Indemnity insurance for a historic extension

eve824

If this is your experience with solicitors, it's clear to me you are expecting them to go over and above their contracted terms. Scour right move pictures? Not their job. It's YOU who have viewed the house and its YOUR responsibility to highlight anything to the solicitor. When we bought our last house, we noticed an interior wall had been removed and upon investigation there was no BR sign off. We didn't expect anyone else to pick this up (apart from perhaps a surveyor, but we didn't have a survey done), and certainly not the solicitor, that would be absurd. 

kazzamunga

Nah don't think so. I could spell out all three stories with all three different solicitors in great detail, all of which have run on for months and caused the purchases to almost fall through. I could offer a plethora of examples, but I won't. I really am very reasonable, honest. But I lolled. Heaven forbid they should spend five minutes on Rightmove. That really would be above and beyond  their pay grade . 

AdrianC

kazzamunga said:

I could spell out all three stories with all three different solicitors in great detail, all of which have run on for months and caused the purchases to almost fall through. I could offer a plethora of examples, but I won't

Please do.

I really am very reasonable, honest.

Nobody said otherwise. But I do think you are being naive, at best, veering towards wilfully so.

But I lolled. Heaven forbid they should spend five minutes on Rightmove. That really would be above and beyond  their pay grade . 

I repeat... What would somebody with legal qualifications looking at a couple of photos actually add?

By all means, provide a link to the RM listing, so we can see the photos in question.

FreeBear

kazzamunga said:  I'm not sure if something as low-key as replacing an existing wall with a steel beam requires a council presence?

Knocking down a wall and inserting a steel beam is not a trivial undertaking, nor is it "low-key". Get it wrong, and the building could collapse and kill someone. Even if it doesn't collapse, not doing a "proper job" will seriously affect your ability to sell the property at a later date.

You will need to do the following -

• Make contact with the local Building Control office.
• Engage a structural engineer to provide calculations for the size of steel beam.
• Find a builder who can do a decent job without bodging the heck out of it.
• Get Building Control to sign off on the work - They may want to do a site visit at key stages.

Building control will not be interested in any existing extension, and they won't "sign off" any historical lean-to either. Depending on the quality of the extension (i.e. single skin or cavity wall construction, insulated roof & floor, etc), it may be worth demolishing and rebuilding to current standards. But you'd need to go through the proper planning process for that.

kazzamunga

No I do know all that re the structure itself - I've worked in construction, albeit in new-build housing. What I mean is, it doesn't make any material difference to the exterior of the building, so I don't believe it needs planning permission - and building control doesn't have to be local council. 

Jumblebumble

kazzamunga said:

Nah don't think so. I could spell out all three stories with all three different solicitors in great detail, all of which have run on for months and caused the purchases to almost fall through. I could offer a plethora of examples, but I won't. I really am very reasonable, honest. But I lolled. Heaven forbid they should spend five minutes on Rightmove. That really would be above and beyond  their pay grade . 

What do you think would happen if any of the photos that were on rightmove were of the wrong house ?
A solicitor who is not an idiot  is not going to trust that an estate agent would have posted up the correct ones.
Even if the photos correct there is far too much scope for people like you to start wasting their time by telling them "you should have seen this"
Much easier not to give such people a chance to do so.

FreeBear

kazzamunga said: No I do know all that re the structure itself - I've worked in construction,

It doesn't hurt to reiterate the point about BC - Others may view the thread who know nothing about construction, so the comments will help them should they be contemplating similar works.

As for planning permission - Unless the property is listed, I don't see why an application would be needed as it is internal work.

eddddy

kazzamunga said:

Heaven forbid they should spend five minutes on Rightmove. That really would be above and beyond  their pay grade . 

You're getting confused about the roles of your professional advisers.

Solicitors are not building surveyors. They have no training in how to determine things like the age of extensions.  And, in any case, no professional building surveyor would undertake a survey based on Rightmove photos.

A mortgage lender might be lending hundreds of thousands of pounds. They won't want to base their lending decision on the advice of an untrained person looking at Rigntmove photos.

(Or if they were happy with that approach, the mortgage lender could look at Rightmove themselves - instead of asking the solicitor to.)

kazzamunga

I feel like people are putting words in my mouth at this point. Yes I know @eddddy - that's why we had a full building survey done. Someone earlier in this thread said they didn't have a survey at all, which I can't fathom.  The survey was in mid August. Then at some point like 3 weeks later after a ringing silence the solicitor said oh, you might need an indemnity policy. So a) they might have noticed from some photos, no they're not structural experts, but they do deal with a lot of houses...and b) they might have read the survey when it was done. They didn't do either. But they're the ones that do this day in day out, and I might only do it a couple of times in my life. Wouldn't want to do it more than once after this. No one is saying major decisions should be made just based on some photos, but yes, I might expect the solicitor (or should I say, paralegal and her secretary, since the original solicitor disappeared at some point during lockdown without a word) to make a suggestion based on her experience. Just like I, if I knew someone was going to buy a similar house, might now suggest that they check whether the kitchen is a lean-to. It's not about what they're obligated to do, it's just about making the process easier. And they seem pre-programmed to make it as slow and painful as possible. 

AdrianC

kazzamunga said:

I feel like people are putting words in my mouth at this point.

No, we're going off what you've said to us.

Yes I know @eddddy - that's why we had a full building survey done. Someone earlier in this thread said they didn't have a survey at all, which I can't fathom.

Perhaps they simply trust their own eyes and own understanding of properties?
It's what I did with the purchase of this place, and what I've helped friends and relatives do with their purchases.

The survey was in mid August. Then at some point like 3 weeks later after a ringing silence the solicitor said oh, you might need an indemnity policy. So a) they might have noticed from some photos, no they're not structural experts, but they do deal with a lot of houses...and b) they might have read the survey when it was done. They didn't do either.

How do you know they didn't read the survey?
Did the survey not mention it?
Perhaps the three weeks was them seeing it in the survey report, raising it with the lender, and the lender saying "Yes, indemnity needed there."

Remember, they work for the lender as well as you.

It's not about what they're obligated to do, it's just about making the process easier. And they seem pre-programmed to make it as slow and painful as possible.

How much more would you like to pay for the extra time and extra priority?