Seller refusing to pay for the indemnity insurance policy

[Deleted User]

Hi all, 

I am in the process of buying a 1930 semi-detached property. The buying process started late in June and we are now coming towards the exchange stage. My solicitor raised some enquiries which the seller's solicitor has returned to. My solicitor said because I am using a mortgage indemnity insurance policy, it will be required costing £210 and my solicitor is adding £60.00 plus VAT to original quote due to the the extra work.so total cost approximately £300.

 

The seller could not fulfil the 2 points, hence why the policy is required.

 

We note from the title deeds that no other building is to be erected on the property. Please provide us with indemnity insurance for breach of the restrictive covenant.

 

Please provide us with the Gas Safe Certificate for the installation of the boiler at the property. If your client is unable to find evidence that this was installed prior to 2005 or does not hold the Gas Safe Certificate we will require an indemnity policy put in place by your client to protect our client against any possible future enforcement action.

 

Seller believes the garage was built in 1957 and there is no documentation for it. Is it worth contacting the agent tomorrow morning to raise this or will the buyer pay for this as well? They are collecting £490,000 for the property already.  

maisie_cat

When we sold in 2019 the estate agent told me that most sales have an indemnity policy requirement now, the solicitor will find something to sell a policy for.
Indemnity policies cover risks that are miniscule and you have the option of pulling out and losing far more than £300 or sucking it up as part of the cost of moving. We refused to pay for our buyers because it was ridiculous so they paid it themselves.
I'm not sure what documentation you'd expect for a garage built in 1957, I wouldn't expect any.
A gas safety check will cost £100 max

user1977

Are you disputing the age of the garage? Do you think it likely that, after 65 years, whoever the beneficiary of the covenant is will suddenly turn up and demand that the garage is removed?

How old is the boiler?

jonnydeppiwish!

If you need it, the vendor won’t pay for it, then you have 2 options. Walk away or stump up the £300z

Are you willing to lose the house for £300?

Tiglet2

A building regulations indemnity policy would cover you for the boiler - probably less than £100, although a solicitor will probably add on an arrangement fee for obtaining this.  The seller should pay for this, but are you going to pull out if they refuse?

I'm not surprised the vendor's solicitor is refusing to provide a breach of covenant indemnity policy for something that was erected in 1957 and is still in situ.   If it is something your lender insists upon, then it would fall upon you to pay for the same, particularly as it benefits you, not your seller.

macman

There is no requirement whatsoever to provide a GSC for a boiler, installed in 2005, and even if they did, it would tell you precisely zero about it's safety or condition in 2022. What would be more useful would be a copy of the invoice for the last service, but, again, there is no requirement to provide this.
There will be no enforcement action in this respect.

Green_hopeful

These indemnity policies are ridiculous. What are you insuring against. What is the risk. We didn’t have building regs for a 10 year old boiler installed by our seller. My conveyancer treated me like an adult and explained it was pointless to take out the insurance. I decided not to get a policy. When I then sold it was raised again. I said I was more than happy to give the buyers the price of the policy on a £635k sale price but I wasn’t wasting money buying a pointless policy. 

secla

We just had to pay for a indemnity as there was a radiator in the consevatory that is on the same system as the rest of the house, Its mostly just a money making exercise as no ones ever going to try and enforce having it removed.

[Deleted User]

maisie_cat said:

When we sold in 2019 the estate agent told me that most sales have an indemnity policy requirement now, the solicitor will find something to sell a policy for.
Indemnity policies cover risks that are miniscule and you have the option of pulling out and losing far more than £300 or sucking it up as part of the cost of moving. We refused to pay for our buyers because it was ridiculous so they paid it themselves.
I'm not sure what documentation you'd expect for a garage built in 1957, I wouldn't expect any.
A gas safety check will cost £100 max

I am not sure if the solicitors are just looking for faults because they mentioned the garage restrictive covenant and didn't think boiler too had to have indemnity insurance .

Once complete I plan on doing gas safety and electrical safety, they raised this with the seller also and they refused which I do not blame them for that.

Just annoying that the costs been added.

Was previously told 

£102.46 for the garage now £209.04 because they have now added the boiler not having gas safety but spent so much already to back out. 

Choose my solicitors because of their good reviews but this is a bit excessive.

artyboy

Total nonsense. And I'd frankly laugh at any prospective buyer of my house if they wanted an indemnity for my old boiler. You can see it's old, it's probably fine, yes it's been serviced regularly but I'm not giving you any more than that. You're not renting. 

Caveat emptor, and if your mortgage provider wants more than that then you're being ripped off.

[Deleted User]

user1977 said:

Are you disputing the age of the garage? Do you think it likely that, after 65 years, whoever the beneficiary of the covenant is will suddenly turn up and demand that the garage is removed?

How old is the boiler?

Personally I am not too bothered its the solicitor raising all sorts of enquiries and I think the seller likely fed up with the questions.

When i asked why we needed this said the below. think its because of the mortgage they have conditions that have to be meet

"The indemnity insurance has been requested because the garage has been built in breach of the restrictive covenants on the title and therefore we need to protect you from any enforcement notice to be issued by the previous owners who put the restriction in the title in the first place.

 I therefore look forward to hearing from you in respect of the same.  I await a response from the sellers solicitors in respect of this point also."