Indemnity Policy

[Julsi]

Could anyone advise please. We've been told by our solicitor to get indemnity insurance for work carried out 30 years ago on a property we're selling.
My question is if anything is wrong going forward & after contracts are signed, would we be liable. Seems like obtaining indemnity is like admitting there's something wrong with the property 🤔

Indemnity insurance is what stops you being liable!

For future sales, the planning and/or build reg breach will need to be disclosed to other potential buyer.

Indemnity insurance pays out if the council planning office find out that the house isn't up to code and enforce work to be done to strip out incorrectly installed "improvements" e.g. returning an attic conversion to being a storage attic if there's not enough room for the staircase up to it to be built to meet building regulations. The policy is invalid if ypu do anything to alert the authorities to the fault.

You buying the policy would cover you between now and when you sell, in case any of the potential buyers make enquiries that trigger suspicions that lead to action being taken against you.

If no action is taken against you and the sale goes through any liability will pass to the new owners, who should also buy an indemnity policy.

OR someone coukd actually make sure the building is adequately constructed and compliant with building regulations. Then no such policies are needed.

I was advised to buy an indemnity policy on a property because the downstairs loo didn't meet building regs as there was no ventilation or handwash sink. Inmstead of buying the get-out-of-jail-free-card I put in ventilation and a handwash sink.

We got it as we'd floored and lined the loft and used it as a room. Just paid 100 quid and that was it, done.