Indemnity Insurance for Build Over Sewer

GoogleMeNow

Your solicitor is likely to use a particular indemnity provider through which they obtain indemnity policies.  You might want to check with your solicitor whether it is usual for them to source the policy rather than you trying to get quotes from different indemnity providers, particularly as the buyer's solicitor will need to approve the policy before they agree to accept it.  All indemnity policies are based on the price you are selling the property for and it is likely to be fairly expensive for a £600k property.  

Slithery

GoogleMeNow said:
...rather than you trying to get quotes from different indemnity providers

Is these even possible? I didn't think that they sold them directly to the general public.

Section62

Irishpearce26 said:

BOAs came into force in 2011, sounds like no BOA was needed. Check the sewage/water provider website for detail. I had this on my last house sale and was able to provide an extract from severn trent that stated any extension before 2011 did not require a BOA as long as building regs was done. 

Build over agreements existed long before 2011.

What happened in 2011 is the number of public sewers in people's gardens massively increased - and people who previously had a private drain suddenly had a public sewer on their property and would need the water company's agreement to works near or over it.

Severn Trent might have adopted their own 'local' policy towards pre-2011 extensions, but legally a pre-2011 extension built over a public (at the time of building) sewer would have needed an agreement.

GoogleMeNow

Slithery said:

GoogleMeNow said:
...rather than you trying to get quotes from different indemnity providers

Is these even possible? I didn't think that they sold them directly to the general public.

No, not possible. 

OP said this "I wanted to really get some alternative quotes to gage whether this is a high premium or not but needed to know what is standard practice" so I thought he was attempting to find a cheaper policy elsewhere!

The Build Over - Sewer Indemnity Policy that could be provided by a local firm of solicitors for a £600k property would cost £480 and there would be an admin fee for the work involved, so easily £500 plus.

ss2020jd

We had this when selling too - it was the last point that came up just before exchange. 

Even though the extension was done before 2011 and we had building regs sign off the buyer’s solicitor said if we could not provide a build over agreement then an indemnity would be required. I did try to find out more at the time to justify not needing it, but as it was so late in the day, we just agreed and it was done the next day. 

The cost was £499 and they did send a link to the policy but as I understand  prices/quotes aren’t usually accessible to the buyers/sellers (general public), as Slithery and GoogleMeNow mentioned, just the solicitors. 

chalky_white_2

This is a point of negotiation, you can refuse or only offer part of the cost and leave the Buyer to pick up the balance.