No guarantee on works done

[Pud2]

The property I’m buying has had a recent loft conversion and extension. My solicitor has asked for the seller to provide guarantees for the works done and the seller has come back and said there aren’t any. Surely there should be some? Any advice on how I proceed with this.

If there aren't any guarantees you solicitor should be asking theirs to provide an indemnity policy I think.

The seller doesn't have to guarantee much, once it's your house any problems or deterioration is the buyers responsibility. As long as it's as agreed on completion day it could collapse the day after and it would be down to the buyers insurance to rebuild

But surely there should be guarantees from the builders who did the work? It was only done two years ago.

Have they got building regs approval?

Is it a guaranteed or a buildings regulations certificate that your solicitor is looking for. The buildings regulations certificate would be the certification that the works are carried out to the specific regulations.
New home builders are usually part of some new home guarantee system such as NHBC. Extensions etc often have no guarantee the final payment is only made once the customer is satisfied with the works done.

It's not uncommon at all not to have a guarantee for building works. You get guarantees for things like timber treatment and new roofing and also for new-builds (NHBC etc) but not that much else.

You'll need to make sure there is building regs approval/sign-off but that's different.

That’s useful to know. I do have the building regs but thought that the works would come with some form of warranty. For example there’s a new flat roof, velux Windows etc. If they started to leak, would there not normally be some form of guarantee?

The building regs should be sufficient, its unlikely tjat there would also be guarantees for the build, unless of course the whole thing is a new build. There should be a fensa certificate for the windows and if they don't have this then they should provide an indemnity policy.

I would hope that the roof would have a guarantee (and I would never get a roof done without a properly underwritten guarantee), but there's no requirement for one.

if windows were done in last 10 years should come with a fensa guarantee for 10 years, same as the roof min 10 years depending what products were used. Guessing electrics have been modified so again a certificate will have been provided. If solicitors any good should have already asked for these, its pretty standard practice