Buyers solicitors refusing indemnity policy

Orchid96

delirious said:

lookstraightahead said:

They would have needed a structural engineers report, not a structural survey.

ive only skimmed through. We've just bought an old house, andour vendors paid for a structural engineers report prior to putting it on the market. They gave us this for info, which we passed to our structural surveyor when he surveyed the property. Might be something to consider.

A structural engineers report is usually provided at the end of a structural survey as far as I'm aware.

Slightly different to your case, we are the buyers still concerned about lack of building regulation certificates, whereas our Solicitor is ready to accept indemnity insurance.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6293711/house-buy-advise-no-building-regulations-safety-certificates#latest

We did a building survey and the surveyor raised concern about the alteration work demanding BR approval.
Now the solicitor clarified that we can use a Structural Engineer to check this. So looks like structural engineers report is different from structural survey.

Section62

delirious said:

A structural engineers report is usually provided at the end of a structural survey as far as I'm aware.

A 'structural survey' is the commonly used former name for what is now called "RICS Home Survey – Level 3".

The meaning of 'structural' in 'structural survey' was that it was a survey of the building(s) ('structures') on a property and to distinguish it from other types of property survey such as 'land survey' or 'sporting rights survey'.

There was (and still is) confusion about how detailed a 'structural survey' is.


A structural engineer's report will usually only be provided where one was specifically commissioned, often as a result of something identified in an earlier RICS Home Survey.

Orchid96

Thank you @Section62 for the clarification. Yes, we did RICS Home Survey – Level 3. Based on that we asked for the BR approvals. Now the Solicitor advised that if we are not happy with indemnity certificate, we should arrange Structural Engineer visit. 

In our case garage conversion was done with additional wall, so that shouldn't affect the building. Also conservatory is not open to the house, it has access provided through existing door from kitchen. We are more worried about lack of BR certificates that can affect the future sale. Looks like indemnity certificate is not much helpful as seen from OP's case.

Thrugelmir

Orchid96 said:

In our case garage conversion was done with additional wall, so that shouldn't affect the building. Also conservatory is not open to the house, it has access provided through existing door from kitchen. We are more worried about lack of BR certificates that can affect the future sale. Looks like indemnity certificate is not much helpful as seen from OP's case.

Was the floor insulated? When I converted a garage back in 2005. Was a requirement back then. 

Orchid96

Thrugelmir said:

Orchid96 said:

In our case garage conversion was done with additional wall, so that shouldn't affect the building. Also conservatory is not open to the house, it has access provided through existing door from kitchen. We are more worried about lack of BR certificates that can affect the future sale. Looks like indemnity certificate is not much helpful as seen from OP's case.

Was the floor insulated? When I converted a garage back in 2005. Was a requirement back then. 

We are not sure about the floor insulation.
The floor has tiles now and the conversion was done in 2007.