Indemnity policies - do they work?

searchlight123

i keep seeing reference on here and the house buying section about the purchase of an indemnity policy if works have been done to a house that may have needed approval that has not been sought from a council or whoever in the past. has anyone, as a new owner here, actually ever successfully relied on one of these policies when an issue has been flagged up after house purchase, and what did it actually cover the new owner for? i'm just curious and not in this position myself but can't help wondering if it's just a money making exercise for a broker to cross a few t's and a dot a few i's during a house sale/purchase rather than a realistic solution to a problem?

many thanks.

AskAsk

i haven't had to take out one but when we bought our recent home, the seller didn't have the completion certificate for an extension, even though he had planning permission and inspection from building regs.  this is apparently a wide problem because builders don't always stick around to get the completion certificate, and home owners are not aware that they should be getting one from the builder.

i was advised to get indeminity insurance but i turned down this option as we were going to put an external door into the extension and would need building regs for that.

as far as i understand indemnity insurance works like any other insurance, and will pay out if the terms and conditions of the insurance are met.  so for us, it wouldn't work as by applying for building regs, we would be letting the cat out of the bag on the extension not having a completion certificate.

Ectophile

The indemnity insurance is only intended to cover those cases where the council's Building Control spots something that was done wrong before the house was sold, and then insists that it's re-done properly at the new owner's expense.

That's very rare - it's only likely to happen if you subsequently have more work done, and a council inspector is visiting the house for that.  Even then, there's a time limit after which the council can't do anything about old work.