Damage between exchange and completion

Joemdt

We've exchanged on our house

TripleH

My understanding was that the property had to be handed over on completion in the same condition it was in at exchange?

The seller would claim on their insurance / pay to fix it.

The buyer may have to sort out the repairs though.

babyblade41

difficult one as you would be asked to insure upon exchange , maybe the vendor cancelled their insurance on exchange.

Vendor did not cause the damage as it was due to rain...probably best asking your solicitor & see if an arrangement can be agreed upon after completion

user1977

I can't see why the risk wouldn't be the buyers' - the issue might be what cover their policy actually provides for garden walls such as this? Especially if they argue that it was already knackered. I doubt "heavy rainfall" is going to be an insured risk - "flooding" maybe, or "storm damage".

mojo293

Is this not an example of why a buyer has to take out buildings insurance on exchange? So if anything happens once contracts have exchanged, then its the buyers insurance that can/will cover it?

silvercar

I would guess an insurer would say wear and tear. Walls don’t collapse every day it rains heavily so the wall must have been old and probably weak. Arguably the buyer accepted that it was an old weak wall when they viewed. 

TheJP

Joemdt said:

The buyers chose not to get a survey on the property which might have identified it as being weak. I'm no expert and always assumed that it had been up for 100+ years, so no reason for it not to continue to stand.

I think your clutching at straws to avoid paying for the wall to be fixed. If you broke a window in the house between exchange and completion you would have to get it fixed, this is no different.

movilogo

My understanding is that once contract is exchange, buyer is expected to buy the house even if it is burnt down. By all means go thru your solicitor to get it fixed but if they don't you can't drag it for long and delay completion on basis of that. 

diystarter7

Hi

Important point missed; The insurance will only repair if it is damaged and will not repair if the wall had been neglected and it was wear and tear.

Importantly, as I've dealt with buying/selling a handful of properties bt my family especially one of them has bought sold many times. I recall him about a detached garage roof being damaged in a storm during their short exchange/completion period of one week.  He said he would have needed to claim on his/buyer's insurance

Important points:

The wall needed to be in good repair before the collapses
The buyer would have needed insurance at the exchange of contracts and I'm not sure but possibly not everyone goes for this
If the above two criteria is met and if it is worth the buyer while claiming on the insurance, then he can claim
So it is the buyer's responsibility is my understanding from what I have heard.

(Call the solictor and find out to confirm the above if you wish, you choice - good luck)

babyblade41

Lender will state that insurance must be in place on exchange, so if it burns down their asset is covered  ,  A broken window is easy & cheap to replace.. a garden wall not necessarily as cheap 

Very much a grey area about who will pay 

silvercar

babyblade41 said:

Lender will state that insurance must be in place on exchange, so if it burns down their asset is covered  ,  A broken window is easy & cheap to replace.. a garden wall not necessarily as cheap 

Very much a grey area about who will pay 

No obligation to replace like for like. In fact there is probably no obligation to replace at all.