New build without structural warranty (mortgage requirement)

[Anaphylaxis]

TLDR: new build house (local builder) with just architect warranty of 6 years. What to do: too risky or put effort to go through hurdles

Would much appreciate some thoughts on this please... Looking to purchase a new build house (near completion) by a local builder, who is building just this house. He said it comes with architect warranty of 6 years. The bank requires 10 year structural warranty like NHBC or LABC.

I am well aware these warranties in reality means nothing even if something happens. But this does prompt some thoughts:

1. How could the builder retrorespectively get 10 year structural warranty from other providers to satisfy mortgage requirement (if he is willing to do)?

1. From what I have read, these warranties require stage inspections separete from building control inspections, which could be just ticking box exercise. So having warranty does not necessarily mean it is done properly. Then how could I be assured that it is structurally sound before committing to buying it? Would structural survey be enough? All the structural bits of the house is already completed.

1. Another issue is when we come to resell this house, the buyers mortgage provider will require this paperwork. Does anyone have similar experience where it became unsellable?

1. Given all this complication even before going to conveyors, is this worth going through? Or better to stay away? The vendor said he doesnt build enough houses to be qualified member of NHBC and he "somehow" sold his previous self-built houses with architect warranty (cash buyers??)

I guess this house came really close to meeting pretty much all our requirements hence we are dwelling on it rather than just moving on..

From my experience small local builders would have by far better quality houses than the large national house builders.

No matter how small the builder is they still need to have a completion certificate so all the usual interval building control inspection.
The warranty be it NHBC or any other has absolutely no value. Try claiming anything from them so I would disregard them anyway.

I am a self builder and am using self build zone for my warranty. I have so far had 4 inspections - starting with one of the foundations, and I have one more on completion. I have also had building control inspections to get my building regs passed. Not being a member of NHBC means nothing as there are other warranty providers - such as build zone! It doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with the house, but I don’t understand why he’d cut that corner. Has it passed building regs and been signed off by building control? It may be possible for him to get it done retrospectively with photos and with the building inspector, but I’d very much doubt it.

Thank you, this was exactly what I was wondering. Knowing that his potential buys would need some sort of warranty, why did he not bother sorting it out from the beginning? And what other things did he not do?

In terms of quality of the build, I can see it is much better than other bog-standard new builds from large national builders. The layouts and kits are better planned and feels like he really thought about what would a family need. But once this question sits in my head, it does really shake the whole confidence issue..

There are plenty of other warranty schemes around, so the NHBC thing is nonsense. DH works in latent defect claims (managing when claims are made on these warranties), and the size of the builder makes no difference - he sees terrible errors (of the knocking your house down type) from those building 2 houses to thousands, and on house prices from £200k to £20 million +. And many of these things are totally invisible unless you have a specialist latent defect surveyor who knows all the possible things that can go wrong in the actual building of a structure until years later.

There are two separate issues here - one is the quality of the work, and as others have said a warranty doesn't mean much in this context.

However, the other issue is the mortgageability of the property, and this will be driven heavily by satisfying the lender's tickbox requirements, whether or not they make a huge amount of sense. You may be able to navigate your way around your proposed lender's requirements and persuade them to lend, or to find a more relaxed/specialist lender who is prepared to take a view, but you also need to consider that anyone you try to sell to over the next 10 years will have to be prepared to do the same.

Most lenders will cover an architect warranty such as ABC warranties.
All house builds need building regulations. NHBC is just tge biggest well known scheme

I have experience of this as I did a self-build (albeit a barn conversion). I did not want a warranty as I’m in the building trade along with family members and we did the work ourselves. It was also for me to live in so it seemed like insuring yourself against doing a bad job, ie a waste of money.
But, when it came to securing a mortgage with the well known lenders, they all wanted some form of guarantee. They all have individual lending criteria, some will accept an architects warranty but the vast majority wanted a 10yr guarantee and only by companies on their approved list. I recall you can check who accepts what on the mortgage lenders handbook.
Anyway, to answer some of your questions, yes you can get a retrospective policy but it will be VERY expensive, will the builder pay for this?. It would need to be with one of most accepted Warranty Companies or you will severely reduce the pool of lenders every time you go to remortgage or sell in the next 10yrs. As I understand it, once the house is 10yrs old the question becomes obsolete.

@Anaphylaxis did you purchase this property in the end? We've just found out the house we're buying (3 year old conversion) doesn't have a builders warranty, and our lender has just withdrawn their offer. I'm guessing this may be the end of the line, and they will need to find cash buyers instead.