Damage between exchange and completion

TBagpuss

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 

reply deleted as mistaken - original answer can see be seen as a quote in diystarter7 reply below, with correct info from them 

babyblade41

very informative.. it's never happened to me throughout my professional life thankfully ,but then most of what I buy is pretty knackered anyway !!

diystarter7

TBagpuss said:

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 

Property has to be in the same condition on complation as it was on exchange. If the wall has fallen down between exchange and completion then the seller is responsible for fixing it, although in practice they may instead notify the buyer and agree to pay an agreed mount instead, as there is unlikely to be time to carry out the repair. 

It's not a grey area.

If exchange hasn't happened then the seller doesn't have to either pay or repair, but the buyer may reduce their offer to reflect the fact that they willhave to carry out repairs. 

Of course, with small issues (such as a broekn window) buyers may not bother chasing the seller if they don't pay / repair, but if a substatioial repair is needed then they are unlikely to let it go.

If it is something which was insured then the seller should claim as they are still the owner. 

Hi

I think you are very wrong. Since my intial post on this thread today and then reading your comments as you often get it right, I thought I need to check out what I said and from what I've seen on various sites on the net they agree with me, IE the buyer claims via insurance. (after exchange of contracts of course)
Thanks 

https://www.bowfin.co.uk/who-is-responsible-for-repairs-after-exchange-of-contracts/

eddddy

Assuming that the solicitors used the Standard Conditions of Sale (5th edition) - risk passes to the buyer on exchange of contracts. So the seller has no duty to repair the wall, if it simply fell down due to heavy rain.


Essentially, it was up to the buyer to check the condition of the wall - and judge the likelihood that it would fall down in heavy rain.

But the seller has a duty of care. So if the seller did anything negligent that resulted in damage to the wall, or intentionally damaged the wall - that would be different.


(For example, in a different scenario, if the seller had left windows open during heavy rain, and rain water got in the house and caused damage - the seller was probably negligent. So the seller would probably be liable for the damage.)

TBagpuss

diystarter7 said:

TBagpuss said:

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 

Property has to be in the same condition on complation as it was on exchange. If the wall has fallen down between exchange and completion then the seller is responsible for fixing it, although in practice they may instead notify the buyer and agree to pay an agreed mount instead, as there is unlikely to be time to carry out the repair. 

It's not a grey area.

If exchange hasn't happened then the seller doesn't have to either pay or repair, but the buyer may reduce their offer to reflect the fact that they willhave to carry out repairs. 

Of course, with small issues (such as a broekn window) buyers may not bother chasing the seller if they don't pay / repair, but if a substatioial repair is needed then they are unlikely to let it go.

If it is something which was insured then the seller should claim as they are still the owner. 

Hi

I think you are very wrong. Since my intial post on this thread today and then reading your comments as you often get it right, I thought I need to check out what I said and from what I've seen on various sites on the net they agree with me, IE the buyer claims via insurance. (after exchange of contracts of course)
Thanks 

https://www.bowfin.co.uk/who-is-responsible-for-repairs-after-exchange-of-contracts/

Mea Culpa - looks like you are right . I know that you normally have to have insurance in place as a buyer from exchange but had been under the impression that this was mostly to cover the mortgge lender and that as between seller and buyre it was still the seller's responsibility in the first instance

diystarter7

@TBagpuss

I've read many of your posts and they are spot on, but we can all have a slight slip - thanks for the update.

TheJP

Looks like the buyer is responsible for damages which in my opinion shines a light on the flawed system of house buying in this country. You could literally ignore the house for weeks after exchange and anything that happens in that time is the buyers problem. Crazy!

eddddy

TheJP said:

Looks like the buyer is responsible for damages which in my opinion shines a light on the flawed system of house buying in this country. You could literally ignore the house for weeks after exchange and anything that happens in that time is the buyers problem. Crazy!

Not really. The seller has a duty of care - so they mustn't do anything negligent. Which means they must do everything to look after the house that a reasonable person would do.

propertyrental

The Standard Conditions of Sale 5th edition, now used in most residential sales, state that the risk passes to the  buyer on Exchange - so the buyer should insure.

Standard Conditions of Sale (SCS)

Section 5

Joemdt

Thought anyone reading this might like an update. It was the buyers responsibility. Unfortunately they didn't insure so had yo pay to get the wall repaired. Definitely a lesson learned for all involved.