Missing easement indemnity insurance

subcapsular

Hi

I’m purchasing a property which has access onto an unadopted private road with in a private estate.

The owner of the road is untraceable and it is showing as unregistered on index map search. All we know is the whole estate was
Owned privately by an earl over 200 years ago and was split up into individual plots.

238 properties on the estate and I have checked neighbouring property deeds and none of the have a right of way registered as such.

The road is maintained by a residents association via a limited company set up some 50 years ago the company is liquid and all properties contribute £150 a year for maintenance.


The property has had access for 30+ Years but my conveyancer said he has to report it to my lender.

Lender has come back to say missing indenmnity insurance is the way to proceed.

My solicitor has had a quote which is £500. The conditions of the insurance are that the propriety has access for 12
Months minimum (which it has)

And secondly the owner of the road has not been directly contacted.

My solicitor is saying he needs the policy amending as he can’t guarantee the owner has not been contacted!?

All of this is delaying our exchange and I don’t know if the solicitor is just going above and beyond what he needs to?

I’m happy to pay the insurance just to get things progressed, I’m worried if the insurance company turn around and say they can’t insure without the conditions

The neighbouring properties also mortgaged sold
Without any of this being an issue

davidmcn

Previous thread about the same issue:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5937813/buying-house-on-private-road-right-of-way

subcapsular

Hi it’s more about the indemnity insurance and weather insurer will still insure if we can not guarantee owner is not contacted.

We don’t know who the owner is so on our behalf we know we haven’t contacted the owner

davidmcn

For future reference, it is easier if you just add to the previous thread and saves people asking questions which have already been answered.

Which party/ies do your solicitor think may be the owner and have been contacted about this issue? It doesn't seem very likely from what you've told us. But in any event, what are you going to do? Sack your solicitor and appoint a less fussy one? You need the policy to be in place and to have been approved by your lenders' solicitor (i.e. yours).

subcapsular

My solicitor isn’t giving me a straight answer on this, he has said the management company may have an agreement with the owner.

The management company have stated that the company was set up my residents to maintain the road and they in the future may apply for ownership of the road as they have maintained it for so long and it’s unregistered

But at present they do not own it and do not have any plans in the short term to do as such.

I just feel my solicitor is being pedantic and the premium he has quoted me is already a lot more then previous threads and online forums suggest for missing easement insurance

davidmcn

subcapsular wrote: »

the premium he has quoted me is already a lot more then previous threads and online forums suggest for missing easement insurance

Then ask him to get other quotes.

Mistral001

Apart from asking your solicitor for more quotes for the insurance or pull out of the deal, I cannot see anything you can do.

BTW, is this a one-of payment of £500 or a premium that you will continue to have to pay annually? If it is a continuing payment then the price of the property should reflect this extra expense.

davidmcn

Mistral001 wrote: »

BTW, is this a one-of payment of £500 or a premium that you will continue to have to pay annually?

These are always one-off payments.

subcapsular

It’s on one of payment and usually paid for by the vendors.
But as goodwill because my solicitor has taken so long with everything and the vendors threatened to put the property back on the market I agreed to take the hit.

But even if the vendors were to pay my solicitor would still be the one arranging the policy

Mistral001

subcapsular wrote: »

It’s on one of payment and usually paid for by the vendors.
But as goodwill because my solicitor has taken so long with everything and the vendors threatened to put the property back on the market I agreed to take the hit.

But even if the vendors were to pay my solicitor would still be the one arranging the policy

I see, then you need to either pay the insurance or pull out.

I would not worry about your solicitor arranging the insurance. You have a contract with them and they will be responsible to you for getting the correct type of insurance.

da_rule

All you could attest to would be whether you have contacted the owner of the road. The ‘no contact’ term is fairly standard so if your solicitor is asking to change it then it may take some time as it may have to be referred to the underwriters.

In terms of the other properties, it would be impossible for you to say that the others haven’t had the same issue as mist indemnity policies also prohibit you revealing the existence of a policy except to someone you are selling to or in the case of action being taken against you in relation to the insured risk.