How to determine age of house

wantonnoodle

I wouldn't necessarily trust a valuer's assessment of the age. Our house was marked on the valuation as 1935, however the title deeds have it as 1929.

Having received copies of the original leases and construction documents once we completed, it confirmed that the house has indeed been there since 1929. So I would trust the Land Registry personally.

AimHigh

Looking slightly further ahead - what would happen if you needed to make a claim and you got the age of your house completely wrong?

I know insurance companies do everything they can to get out of paying up so is this something that could nullify your insurance?

Rambosmum

AimHigh wrote: »

Looking slightly further ahead - what would happen if you needed to make a claim and you got the age of your house completely wrong?

I know insurance companies do everything they can to get out of paying up so is this something that could nullify your insurance?

They'd need evidence you lied. The OP has evidence from a 'professional' whose advice they have taken in good faith, so if it turned out to be wrong it would not be the OPs fault in this case.


If you told the insurers your house was built in 1990 and it was actually built in 1900 and you knew that (title deeds, etc) then your insurance could be void.

wantonnoodle

Rambosmum wrote: »

They'd need evidence you lied. The OP has evidence from a 'professional' whose advice they have taken in good faith, so if it turned out to be wrong it would not be the OPs fault in this case.

But when you have conflicting evidence in that the title deed gives a different date, surely the title deed would be deemed more accurate?

From my experience surveyors generally just take a rough stab at the date - in fact the mortgage valuers, and a couple of other surveyors all reckoned our house was mid 1930s as it is in the style that was popular then, however, as stated before, we have original documentary evidence to prove it was built in 1929.

I would be more inclined to go with the 1939 build date than 1950s as this is on an official document and I would consider it therefore more reliable.

hazyjo

Rambosmum wrote: »

They'd need evidence you lied. The OP has evidence from a 'professional' whose advice they have taken in good faith, so if it turned out to be wrong it would not be the OPs fault in this case.


If you told the insurers your house was built in 1990 and it was actually built in 1900 and you knew that (title deeds, etc) then your insurance could be void.

Agree.


They may be asking for a specific date, but my insurance had a bracket of something like 1925 to 1950 so I really doubt that for a house that old they'll be quibbling over the year in the event of a claim.


Of course, don't quote me though They are a law unto themselves...

RedFraggle

Given that the title deed indicates there wasn't an existing dwelling, it looks 50s built, it's there in 53 but not in 39, there was a war taking place in the interim and the surveyor said 1950 I think I can support 1950 as nothing on this thread suggests an alternative source of evidence that contradicts that.
I'm more comfortable with that i think than a title deed which doesn't state there was a dwelling.
It'll do to cover between exchange and completion and if more info comes to light once all papers are transferred i can change it.

AimHigh

My personal situation is different to the OPs, I am only renting and had no professional estimates as to the age of the house.

To be perfectly honest, I took a rough stab based on sales info I found online for houses on the same road (not a big road) so could be completely off! Frustratingly my insurers didn't give a bracket but asked for a year so I'm just worried that if I did need to make a claim and it turns out the age was completely wrong then it might make my insurance void.

This is my first time renting hence my naivety.

RedFraggle

I finally got to the bottom of this as last week we recieved a bundle of papers from our solicitors within which was the original conveyance document for the first house sale. Unlike the title deed the conveyance (which is also dated 1939) refers to the plot and "newly erected dwelling" so I now know the house was built between Jan 1939 and Sept 1939.

fozziebeartoo

When I rang for an insurance quote, I had no accurate idea of the age of the prospective property.

The call centre person said they might be able to help with a "nifty tool"

And came up with the majority of the houses in the road were built in 1955. The oldest 1953 and the newest 1959.

Which was fine for insurance purposes.

I thought it was probably a 30's property, so shows how much I know :rotfl: