House insurance/mortgage with indemnity insurance

SmallClaimant123

Hi all, my conveyancer somehow never realised that the seller’s roofing work to replace all the tiles required a completion certificate. It was only after several months that I realised this rule applied.

The conveyancer magicked an indemnity insurance policy out of thin air the day I flagged it to them. I understand this is little more than a blind bet by a company who have never seen the roof.

Do you need to tell the company you have your main house insurance with and your mortgage provider that it turns out you were meant to have a completion certificate for the roof you thought had no legal issues when you bought the place and took the policies out?

Am I likely to even be able to get a mortgage without the roof approved?

Bigphil1474

Are you meaning building control sign off? The indemnity policy only covers you for any legal costs associated with the roof should the local authority take any legal action. Lack of sign off doesn't mean the roof is unsafe. A lot of roofers can do the BC sign off themselves - I'd be asking the vendor to clarify rather than wasting money on an indemnity policy.

I'm not sure (in the real world) why you would tell the insurance company unless you believe the roof isn't satisfactory. Similarly with the mortgage provider.

eddddy

SmallClaimant123 said

Am I likely to even be able to get a mortgage without the roof approved?

The indemnity insurance is likely to be a requirement to keep the mortgage company happy. Without it they might not agree to offer a mortgage.

Perhaps the more important question for you is "was the roof work done 'properly' (i.e. to meet building regulations)"? And if so, why didn't the roofer/owner get a building regs completion certificate?

Maybe you want to get a building surveyor or structural engineer to inspect the roof.

(And you wouldn't have to declare this to your insurers, as it doesn't really affect the risks they cover - unless the insurance company specifically ask you, which would be very unusual.)

SmallClaimant123

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81978458#Comment_81978458

Roofers aren’t legally obliged to tell their customers apparently so he probably don’t know (especially since my conveyancer thought like it sounded a small task and so didn’t ask about it - Ombudsman already ruled in my favour on that).

I’ve had a roofer take a look when he was improving ventilation and thought it was ok. I’ll probably get it to a point where it meets building regs and get retrospective approval).

It’s just what I do in the meantime (I’m now about a year into living here and I only just realised indemnity might affect my mortgage - again zero advice from the conveyancer when they grudgingly handed over a policy)

SmallClaimant123

I was thinking it might something the insurer takes a dim view on and thinks I’ve been trying to mislead them when I took out my policy

user1977

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81978511#Comment_81978511

You'd only have "misled" them if you gave a false answer to one of their questions on the proposal form, you don't need to volunteer information which you think might be relevant but they haven't asked about.