Is Estate Agent being unreasonable?

[FlarRoof]

We have got house on market and we have accepted an offer. Buyer has had survey done, sorted mortgage and all legal searches have been done. Almost ready to exchange.

During the period of waiting for sale to go through, flat roof failed (was 12 years old so at end of lifespan) . We have now replaced flat roof and are redecorating next week.
The buyer has asked us to provide a guarantee for the new flat roof. The roofer says he will issue a guarantee but it is for us and not transferable to the purchasers.
The estate agent says we need to get roofer to make guarantee transferable to our purchasers.

What if roofer won't agree to do this? Is Estate agent being unreasonable in demanding this?

@Lurkingforawhile

Would the roofer be willing to allow transfer for a small fee? See a hundred pounds? Might be worth it just to get the sale through. We had this with the conservatory when we bought our house. The transfer took four weeks to sort out. A real pain.

I will ask! It may encourage him to be more helpful.

Guarantees are not usually transferable. That applies whether you sell on a washing machine still under guarantee or sell a house with with a boiler or roof under guarantee. The estate agent should be aware of that but perhaps they aren’t very experienced.

I would tell the estate agent that (as someone upthread said) that you think the purchasers are being unreasonable, nothing has changed since they made their offer. The old roof wasn’t guaranteed then and the new roof isn’t guaranteed now. You expect them to pass this on as appropriate and any further communication on this should be between the solicitors.

You've had the roof replaced. The contractor doesn't do transferable guarantees (not uncommon at all). Its brand new. They could insure it if the want. At the end of the day, they buy the house or not

We had this, selling a house with a brand new flat roof but no guarantee, we just said as pp above. Sale went through.

I doubt the guarantee is even worth the alert it’s written on as these self employed traders only need to change their business name and the guarantee disappears along with it.

The guy in our village who did our soffits and fascias has dissolved two businesses in the last five years. Our warranty is long gone.

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@justanotherneighinparadise

I doubt the guarantee is even worth the alert it’s written on as these self employed traders only need to change their business name and the guarantee disappears along with it.

The guy in our village who did our soffits and fascias has dissolved two businesses in the last five years. Our warranty is long gone.

True! The roofer was in his late 50s. He'll probably have retired by the time the roof expires!

Solicitors can sort this out with an indemnity. But to be honest, most traders don't give transferable guarantees. We had 2 year old double glazing in our house when we bought it, with a 10 year guarantee. But the guarantee isn't transferable to us - it's through a major double glazing provider too.

In a previous house we bought, there was a damp proof guarantee which was transferable. The damp course failed three years into the guarantee. The business had gone out of business a year before so we had to have a different company do another damp course. Our buyers when we did finally sell were happy because they had transferable guarantee - but it's honestly only worth something if the business is still running!

Some companies will transfer guarantees on white goods, we were able to on a cooker bought off eBay. Ask him for some of your money back if he can't offer a transfer of the guarentee

@Sh05

Some companies will transfer guarantees on white goods, we were able to on a cooker bought off eBay. Ask him for some of your money back if he can't offer a transfer of the guarentee

I don't hold out much hope of roofer givi g me any money back unfortunately.

I used to work with EAs, and I would think this is a case of them speaking with buyer or buyer's solicitor, and being told they want this guarantee re. roof. EAs tend to gain their knowledge through experience rather than training, so your EA may not have dealt with this sort of thing before, and so might not know whether this is doable or reasonable. In order to get a sale over the line, they need to know what is holding up the sale and try and get it sorted. I'd pass this on to your solicitor, who will be getting paid whether your sale goes through or not, unlike the EA (I presume).

@LondonJax
Solicitors can sort this out with an indemnity

Not for the first time, how??
It is not common for an indemnity policy to be used in this way.
What cover is the indemnity policy providing.

The problem with threads like these it brings out a load of people who don't have the faintest idea what they're talking about.

What sort of guarantee was it ? (pretty much tells you what sort of roofer it was)

Was it a scrap of paper with a picture of a lion on the back that says "GARANTEA", or was it a properly underwritten guarantee through a recognised trade body ?

If it's the latter, then it should be transferable - and really you don't need the roofers "help". Just a letter to the underwriters notifying them of change of details.

If it's the former, then - being as delicate as I can - you have already wasted more time over it than it was ever worth. I'm not saying you couldn't have enforced it in court. But I am saying you'd have been better of saving the legal fees to fix the roof.

You need your solicitor to get involved and sort this out

so they made an offer on a house with an old flat roof which you accepted and the sale is going through with no problem. Then you replaced the roof at your expense with a new flat roof. The price of the house remains the same. But they will not go ahead without a guarantee being passed to them? Right. The agent needs to be acting for you. Of course they would LIKE a guarantee. But they have already got a new free roof - I think you need to explain in words of one syllable that they are being CFs

Can you ask the roofer if he'll issue a 12-month transferable guarantee on the work? Limits his liability, the buyers get 12 months more than they'd have had if they'd bought without you doing it, and you're all a little bit better off?

Put the new owners names on the guarantee.

@m00rfarm

so they made an offer on a house with an old flat roof which you accepted and the sale is going through with no problem. Then you replaced the roof at your expense with a new flat roof. The price of the house remains the same. But they will not go ahead without a guarantee being passed to them? Right. The agent needs to be acting for you. Of course they would LIKE a guarantee. But they have already got a new free roof - I think you need to explain in words of one syllable that they are being CFs

This more or less sums up how I feel!

@Beachcomber74

Put the new owners names on the guarantee.

If only it were that easy!

@NoSquirrels

Can you ask the roofer if he'll issue a 12-month transferable guarantee on the work? Limits his liability, the buyers get 12 months more than they'd have had if they'd bought without you doing it, and you're all a little bit better off?

I can and will but try

@NoSquirrels

Can you ask the roofer if he'll issue a 12-month transferable guarantee on the work? Limits his liability, the buyers get 12 months more than they'd have had if they'd bought without you doing it, and you're all a little bit better off?

prediction:

GARANTEA for old owner

GARANTEA for new owner

Unless it was a term of the contract from the outset that the benefits of the contract for the provision of the new roof were not capable of assignment, you can probably simply assign the benefit, that is to say the guarantee to your purchasers. Discuss this with your solicitors.

Has the roofer given any reason why this should be the case? It seems very unreasonable.

The roofer is the unreasonable one.

The buyer’s solicitors would not exchange without a guarantee for this work. I used to work in conveyancing.

The estate agent is being perfectly reasonable and correct.

Sorry OP, sort the roofer out.

I've just bought a house and my solicitor asked for all the documentation for the windows, doors, log burner etc (no mortgate co involved). He never, at any point, said that no guarantees were transferrable. So either I'm lucky and it's all guaranteed, my solicitor was lax and didn't point out that none of the guarantees were transferrable, or nobody cares and just assumes that the companies will try to get out of the guarantee anyway.

Can anyone explain why work done on a house, an immoveable object, would be guaranteed for one set of owners, but not for others? It's not like the tradesman would have interviewed the previous owners for their tendencies to jump up and down on roofs, is it? So why?

The roofer is the one being unreasonable.