Listed house debacle

[foxyvox]

We are in the process of buying a listed house.

We have sold our house to FTB and are buying an empty house, from two sisters who are acting on behalf of their elderly father, with power of attourney.

Our survey brought up several things. After searches were completed, there are three outstanding things which would have likely needed LBC (plastic gutters, velux windows in the attic and an internal blockwork wall in the lower grand); the blockwork wall would have also needed building regulation consent. All of these would have been done a very long time ago.

We were keen to proceed, with sellers obtaining indemnity insurance, but the sellers have now contacted the council about these works, which now means they can no longer obtain indemnity insurance.

Not only that, but apparently our solicitors have a duty to now contact our lenders to see if they are still happy to proceed with our mortgage, as indemnity insurance can no longer be obtained.

Has anyone been in this situation before?

I imagine it's unlikely the council will come round to ask for things to be put right, after 40+ years. I am aware we will have the same issues when trying to sell, but we are ok with that.

I am particularly worried about the bank withdrawing the mortgage offer (which will definitely mean we will be priced out of this price bracket)

any words of wisdom?

Urgh - I had this when I was selling my house. There was lots of double glazing at the back - and my useless estate agent told me to contact the council to see if there was a quick fix. There wasn't a quick fix - and then had the same thing with indemnity insurance. Late to the game, I realised there is tailored indemnity insurance where the council does know, so look into that? Might keep the mortgage company happy? I ended up knocking the costs of the future work off the agreed price - so def push for that with sellers.

My purchasers did have a mortgage and I don't remember the lack of indemnity being a particular problem. Your issues don't sound massive - it's not like they've stuck a big extension on.

If it makes you feel any better the indemnity insurance wouldn't have been valid anyway as once you buy a listed house any breaches automatically become your legal responsibility regardless of who originally did them.

You could either put in retrospective listed buildings consent or hope that the changes aren't obvious from the estate agents online photos and that the local conservation officer wont notice.

How much would they cost to put right? Could you ask for a retention of the value of correcting the works by the vendor for a period of time in case the council asks for it to be rectified?

Check when the property was actually listed. Some of them are relatively recently listed so if the work was done before then it's OK.

It's more likely the property was listed after the works (I think the majority of properties in England have been listed in the 80s and 90s) so if you are not happy with the aesthetics of these issues you now have to obtain listed building consent to have them changed. There was obviously no need to gain listed building consent before the building being listed. Just look up the date of the listing on the website, and then make a case that the works have been carried out prior to listing, what, as there are no records, is impossible to disprove. Even if the velux window is younger than the listing, they cannot proof that it was not a like for like replacement and an older rooflight did exit prior to listing.