Can someone please help me re indemnity?

[curiousgeorgie]

They require us to obtain two indemnity policies for lack of freeholders consent for the conservatory and lack of suitable insurance arrangements for the entire building. We note you are responsible for your flat however the lease makes no reference that the other flat must obtain suitable indemnity insurance. We shall advise you of the costs shortly.
We require the planning and building completion certificate for the conservatory

I just got this message from my solicitor. Can anyone help me with this and how much this is going to cost?

We have no paperwork for our conservatory either (put in two owners ago!) so what does that mean?

Thanks!

Ok, so it sounds like you are selling your flat, which has a conservatory. And it looks like the buyers think that:

1. the previous owners didn't get permission from the freeholders to put up the conservatory, which is a breach of the lease

2. there is no buildings insurance for the whole building.

Is this correct? If I were you I would ask them to explain why they think 1) and 2) are true. I.e. have they been told this by the freeholder?

Assuming this is correct, they want

1. insurance to cover the risk that the freeholder finds out and wants the conservatory to come down. I don't know how much such insurance policies cost but I would think not much given the risk is presumably small.

By the way, it is not always the case that the seller pays for this insurance. Sometimes you can get the buyer to pay for it, or split the cost. Depends really whether you think this is a real risk or they are just being a bit overcautious.

2. insurance to cover the fact there is no buildings insurance. This sounds daft to me. Surely what they really want is the landlord to confirm that, from the date of exchange, the landlord will get buildings insurance? I would suggest they take this up with the freeholder.

Re the planning and building docs for the conservatory - they are worried about the risk that no permission/buildings cert was obtained. I would say your first port of call is the local council planning section, as they may have these. If the council have no record of this, then you may get asked for another insurance policy, to cover the risk that the previous owners never got permission for the conservatory so the council tell them to take the conservatory down. Again, the cost could be split.