Documents not provided

Jordec

Just checked the Fensa site and the only record is for one window and a set of patio doors in 2011. This house has no patio doors and the vendor stated the windows were changed in 2007. There are 25 windows in the house, 3 external doors and a conservatory. Looks like i was right to be concerned. My solicitor should have red flagged this. 

HampshireH

Jordec said:

Pdfs would be fine for Fensa, but these don’t exist. My main issue is that I should have been informed that they were missing before exchange. I will now have to spend time and money securing these and if they don’t exist, then it will cost even more for retrospective regs or indemnities. This cost should not be passed on to me.

But you said they were going to put them through your letterbox so it won't be. A cost to you 

Fensa aren't the only body for Windows/doors. Perhaps try Certass

I feel that your huge issue with this is a little late in the day your concern should have been to check before exchange.

If as you said they will be dropped round then it's all a worry about nothing

k3lvc

Jordec said:
Looks like i was right to be concerned. My solicitor should have red flagged this. 

Given the size of the issue this is to you then the time to be 'concerned' was before you agreed to exchange. 

You can now either sit back and enjoy the house you chose to purchase or you can spend the next x months chasing for something that may/may not exist - particularly re FENSA I'm not sure what 'guarantees' you expect to be using if they were installed in 2007

A least next time you know to be clear on your expectations pre-exchange

Kyresa

Jordec said:

Just checked the Fensa site and the only record is for one window and a set of patio doors in 2011. This house has no patio doors and the vendor stated the windows were changed in 2007. There are 25 windows in the house, 3 external doors and a conservatory. Looks like i was right to be concerned. My solicitor should have red flagged this. 

Did you specifically tell your solicitor this before you exchanged?  Your solicitor doesn't see the property.  How would they otherwise know?    Are you sure there isn't something in a report that they have written to you about FENSA etc etc and said "if you believe this information is incorrect, please tell us" ?
 
As an aside note, A lot of times certificates, originals or not, are not provided these days.  The conveyancing protocol was updated to state that if said installation is clearly recorded on the relevant professional body website and appears in the local search, then that is suffficient to confirm the instalation in question was installed in accordance with the current building regulations at the time.

Kyresa

Jordec said:

Thanks for the quick responses. I specifically asked the solicitor to check that building regs, electrical installation certs, planning, Fensa were in order. I also requested the 25 year guarantee on the solar panels fitted 9 years ago and we have no receipts, contract, guarantee etc. We didn’t even have anything to say we’d completed until I raised it with the Directors 8 weeks after completion. We have seen our solicitor’s request to the vendor’s solicitor and their response. We have since found out that none of the solicitors has ever seen any originals, just electronic copies. Now both solicitors have said they want nothing to do with it. I have raised a formal complaint for other issues relating to the handling of our file, this is just part of it. The vendor has just contacted me and said he has been advised by his solicitor to drop them to me, not to his, or my solicitor. I don’t know what to do, if he posts them through my letterbox!

Just also read this one.    Are you honestly telling me that you didn't get a phone call to say you had completed, or you didn't pick up the keys to the property until EIGHT WEEKS after completion???????????????????????  

Why did you agree to exchange without having seen all the documentation in the first place that, from your post above, was extremely important to you?  

Loza2016

I’ve just recently sold a property that had been extended & had electric work done. I sent photocopies of planning/ building regs/ electrical certificate and gas certificates incase the sale fell through and the solicitor lost them. I then left the originals in the property on completion for my buyer. I bought a property In December and still waiting land registry documents. Not worrying as I think they are just really behind due to covid 

Jordec

Hi again, lots of replies here. Firstly, I did specifically ask, by email, that all certificates, including Fensa and building regs were in order. My solicitor ignored most of my emails, but did say that copies of everything had been obtained and she could see no reason for us to be concerned. 
Re completion, our vendor told us verbally that the money had transferred and handed us the keys on the day. It was only when we were chasing documents that were promised upon completion that we realised that we had not even had a phone call from our solicitor and had nothing in writing. I raised this and they said they had ‘posted’ a completion letter and it must have got lost!
Re the guarantees, these aren’t for the windows, they are for the solar panels that have a 25 year guarantee on them. The panels, 17 of them, added considerable value to the property and we were assured the guarantee paperwork had been provided, but it hasn’t. We have a copy of the cert for the electrics re the solar, but no receipt, contract, guarantee.
It is late in the day to be still chasing, but we have been asking for these since we completed. You don’t get them prior to completion, that is what conveyancing is for, to check everything is in order and warn you before exchange if it’s not.
I get the feeling that some of you think I am asking too much, not being reasonable, or at the very least that i was naive, but we paid a solicitor to do our conveyancing, we instructed them in writing to cover these elements, they were not cheap. We have bought several houses before and our solicitor was excellent but retired a few years ago. We have never experienced anything like this before.

eve824

We refused to exchange until we had seen sight of the documents we needed. There was some serious resistance from the vendor so we are really glad we were stubborn else I think they would have tried to dodge out of providing some of them. 

Tiglet2

Jordec said:

 My solicitor ignored most of my emails, but did say that copies of everything had been obtained and she could see no reason for us to be concerned. 

Re the guarantees, these aren’t for the windows, they are for the solar panels that have a 25 year guarantee on them. The panels, 17 of them, added considerable value to the property and we were assured the guarantee paperwork had been provided, but it hasn’t. We have a copy of the cert for the electrics re the solar, but no receipt, contract, guarantee.

Do you have the copy documents of which your solicitor confirmed there was no reason to be concerned (including the solar panels paperwork)?
Did your solicitor know that there were solar panels?  When your solicitor reported to you, what did they say about the solar panels?  

Jordec

The solar panels were mentioned throughout. The solicitor requested a form to be completed and the docs. We have not seen a copy of the form and have no docs for the solar, aside from electrical compliance cert. we have no fensa docs either, not even copies. When we kept asking, our solicitor made us feel like idiots, as if were telling her how to do her job. She even shouted at us at one point for chasing it up too often.