No building regs certificate & indemnity insurance

JMCF81

My partner and I are currently buying a house that has multiple extensions. For a ground floor extension they have planning permission and the relevant building regs completion certificates.
1) For a first storey extension (on top of the ground floor extension) They applied for planning permission but never got the building regs completion certificate. The seller has offered to provide indemnity insurance to cover lack of certificate (so only covers against the council asking us to take down/change the extension) there is no cover for any bad workmanship.
Should we request that an indemnity policy should also cover this? (Does such a policy even exist) and will our buildings insurance cover us if anything structural ever happens to said extension if we don't have the completion certificate.
2) There is a rear extension that we've found out is covering a public drain. The seller's (who built the extension) did not get permission from the local water authority to build over it. Our mortgage lender is insisting we have indemnity insurance for this but the seller is refusing to pay for it. We don't see why we should foot the bill for something that isn't our error... thoughts?

Thanks for any replies/advice

davidmcn

JMCF81 wrote: »

The seller has offered to provide indemnity insurance to cover lack of certificate (so only covers against the council asking us to take down/change the extension) there is no cover for any bad workmanship.
Should we request that an indemnity policy should also cover this?

Compliance with building regs doesn't guarantee anything about the standard of workmanship, other than it complied with the bare minimum - or that it hasn't deteriorated since it was built. You verify its condition via your survey. The same goes for the rest of the house, of course (have you seen the consents for it?).

will our buildings insurance cover us if anything structural ever happens to said extension if we don't have the completion certificate.

Buildings insurance covers you for the risks specified in the policy, which don't include remedying poor workmanship - but you'd still be covered if e.g. the dodgy electrics start a fire.

We don't see why we should foot the bill for something that isn't our error... thoughts?

How much is the policy, and is it worth jeopardising the whole transaction over it?

RedFraggle

Depending on when the drain was built over and what it serves, an agreement may not have been required

JMCF81

Thank you for your speedy reply. With regards to the buildings insurance we're concerned if the structure of the extension wasn't built correctly and remedial work was required to make it safe etc... would our insurance pay out ?

JMCF81

Both our and the seller's solicitor has highlighted the permission was indeed required to build over the drain.

davidmcn

JMCF81 wrote: »

Thank you for your speedy reply. With regards to the buildings insurance we're concerned if the structure of the extension wasn't built correctly and remedial work was required to make it safe etc... would our insurance pay out ?

Like I said:

davidmcn wrote: »

Buildings insurance covers you for the risks specified in the policy, which don't include remedying poor workmanship

It's your surveyor you rely on to confirm the property is structurally sound, not your insurance.