Must all enquiries be answered?

Buyer_K

Tiglet2 wrote: »

1. Your solicitor should request that the seller provides a Building Regulations Indemnity Policy at their cost if they don't have the relevant paperwork/certificates.

3. A Certificate of Structural Adequacy is given when a property has suffered with subsidence and has been underpinned. If this is the case, your solicitor will require all associated documentation. I'm not sure why an indemnity policy has been asked for, but certainly if you contact the Council any indemnity policy will be invalid. You should not contact the Council in any case. This will not help you or speed things up, if anything the vendor and their solicitor will be extremely irritated that you are involving yourself in the legal work in by-passing your solicitor and theirs. You are not the owner (yet) of the property and the Council should not speak to you.

I will be seeking planning permission after the purchase. That's when I was expecting the indemnity policy to become invalid.


5. Your solicitor is merely asking for further information regarding the freehold as he notes that it is for sale. Does the seller think you are buying the freehold? Is the sale on the understanding that you will purchase the freehold? Asking about the present position is your solicitor wanting to know what procedures have already been done and what else needs to be done. Are we talking about up to 4 joint freehold owners, or a share in the Management Company for a block of flats? If you are not buying the freehold, then tell your solicitor so that this enquiry can be satisfied.

I'm being offered a share of the freehold on completion (It's four flats). It's not a condition or expectation of the sale


Would it be possible for your mortgage to be extended? Most can be if it's the first time it's near the expiry date.

I will definitely consider this option as will my broker once it feels like we not going to make the expiry date. Just trying to avoid that outcome over investigating risks I'm already willing to take. Plus the answers (where they pertain to acquiring documentation) won't necessarily change .


You can instruct your solicitor to stop enquiring but they are likely to request that you sign a Waiver to prevent the chance of you coming back in a couple of years complaining that you were not aware of something and you want compensation from the solicitor acting. However, please consider how serious No. 3 could be without documentation to hand.You may have difficulty selling in the future without being able to provide relevant certificates and associated paperwork.

Understood...I'm fully expecting this to be a tricky situation in light of these being unavailable. Like the property, it will be a project.


There remains one more set of responses to come to me (I have established this with my solicitor today). The vendor claims this will cover everything. I doubt that. It more likely makes it clearer what questions not covered by explicitly stating what they can or can't provide. I will chase the answers tomorrow and take a read on whether I expect to get anymore actual answers. Even if I don't I'll probably still proceed. In this case I may seek this waiver that you speak of...

AdrianC

Buyer_K wrote: »

I appreciate all your responses. My logic in asking this question, I guess, is to better understand the whether I have the power to move forward knowing the risk as the mortgage expiry date gets closer (it’s next week - this has been a 6 month process).

You can do as you wish, and can proceed based on as much or as little information as you wish. It's your choice.

Your lender, otoh, may have a different view - they may insist on answers to certain questions before they release the mortgage and allow exchange to go ahead. After all, they need to be satisfied that the property is suitable security should you fail to repay the loan. The solicitor acts for them, too.

Buyer_K

So mortgage expired yesterday. With 7 enquiries left to go. The essential enquiry is about insurance regarding subsidence:

"Please provide evidence that the insurers are aware of the subsidence/ underpinning and are insuring under normal terms and conditions. The letter refers to confirmation being obtained from the insurers. Please provide the same. The e-mail dated 14 June was not attached as stated."

As you can read, sending over missing email could solve a lot.

Anyway, the Lender has agreed a reaaaaaally short extension till Friday 13th (Ha! Would you believe?). They would need to be told by 3pm (tomorrow) Thursday that I was ready to exchange on Friday. They are happy to release funds the day before.

Someone on my solicitors team said that there's no way of that working. Once pressed she said it's possible but she thinks its really unlikely. I'm happy to take a chance anyway. I think she's maybe relying on

Would it be so impossible to get this over the line by then, using email/same-day couriers to send files answering outstanding enquiries?

AdrianC

Buyer_K wrote: »

So mortgage expired yesterday. With 7 enquiries left to go. The essential enquiry is about insurance regarding subsidence:

"Please provide evidence that the insurers are aware of the subsidence/ underpinning and are insuring under normal terms and conditions. The letter refers to confirmation being obtained from the insurers. Please provide the same. The e-mail dated 14 June was not attached as stated."

As you can read, sending over missing email could solve a lot.

So a fairly major enquiry, not one that the lender are just going to let slide by.

Would it be so impossible to get this over the line by then, using email/same-day couriers to send files answering outstanding enquiries?

It's going to require the vendor's solicitor to ask the vendor to ask the insurer to send confirmation through, then your solicitor to forward that to the lender, and them to agree it's sufficient.

Good luck. You need it.

Buyer_K

Thanks AdrianC.


Well hopefully the missing email will provide that evidence (regarding subsidence). It was, astonishingly missed out of the previous responses to enquiries despite being cited, hence it's request in this particular enquiry.


If I don't get to complete on Friday, then maybe I'll have a full set of answered enquiries and maybe I'll be able to leave this nightmare as soon as I get another Mortgage offer (hopefully).