Invalid indemnity insurance policy/ conveyancing help

[Celi91]

Hi,

Hoping someone can clarify as i’m panicking i’ve made a huge mistake.

We are selling our once new build house and there are restrictive covenants with regards to extensions (practically everyone has built an extension on the road and so I was naive). I now know this can easily be solved via indemnity insurance but prior to finding this out i contacted the builder via email to ask how i can gain permission for the extension (as it asks this in my deeds). Will this invalidate any indemnity insurance policy if i take one out? There was no mention to my specific property, it was just a generic email asking how i gain permission/ consent against the restrictive covenant.

Thanks!

There’s no definite answer, as you’ll just need to refer it to insurers for their opinion. Give your solicitor a copy of all correspondence and they’ll need to disclose it to insurers when applying for a quote. By contacting the developer, it is likely that you have put them on notice of the breach and so insurers may be reluctant to offer cover, although if the emails are sufficiently vague, it might be ok.

what did the developer say in response? The alternative to insurance is agreeing a variation of the covenant, but they are likely to charge their fees and possibly a premium to agree to this.

Thanks for your reply. The builder replied that in order for my enquiry to be considered that i should send in a list of documents including drawings/ deeds etc.

How do you know your neighbours didn't go through the proper channels to discharge the restrictive covenant? What does the covenant say?

We were told when looking at various houses we were told that if you ask questions or show you know about the thing you're looking for indemnity against then it invalidates it. I dont know if thats true, its a minefield and we were also told they're a right rip off. Is someone going to come after you now for building the extension?

I have spoken to neighbours and majority have got idemnity insurance, only one has applied formally (i spoke to these first)

I guess it comes down to if anything was going to happen in the future (unlikely) then how would they know i made contact? Nothing mentions my address etc

Is it an all-time covenant?
I was the second buyer of a house and the covenant ran out just after I bought it as it only stood for five years.

The deeds say 85 years! Or when the transferor no longer has legal interest in the estate (finding it impossible to find whether or not the original developer from over 20 years ago still has a legal interest). It also mentions that the covenants with the builder are separate- the original company went bump and was brought out by a large company who are still trading

I imagine the covenant then is one that many new builds have placed on them by the developer which states you must request permission from them before building an extension / making any material changes to the property?

Can't you just email the developer? I know someone who did is recently to build a porch and the fee was something like £30

Yes I can do, I think I was just panicking that the buyer's solicitors/ our solicitor may suggest indemnity insurance against the covenant but as I had sent an email to the builder it then wouldn't be possible