Payment for changing name on guarantees - who pays, buyer or seller?

juliebunny

So before putting my house up for sale, I had a new boiler, new roof. It sold quickly. But the roofer has told me that although the guarantee is transferrable, there is a fee (which he says is from the insurance company) of £300 plus VAT to get it transferred.
Should I be paying this or passing over to the vendor? Or is it just negotiation? The new owner is a buy to let investor so the house will be rented, so he's more likely to be financially minded perhaps. 

eddddy

It's just a negotiation.

I guess you can present it as "If you want the guarantees, you can pay the £300 transfer fee. If you don't want the guarantees, you don't have to pay."

But on the other hand, I guess you don't want something like this to spiral into a big argument.

user1977

Is the guarantee even worth £300? Bearing in mind its duration and whatever caveats it contains.

juliebunny

yes, it's a 15 year guarantee on a new roof.

user1977

And have you checked that the terms of the guarantee do actually require this fee to be paid for assignment?

Brie

yes - check the T&Cs.  And phone the insurer to check if need be.

Just found the certificate for the roof of the place we bought which simply states that it transfers automatically to the new owner when the house is sold.  No fees.

juliebunny

I have questioned this with him, but honestly it took me forever to get the paperwork from him in the first place. It does say you can apply to have the guarantee transferred over to a new owner. No mention of fees, but at the end of the day, I'm feeling a bit at his mercy. He's a nice bloke, did good work (roofers are a bit of a breed unto themselves, I used to live with one.) 
I also had massive issues with my neighbours around this time and one of his crew dealt with it for me, so there is a lot of goodwill between us. He was happy for me when I said I was moving, and said yeah you deserve better (moving cos of neighbours). We had a chat on the phone yesterday and he swears its the insurance company making the charge. I have no way of proving this either way and honestly in the scale of the amount its costing me to move, probably small change. The buyers are leaving me well alone, not asking to second view, measure up for anything, so that it worth something to me...just want to get out of here asap honestly.
I'm happy with the work and would use him again, so I'm not going to argue the charge with the builder...good tradesfolk are hard to find, but I'll definitely be more cautious in future and withold final payment until I've got and checked all the paperwork - lesson learned!

diystarter7

Phone the insurance outfit direct.
Then see what is covered and what the excess is.
Check what the transfer fees are.
Then if you are happy to have it in your name, ask them to pay. However, if I was the seller I'd say no if that was not part of the contract.

If I was the buyer and seller said no and IMHO it was worth putting my name on it, then I'd go for it.

eddddy

Hmmm - this all sounds a little bit strange.

I don't know whether you want to drill into this, or just "say nothing" and hope your buyers don't drill into it either.

It should be your insurance policy - not the roofers. So you should have all the policy documents and deal with any transfers.


The way roofing guarantees normally work are:

• The roofer gives you their own guarantee against leaks etc - e.g. for 15 years

• The roofer sets up an insurance policy for you. The policy normally covers two risks:

• 1. The roof leaks and the roofer refuses to fix it (i.e. the roofer is a rogue). You claim on the insurance, they fix the roof and they take the roofer to court to get their money back.

• 2. The roof leaks - but the roofer has gone out of business (e.g. gone bust). You claim on the insurance, and they fix the roof.

If it's option 1 - you'll be in a nasty dispute with the rogue roofer. So you'll need all the policy paperwork to make a claim against the roofer. (And the roofer won't help you, because he doesn't want to be sued by the insurer.)

If it's option 2 - the roofer's gone bust, so they won't be around to get involved in an insurance claim.



So if you want to do this properly....

• You need to make sure that the roofer will transfer the remainder of their 15 year guarantee (against leaks etc) to your buyer

• You need to get all the policy documents and make sure that the insurance company will transfer your policy to your buyer

I guess I'm just a cynical person - but based on what you've said, I wonder if your roofer might have been disarming you with his charm, whilst fibbing to you about the existence of an insurance policy. 

diystarter7

My understandinng of eddddy said:

So if you want to do this properly....

• You need to make sure that the roofer will transfer the remainder of their 15 year guarantee (against leaks etc) to your buyer

• You need to get all the policy documents and make sure that the insurance company will transfer your policy to your buyer

We have windows insurance that is insurance backed, we paid the additional amount to the installers, we have the paperwork, noting to do with the installer as long as they are in business. However, if the installer folds, then the insurance kicks in if we have a fault with the windows, tri fold doors etc.

When it's insurance backed in my experience the many has been paid and the customer has the paperwork
Re transfers to new owners, that needs to be investigated

Tiglet2

Has the buyer or his solicitor actually asked/raised an enquiry about the guarantee for the roofing works?  If not, I would be inclined to provide what paperwork you have and leave it to the buyer's solicitor to raise any enquiries they wish to raise.  The buyer may not even be concerned about it.

If it is raised as an enquiry, it would be something like this: 

1.  Could you confirm that the warranty/guarantee for the new roof can be transferred to our client (the buyer)?

You would simply provide a copy of the warranty/guarantee and state:

"Please see the copy warranty/guarantee provided.  At point 10. it is stated that the warranty/guarantee is transferrable.  Point 11 advises how the buyer's can obtain the transfer of the guarantee."

Then just wait to see if the buyers come back requesting you find out about any related cost for the transfer or whether they will deal with this following completion at their own expense.