Selling House - Indemnity Insurance and Statute of Limitations

[angelboy]

Tell them to do one, the carport wouldn't come under building regs and the "conservatory wouldn't provided it is under 30sqm and retains the external door to the house and doesn't include gas, electrics or water and as fmt said there is a limitation of 12 months from completion for enforcement of building regs. There is nothing to indemnify against.

There's some sense in this. When I've been pushed for stupid nonsensical items before I've always pushed it back. Within the last 4 years I've sold 4 identical house from a small development of 4 and each person dealing with the conveyancing has come up with their own separate and independent stupid questions. Now if they all came up with the same then fair enough but one asked for the original planning permission, one was concerned about a covenant on the deeds from 100 years ago, another asked so many questions I told the purchaser to either get a new solicitor otherwise I'm not selling the house to them. They did in the end.

Drives me mental anything to do with bloody solicitors.

I have more story's come to think of it but I'm getting annoyed just thinking about them!

 

[chappers]

There's times when indemnity is the sensible option and can save lots of money in time and investigation, but IMHO a lot of solicitors are using it out of laziness and in place of doing their job. It would take 10 mins looking at the building regs to ascertain that indemnity wasn't necessary in this instance and point the other solicitor in that direction.
the advent of indemnity insurance is creating disputes between vendor and buyer that never used to exist.
Previously a solicitor would have advised his client that there isn't any building regs on that extension but the risk of enforcement is so low I wouldn't bother about it, now they say the same but instead it's , take out indemnity just in case. These questionaires are getting ridiculous, the one that bugs me surrounds boilers. where's the building regs for the boiler you had fitted 10 years ago? Pi55 off whether it was registered with the council or not has no bearing on the safety of the boiler now nor how likely it is to breakdown and so what, your buying a £500k house and your jeopardising the sale over a piece of paper for a £1K boiler.
Rant over

 

[Chud]

There's times when indemnity is the sensible option and can save lots of money in time and investigation, but IMHO a lot of solicitors are using it out of laziness and in place of doing their job. It would take 10 mins looking at the building regs to ascertain that indemnity wasn't necessary in this instance and point the other solicitor in that direction.
the advent of indemnity insurance is creating disputes between vendor and buyer that never used to exist.
Previously a solicitor would have advised his client that there isn't any building regs on that extension but the risk of enforcement is so low I wouldn't bother about it, now they say the same but instead it's , take out indemnity just in case. These questionaires are getting ridiculous, the one that bugs me surrounds boilers. where's the building regs for the boiler you had fitted 10 years ago? Pi55 off whether it was registered with the council or not has no bearing on the safety of the boiler now nor how likely it is to breakdown and so what, your buying a £500k house and your jeopardising the sale over a piece of paper for a £1K boiler.
Rant over

Oh yeah - had the boiler one as well, on a Potterton Netaheat Electronic! Even after I explained the boiler was about 30 years old they were still carping on about indemnity insurance. They only shut up when I managed to locate some paperwork from the previous owner that stated it was in situ when he bought the house in '99.

 

[someonelse]

The indemnity insurance will cost aroud £100-£150. Often quicker & easier to pay even if unecessary.

Sadly this is increasingly common.

It is usually not the buyer, but their mortgage lender who insists on it, via their solicitor (who is often the same as the buyer's), and as the buyer can't buy without the mortgage.......

Finally:

.... if a person carrying out building work contravenes the Building Regulations, the local authority may prosecute them in the Magistrates' Court where an unlimited fine may be imposed (sections 35 and 35A of the Building Act 1984). Prosecution is possible up to two years after the completion of the offending work. This action will usually be taken against the person carrying out the work (builder, installer or main contractor).

Alternatively, or in addition, the local authority may serve an enforcement notice on the building owner requiring alteration or removal of work which contravenes the regulations (section 36 of the 1984 Act). If the owner does not comply with the notice the local authority has the power to undertake the work itself and recover the costs of doing so from the owner.

A section 36 enforcement notice cannot be served on you after the expiration of 12 months from the date of completion of the building work.

(from: http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/responsibilities/buildingregulations/failure )