Help, I think i have invalidated my indemnity

Celi91

Original house developer went bump and was taken over by another developer years later. One of the restrictive covenants is that you’re not allowed to build an extension without consent from the developer. There are hundreds of extensions on the estate- i have spoken to 5+ people who sold with an extension and all just took out indemnity when selling/ no-one asked for permission.

Here’s the question i’m getting at- Before i knew about indemnity, I stupidly contacted the developer asking how i gain permission after i read it in the deeds ( a bit late!)  It was general enquiry, no specific address was given, just the name of the entire estate. Would this invalidate indemnity if the buyers wanted me to take this out? How do insurers find out if any previous contact has been made? Surely if there is no actual claim in my address to the developers then insurers wouldn’t find out?

I know i will more than likely have to just seek retrospective permission but does anyone have any experience/ knowledge of indemnity policies? 

user1977

No, it would need to be more specific contact than that.

What was the developer's response anyway? If it's "we don't really care but pay us £100 and we'll give you consent", you may as well do that rather than pay the same for an indemnity policy.

Celi91

So even if my name is in the email that wouldn’t invalidate the indemnity? As i said, no address was given, the email just literally asked how you gain permission for an extension as per the restrictive covenants.

The response was to send over a wide range of documents/drawings for approval, no mention of a fee. 

diystarter7

Hi OP

Thinking about how they would find out for certain, the simple is they can't unless you own up and include your full address and or name, etc.

Even if someone was very determined etc- the bottom line is they cant prove it was you making the enquiry.

EG, someone that dislikes you could easily give out your detials etc for something like this - so there is no evidence that you contacted them from what you said,


Thnaks

Celi91

Thanks for the reply.

I know i’m massively overthinking it but say if the developer did ever want to enforce the covenant in the future and i had an indemnity policy in place, how does the insurer actually find out if i had any contact? Surely they do this as they don’t want to pay out and one of the things that invalidates the insurance is contact with the developer. Would they ask the developer directly if they had any contact with me? In which case, could the email be flagged up from my name? 

I know this is unlikely to happen as why would a developer be interested in enforcing this?! Estate is 30 years old 

user1977

Enforcement isn't going to happen, which is why the insurance policy costs peanuts.

If enforcement happens after you sell, it isn't your problem anyway!

Celi91

Even if i fraudulently took out an indemnity policy?

I know this literally an extreme scenario but my brain is doing overtime! 

RedFraggle

It's your buyers that take the policy out not you. They may ask you to pay but it isn't your policy

EssexHebridean

user1977 said:

Enforcement isn't going to happen, which is why the insurance policy costs peanuts.

If enforcement happens after you sell, it isn't your problem anyway!

There could be a problem if there is a need to claim on the indemnity policy after the OP sells though - as their solicitor will be asking them to confirm certain conditions relating to the indemnity policy - and one of those will be whether contact has been made...If the new owner then tries to claim on the policy, and is refused because the developers produce evidence of contact, then the new owners aren't going to be best chuffed. Of course, that replies on the developers joining the dots, and it sounds as though in this case there isn't anything to tie the enquiry to the actual property, so the strong likelihood is that it wouldn't be a problem. (And in any event, a claim is incredibly unlikely also - as you say, why the policies cost so little!) 

user1977

Celi91 said:

Even if i fraudulently took out an indemnity policy?

I know this literally an extreme scenario but my brain is doing overtime! 

Seriously, find a more likely thing to worry about - there isn't exactly a shortage of them, especially if you're proposing to sell your house...

Celi91

I didn’t realise that indemnity policies were written in the buyers name, how stupid of me!