Chasing indemnity insurance

rdixon555

Hi all,

we are approaching the end of buying our first property - all searches & enquiry etc are done.

Our solicitor has advised us that we are now waiting for the bank (hsbc) to confirm they are happy for us to proceed with indemnity insurance, before we can exchange.

A letter was written to the bank from our solicitor a week ago, with no response yet.

We have asked our broker to chase and they were told it would be dealt with ‘in due course’ by the bank.

Can we chase the bank in anyway?

Is there a timeframe for this to be resolved?

Or is it just up to our solicitor to keep chasing?

Thanks in advance

user1977

Indemnity insurance for what? If it's something relatively trivial then often the bank doesn't even need to be asked, but paranoid solicitors like to ask them anyway.

rdixon555

Tbh I don’t fully understand it - to do with a possible ground rent charge when it’s a freehold

saajan_12

rdixon555 said:

Tbh I don’t fully understand it - to do with a possible ground rent charge when it’s a freehold

Your property is probably subject to a super old rent charge for £(tiny). The person who receives that is long gone, and doesn't bother to collect as these days its not worth much. However technically there would be severe concequences if unpaid. So the indemnity insurance would be for the losses (often value of the property) in case the recipient of the rent charge ever resurfaces and starts implementing those concequences because they haven't received the historical rent charges. 

rdixon555

Turns out the property is subject to a rent charge of almost £200 per year, for maintenance of roads etc - which no one told us about.

Surely the estate agent should have told us that this was in place? We have not gone for property's before when knowing that there is a rent charge in place - seems a bit of a con that you have to pay this on top of council tax when you own a freehold.

Our solicitor has informed us that we should hear by mid of next week regarding this (this has given the bank a 2 week turnaround), before hopefully onto exchange and then completion on 1st December

johnny182

rdixon555 said:

Turns out the property is subject to a rent charge of almost £200 per year, for maintenance of roads etc - which no one told us about.

Surely the estate agent should have told us that this was in place? We have not gone for property's before when knowing that there is a rent charge in place - seems a bit of a con that you have to pay this on top of council tax when you own a freehold.

Our solicitor has informed us that we should hear by mid of next week regarding this (this has given the bank a 2 week turnaround), before hopefully onto exchange and then completion on 1st December

Could this be a bigger issue? If an indemnity insurance is being requested, does this mean your seller hasn't paid the rentcharge?

TripleH

rdixon555 said:

Turns out the property is subject to a rent charge of almost £200 per year, for maintenance of roads etc - which no one told us about.

Surely the estate agent should have told us that this was in place? We have not gone for property's before when knowing that there is a rent charge in place - seems a bit of a con that you have to pay this on top of council tax when you own a freehold.

Our solicitor has informed us that we should hear by mid of next week regarding this (this has given the bank a 2 week turnaround), before hopefully onto exchange and then completion on 1st December

The Estate Agent would only know if the buyer told them about it. If the buyer said it was freehold the Estate Agent may not have asked follow up questions.

I'm not the biggest fan of Estate Agents, but sometimes their bad rep can be down to sellers not giving full information or being slow /unresponsive / evassive to prospective buyer questions.

rdixon555

'Could this be a bigger issue? If an indemnity insurance is being requested, does this mean your seller hasn't paid the rentcharge?' - I believe it is to do with if it is not paid, then the management company can place the property under a leasehold due to the property act law of 1925 - see below link. We are assuming they are paying it - if not there may be bigger issues.

https://wslaw.co.uk/insight/rentcharges-a-plague-on-your-houses/

'The Estate Agent would only know if the buyer told them about it. If the buyer said it was freehold the Estate Agent may not have asked follow up questions.' - this is apparently what has happened - they had no idea. If we knew this beforehand, we probably would not of gone ahead with this property.

lizzyliz_2

@rdixon555 - any update on what happened? I’m currently going through the same issue with the purchase of a new-Ish build property and am hesitant to get indemnity insurance, as not sure how useful it will be in the future.

thanks

TheJP

I don't think you'll get a response from the OP.

Looking at his previous threads they have pulled out of a number of sales due to sellers being too slow and also the fact they asked about how they can utilise the right to buy scheme on their parents house.

I think this is a person who doesn't have realistic expectations of property buying/ownership.

MrsC1234

We are in a similar situation, waiting to find out if hsbc accept indemnity lizzyliz_2  did you get yours sorted? How long did it take? 
. 
Hsbc have the paperwork but still waiting for a decision. Been told 7-10 working days but the guy wouldn't even take my details to check 😢