Building notice but no completion certificate - indemnity insurance?

[burgerandrelish]

Hello,

We've recently realised that whilst we submitted a building notice for some renovations (about six years ago), we have no completion certificate . I hoped it was a terrible mistake but it turns out we were let down badly by the architect who submitted the notice and told us it was in hand when it wasn't. I can't believe I was so naive.

We want to sell so are trying to decide whether to pursue a certificate retrospectively, or try to sell with indemnity insurance. Does anyone know if you can get indemnity insurance if you submitted building notice but did not get the completion certificate (or had any inspections)? Or does the the notice being submitted pose a problem to that strategy?

I'm losing sleep over this, what a nightmare when we thought we were ready to sell. I hope someone can shed some light.

Thanks

If it’s over two years ago the risk is smaller, an indemnity policy to cover lack of completion certificate is usually £30-£50 so I’d probably do that. Definitely not one to lose sleep over, lots of options 😊

Thanks @Dobbyhasnomaster. So the fact that we effectively told the council about the work by submitting the building notice doesn't prevent us from doing that?

It really depends on whether a purchaser will accept an Indemnity policy,some will,some won't

All the different policies have varying statements of fact. If there is anything more complex you can get different policies they are just more expensive. The vast majority of purchasers will accept an indemnity in my experience.

If the work was done to regulations why not get a regularisation certificate? That would be much more preferable to any buyer. And I don't think you can get an indemnity if the council knows about it- and the building notice will come up in the search.

I think I would be expecting the architect to solve this. I assume you paid them for a service that included a building regs certificate. They can be granted retrospectively but if inspections didn’t happen sometimes holes will need to be made to expose steels etc (and then repaired). I would be expecting the architect to assist with this (practically and financially).

Architect was a relative's partner (now ex!) so was doing it as a favour really, so no contract etc. I think I will look into a retrospective certificate, that is preferable - I just know I will worry and worry until it's sorted.

Thanks everyone.

I'm coming back to this thread as I always like a conclusion! We looked into indemnity insurance but no one could really tell us whether having submitted a building notice would be an issue or not, so we got a certificate of regularisation for the work. It was surprisingly easy, and we didn't have to expose any beams due to having some photos and other evidence of the work (emails etc).

I just wanted to share my experience in case anyone else had the same problem. I found the council to be pretty pragmatic about it all, and am glad we did it in case it turned out to be a showstopper when we try to sell.