Selling house stresses - advice needed!!

2bmortgage3

Hi All,

Been looking at this site ever since i put my house on the market a month or so ago....

Being a first time seller i only wish i had discovered it before signing up with an EA i am entirely unhappy with, but with inexperience got myself tied in and have weeks left to run with them.

However we have had an offer on the house - it sold itself in 2nd week and 3rd viewing. The buyer after a bit of negotiation settled at 2k below asking!! I was over the moon and thought finally something is going right...

It was not to last....a week later the survey was carried out and the surveyor downvalued the house 10.5k from offer price.

After much arguement and circumstances meaning we can not delay on selling we had to agree to a lower price, which we felt very unfair for a property much improved and that the buyer was happy to pay for before the surveyor got involved.

So after much stress we have finally got to solicitor stage and today received mountains of paperwork asking for a million and one questions to be answered and loads of paperwork/certs i just dont have.

My ex carried out most of the improvement work on the property with builder. elecy & plumber mates. I left him to it.

However when we split i bought him out in good faith as it suited the way our lives had panned out.

Now a few yrs on i am trying to sell the house and being asked for building regs, double glazing certs, electrician certs and boiler paperwork of which i dont have a clue about and definately do not have the certificates.

After all the downvaluing and stress I am now worrying about all of this and what i shall put on these solicitor forms if i dont have any of the paperwork to back it up.

Does this mean i cant sell the place after all?? Could i be stuck with this house forever??:eek:

Please help.

silvercar

Speak to your solicitor, chances are you can sort out indemnity policies to cover the gaps. If you haven't got some certificates the buyer can do their own checks or rely on the indemnity policy. Solicitors may get funny, but at the end of the day common sense usually prevails.

If there are electric or gas certifcates missing you can arrange for an electric inspection and get a landlords gas safety certificate, it won't make up for not having the correct paperwork but it will reassure your buyer that your house is safe.

2bmortgage3

Thank you for your advice. I have filled out the paperwork to best of my ability but obviously there are gaps as i dont have any of this paperwork to send on.

I know the house has been improved to a good standard and is a very lovely property but all the enquiries from the solicitors is a nightmare.

They are asking me for confirmation the boiler was fitted by a corgi fitter but i have read into this on net and appears this was not needed if boiler was fitted prior to April 2005. The new boiler was fitted 04!!
However the solicitors info is saying if boiler was fitted after April 2002 supply certs. How can that be??

I have also looked at the electrical certs they are asking for because the estate agents say in their info that its newly fitted bathroom and kitchen the solicitor is asking for certs for electrical work. The bathroom and kitchen were done in 2004 and it says certs required from 2005 on.
So again no certs!!

There is also a large conservatory on the property of which we checked with planning was of an ok size as at first it was going to be proper extension and have a letter from them saying 'no planning required' which i have submitted to solicitor but solcitor now is asking for the plan submitted to planning. We dont have a copy of that as planning kept it. I just have the letter confirming it was an ok size. The conservatory is less than 30msq which anyone knows if under that it doesnt reuire planning and this was double checked with letter.

My ex was told he didnt need building regs for the conservatory so there are none but the solicitor is saying they are needed for the radiator in there and also seem to presume a wall was taken out to make it open plan but the wall wasnt removed it was a window and a door which was done so could be shut off if needed down track but much nicer openish.

I have now learned the new double glazing should have been fitted by fensa fitter but no one advised us of this at the time and my ex had his builder contact do it who put up extensions/conservatories all the time!?

Can all this be covered by an indemnity then?

Hippychick

2bmortgage3 wrote: »

Can all this be covered by an indemnity then?

Yes, your solicitor should be able to sort it for you, you should only need one policy which will encompass all of the work done.

Good luck.

KiKi

Just to reassure you some more (I know how stressful selling a house is)...

When I sold a previous flat, I had loads of requests for certificates. I wrote back to my solicitor saying simply that I had some and not the others. Don't freak out about not having - just say that you don't.

The buyer's solicitor's job is to ask the questions - sometimes they don't actually mind that the answer is "that certificate doesn't exist" - but they have a standard set of questions they ask. And where they do need certificates, your solicitor can sort out an indemnity for you.

You won't be stuck with it forever, don't worry.

KiKi

oswestry123

Don't worry even if you have no paperwork for work carried out by plumbers/electricians you can get a qualified person in to test the work carried out to see that it is safe and that is good enough with their documentation. Hope all goes well mate.

sassybooboos

an indemnity policy should cover most of this, your solicitor normally sorts one out i think about £120.

i had this when selling my house recently for some windows i replaced. in the end the buyers didn't even ask for the policy.

i think their solicitor was the one who bought it up in the first place, which is his job to do so i suppose.

as everyone says you can get a corgi engineer to check boiler.

dont panick loads of things pop up like this when you are selling properties.

2bmortgage3

Thanx everyone for good advice and being so positive - it's really put my mind at rest. Being new to all this house selling and pregnancy hormones not helping i am finding it all a bit confusing and not having the knowledge/experience makes you worry more.

I have filled out all the forms to the best of my knowledge and put n/a where dont have forms etc...
Cant believe how all the forms repeat themselves over and over didnt fill out some of the repeats as thought waste of time when said this already on other form!!

I will get it all sent back to solicitor Monday and let her suggest the indemnity and go from there if buyer wants more peace of mind with electrical and gas tests...
Lets hope not as having already lost thousands from original offer price i really cant afford to spend much more on this sale esp as we paid out thousands to get stuff finished on house to present the property at its best and get a good price for it - what a waste now the surveyor downvalued it anyway.

So suppose its a waiting game now to see what buyers sol says when i cant produce any paperwork.......

Kez100

Dont quite understand if the conservatory is open or has a door and window to house. We were told building regs required if open.

Edited due to following comment

silvercar

Kez100 wrote: »

Dont quite understand if the conservatory is open or has a door and window to house. We were told building regs required if open. You can confirm with council.

I wouldn't notify the council, to do so would invalidate any indemnity policy.

2bmortgage3

Is open but can be easily but i doubt cheaply closed off with large window and door but it would spoil whole affect.

I dont want to involve building regs at all - long winded, pricey and bound to bring up a million and one problems not even forseen...

I have a baby on the way and need to move in with my partner and be rid of my house - it is my number one priority.