no build over agreement.

Swasterix

1sunnny said:

Our cover is for the lack of build over agreement, so only protects us from any repairs arising from work that the water company may need to do. I didn’t really have anything to do with arranging it, as the vendor offered to pay for it (I would have insisted they did anyway). Your solicitor should be able to advise on what is available/suitable. Although as per other reply, it seems you may not need it anyway!

That's good as i have heard some vendors insists buyers to buy the insurance.
hopefully i should have a clearer picture when i discuss this with my solicitor on Tuesday as this is taking absolutely ages.

There’s no rule to say who pays one way or the other. They could insist you pay, you could insist they pay, you could agree to go halves. It’s a negotiation. If I remember correctly it wasn’t overly expensive. Somewhere in the region of £300 if my memory serves me correctly. 

An important point that Doozergirl touched on, in case you weren’t aware... Under no circumstances contact the council/water authority if you are relying on indemnity insurance. If they are made aware, you will likely not be able to get cover. If you are getting a mortgage and the mortgage company insists on an indemnity policy, you’re snookered. 

thearchitect

1sunnny said:

...the sellers did an extention in 2004 with planing permision and building regulation aproved....

If OP is in Scotland then a building warrant would be required prior to construction work and only the completion ("habitation") certificate would be necessary.  In Scotland, however, a Build Over Agreement is only required for a public sewer or main (all underground drainage will normally be privately owned uphill of the disconnecting manhole or branch connection)..

1sunnny

Yes, so they've applied, possibly with detailed plans (you don't have to) and they've quite possibly had inspections and not sorted the final certificate. 

I always think this is better than not contacting them at all, because at least they had some clue of what was needed.  People often forget about the last one, they're just relieved to be moving in and it drops down the list of things to do.   

There's always a dichotomy because the best thing would be to contact the council and get it signed off, but the worst thing to do for the insurance cover is contact the council.  And you don't know how far they got with it until you contact the council... 

Decent survey to help cover your backside is probably the best course of action, letting the surveyor know that there's no sign-off, so they need to look a bit harder and not use building control to cover their own backside. 

we are still stuck at the same position, now they are saying that they did get the building signed off and blaming on their solicitor for not providing the paperwork to us, its getting a bit confusing now as they are contacting the council now to get the building completion certificate or they will get it signed off, they are being very unclear about it. 

they made an extension, it clearly shows on the map that they went over the drains , but now their solicitor wants us to prove with an evidence that there is a drain running underneath the extension. so my solicitor asked me to contact ESURV  (homebuyers report) to confirm that there is a drain as they have raised this issue on the report.

and they are not ready to provide any sort of indemnity insurance, which is out of the question now as they are contacting the council, but would i need to get indemnity for build over?

the surveyors also raised query regarding dropped kerb which was built in 60's as there is no planning for, i am guessing that was done when the building was built.

1sunnny

It's usually based on time, but say £150-300.  Not that long, it depends on how many drains you have.  They'll give you a copy of the video.  

They haven't provided with drain map and the report says the drains are shared.
 i am not sure if i get this done, it might stretch things a week or two.

1sunnny

There’s no rule to say who pays one way or the other. They could insist you pay, you could insist they pay, you could agree to go halves. It’s a negotiation. If I remember correctly it wasn’t overly expensive. Somewhere in the region of £300 if my memory serves me correctly. 

An important point that Doozergirl touched on, in case you weren’t aware... Under no circumstances contact the council/water authority if you are relying on indemnity insurance. If they are made aware, you will likely not be able to get cover. If you are getting a mortgage and the mortgage company insists on an indemnity policy, you’re snookered. 

I don't mind paying for it if it speeds up the process but they are contacting council as they think they got building signed off, it very unclear what is going on, 
but they are not contacting the water company so indemnity should be fine for build over right?

I have got a mortgage offer but the homebuyers report has raised the issues regarding building completion certificate and build over, so i think they the only way to resolve that is by indemnity if they don't contact water company.

Swasterix

1sunnny said:

There’s no rule to say who pays one way or the other. They could insist you pay, you could insist they pay, you could agree to go halves. It’s a negotiation. If I remember correctly it wasn’t overly expensive. Somewhere in the region of £300 if my memory serves me correctly. 

An important point that Doozergirl touched on, in case you weren’t aware... Under no circumstances contact the council/water authority if you are relying on indemnity insurance. If they are made aware, you will likely not be able to get cover. If you are getting a mortgage and the mortgage company insists on an indemnity policy, you’re snookered. 

I don't mind paying for it if it speeds up the process but they are contacting council as they think they got building signed off, it very unclear what is going on, 
but they are not contacting the water company so indemnity should be fine for build over right?

I have got a mortgage offer but the homebuyers report has raised the issues regarding building completion certificate and build over, so i think they the only way to resolve that is by indemnity if they don't contact water company.

Yes- as far as I understand it is two separate issues.

- if the vendors contact the council re building control then you will not be able to get an indemnity policy to cover that. In all likelihood, to satisfy your lender the completion certificate will now be required. 

- so long as the water company are not made aware, you should be able to get an indemnity policy to cover the drain build over. It’s separate to the building control issue. 

1sunnny

Yes- as far as I understand it is two separate issues.

- if the vendors contact the council re building control then you will not be able to get an indemnity policy to cover that. In all likelihood, to satisfy your lender the completion certificate will now be required. 

- so long as the water company are not made aware, you should be able to get an indemnity policy to cover the drain build over. It’s separate to the building control issue. 

So it turned out that they didn't get the building signed off. Luckily the building inspector did an inspection this morning and signed it off and gave building completion certificate, which should have been done 15 years ago.

and also, they agreed to give indemnity policy for the build over.

Thankyou everyone.