PRC certificate, what is your problem?

G_M

Who issued the 015 certificate? Contact them and ask for a certified copy of the original certificate.

Whether lenders will be happy with 015 I don't know - I assume it's like Building Regulations. They change periodically but owners don't have to update to new BR standards provided they complied with the preveious standards.

MrMJN

Thanks for the replies.

The solicitor didn't fully confirm that there was/is a PRC certificate in place. They didn't request or pursue the original version at all.

While I agree that its not their job to inform me of the type of construction I believe that it is their responsibility to advise that the home was a PRC home and that further inspection may be warranted -
this never happened; I see this as the job of a conveyancing solicitor.

The copy of the certificate was also never passed to the lender by them - so again I think they have failed in their responsibilities.

I have contacted the issuing company in writing already - still pending a response from them.

Its clear there was a certificate issued; putting the above aside - I somehow need to find out if the copy will be acceptable for any future buyers lender ? Is there a legal way to handle it ?