Damage to a house before completion

TopDoc

Our vendor employed a "man and a van" to remove their furniture on the day of completion. The man dropped a heavy wardrobe on the floor and the ceiling below collapsed; it cost us about £3000 to repair. We (now) know that we should have insured from exchange, not completion, but this happened 6 hours before completion & our insurers have refused liability. The vendors said it was the fault of the "man & van" who has of course disappeared without trace. Do we have a claim against the vendor in the small claim court for failure of duty of care, since it was their agent (the man & van) who caused the damage?

EssexHebridean

You're not going to like this, but no - and you are right when you say you should have insured from exchange. This is the reason why Solicitors inform people that they must put insurance in place from the point where exchange takes place. 

TopDoc

Thanks for quick reply - agreed, not really a surprise. So I guess the follow up is do we have a claim against the solicitor who definitely did NOT advise us to insure from exchange?

Wonka_2

TopDoc said:

Thanks for quick reply - agreed, not really a surprise. So I guess the follow up is do we have a claim against the solicitor who definitely did NOT advise us to insure from exchange?

Before making any claim such as this you need to be very clear whether he 'did not advise you' or whether you 'didn't read as part of the agreements you signed - either as part of the transaction or the mortgage documents

e.g. solicitor may ask 'have you agreed/signed the mortgage documents' and you say 'yes' - he's not then going to go through it to ensure you've complied with every term if you've already signed to agree you have 

user1977

TopDoc said:

We (now) know that we should have insured from exchange, not completion, but this happened 6 hours before completion & our insurers have refused liability. 

Because your policy hadn't commenced at the time of the incident (e.g. if it started at midnight then I would think this ought to be covered) or for some other reason?

lookstraightahead

How did you miss the solicitors advice? Did you read everything they sent you? I'm surprised this info wasn't somewhere, I would think it would be in their general paperwork as it's common / essential 

TopDoc

Thanks for feedback. In short, we can find no evidence that we failed to take heed of solicitor's advice, and our insurers were very clear that they were not liable

TBagpuss

As Wonka says, you need to be very sure about whether you were told this - I think normally it is part of the terms of the mortgage offer and it's definitely in the standard conditions of sale which is the contract you will have signed before completion. 
Ideally the conveyancer will have flagged it for you but this may have been in a standard letter or information pack early on, rather than a separate verbal bit of advice at exchange .

You can ask your conveyancer whether they think you would have any luck pursuing the seller on the basis that their agent/employee damaged the property  but  I wouldn't hold your breath. 

TopDoc

OK, thanks all for feedback. I am going to dig into this a bit more and if I get any further I will post a follow up here for information

user1977

TopDoc said:

our insurers were very clear that they were not liable

They would say that, wouldn't they? On what basis do they claim to be not liable?

aoleks

alright, alright... let's calm down a bit.

1. you ensure the house the moment you exchange, let this be a lesson. should the house burn down the moment you exchanged, you MUST buy a burned down house, that's why insurance is essential. in fact, the only way to be 100% sure is to get insurance 1 day ahead of exchanging, otherwise there's a tiny time gap in which anything can happen.

2. the current owner is no longer liable for the building, as completion already took place, but the contractor (man and van) should have insurance for this kind of situations. what if there was no damage to the house, but your brand new £6000 swivel chair was ruined? exactly...

3. unless the wardrobe damaged the floor/ceiling joists, which is extremely unlikely, the whole "£3000 to repair" doesn't add up. you're probably looking at a broken ceiling board (plasterboard), which is modular. post a picture and we'll advise.

4. your solicitor definitely told you to insure the house from exchange, either verbally and/or in writing. you probably didn't read the contracts and other documentation.