Buying an older house and we can’t get certificates. House sale stalled.

[babycupid]

We are first time buyers purchasing a house about 60 years old. The survey pulled up the following issues

New roof installed in 2018. There appears to be no no building reg. certificate available for this work.
Cavity wall insulation has been installed - no paperwork available
New windows in 2018 - no Fensa certification available
Electrical rewire and new boiler in 2018 - again no gas safe or building regs certs for this.

The seller bought this property in 2023 so why wasn’t all this picked up in his purchase? To add difficulty he has since died and the property is now being marketed by his family.

My solicitor is awaiting responses to the enquiries but it all seems to have stalled. Is there a way around this by getting certificates retrospectively? Really don’t want to lose this house at this late stage.

Any help is appreciated

Your solicitor may/should suggest an indemnity policy, which should be paid for by the seller.

The previous sale in 2023 may have done an indemnity policy.

But I'd be very wary of that much work with no certification, personally. You won't be able to get certification retrospectively which means when you come to sell the house, you'll have to provide an indemnity policy for your purchaser.

Could they get an EICR report and a gas safe inspection done to at least cover that?
Would CIGA (cavity insulation guarantee agency) have a copy of the insulation guarantee?
I’m not so worried about the windows to be honest.
Again, the roof, can it be inspected and a report provided by a structural engineer or roofer?

Im worried about all of this now, it’s not a forever house and we don’t want to be caught out when trying to sell ourselves in the future.

If it’s not a forever home, pull out. This is going to be a headache when you eventually sell.

I’m not so worried about the windows to be honest.

You might not be, but the person who wants to buy it from you when you sell (seeing as it's not a forever home) probably will.

Can you not see that if it's a problem for you and your purchase now, it'll be exactly the same for others when you come to sell?

When we bought our house there were new windows but no fensa certificate. We didn't bother to query it but the windows are not the best.
There was no gas certifcate and a relatively new boiler, so we got a boiler engineer to come round and inspect it.

A lot of these things can be got retrospectively by the sellers

Fensa is a phone call to building control, They’ll go round and have a look ( a few hundred in costs )

Gas cert etc through relevant professional
The roof, if just retiled it doesn’t need Bregs. If the whole structure then a structural engineer and building control can check

Ask your solicitor to ask the sellers to arrange

Whoever is selling can get fensa certificates (provided they were fitted by a fensa registered company) off the fensa website. I’d lost ours for our newish French doors and wanted it for our sale. Think it was about £30 for a copy.

Indemnity policies are worth nothing, but a nice tick box for the solicitors. The issue will be when you sell.

Have you ordered the local authority searches yet?
Electrical work, new boiler and cavity wall insulation, should appear on those documents.
FENSA certificates may also be listed there as well.
Are you living in rented accommodation at the moment? It is not compulsory for sellers to have Gas Safety and electrical safety certificates for a residential property (this is only for rented properties). It would be up to the buyer to arrange these, if you would like them, and not the seller.

Agree, if you have company name, and they’re registered, ask for a copy. If not I’d be wary. A friend of my husband’s fitted new windows himself and he’s a bit of a bodger to say the least. I’d want to make sure jobs like this were done to standard and paperwork was there for when I wanted to sell.

What's the worst that could happen? As an older buyer I find all this 'nannying' over certificates for this that and the other completely baffling. You've had a house-buying survey of some sort, what did it pick up?

The survey mentioned the above (and to ask for certs). Not much else, structurally the house is sound.

Did they do other work while the windows were fitted. When we did a loft conversion and extension, the windows were covered (specifically named) 9n the building control sign off certificate. Fensa is not the only group who can sign off new windows.

I sold a house without fensa certificates because the installer went bust 2 months after installation without sending me the certificates, we paid £15 for the indemnity insurance. The boiler and electrical work is easily rectified by them paying for relevant surveys (wouldn’t buy without)

i agree that this seems largely to be a money-generating scheme- I ended up having to provide indemnity policies for my buyers if I wanted the sale to go through, at the cost of a few hundred quid. I guess if I wasn’t as keen to sell as I in fact was back then, I might have stalled.

Mainly what I did was phone everyone repeatedly until the hoops being held up to jump through eventually melted away (or tbh until I paid everyone).

Hi OP as someone who is quite experienced in buying houses I'd say don't worry too much.

Your survey is your main protection. If that is good then don't worry too much. Also I always have a conversation with a surveyor as well as reading their report.

They will be a lot more forthcoming on things orally and in all likelihood reassure you on things. I always ask what they would do if they were buying faced with any of these issues.

In all honesty these certificates are pretty meaningless and their absence wouldn't concern me at all if the survey is good.

Retiling a whole roof does need building regs, has done for quite a few years now.

From a conveyancing perspective, the fensa which you seem to be most concerned about would only provide certification for 10 years. Therefore potentially within 2 years the certificate will be irrelevant.

The sellers are acting under limited title guarantee and therefore are not expected to have all the information regarding the works especially as it was done prior to the legal owners purchasing.

Get the indemnity if you want it otherwise review the searches and decide if you want to proceed.

Building regs can be requested for work upto 20 years so you’ll have to factor whether you’ll be willing to provide the indemnity when you go to sell.

BTW your solicitor can wait for the responses but should be more than aware that in such instances there isn’t really much of a response to wait for. You can request a gas safety check and electrical check to be carried out prior to exchange but this is not a legal requirement and can be refused.

An alternative would be to reduce your offer given that there are no certificates however you would need to report the price reduction to the lender and wait for a revised mortgage offer.

How long do these certificates guarantee work for?
Is it not like a car MOT, it's only valid when it's done as soon as you drive off it's over.
I'd want to know that things had been done safely, if you are worried get an electrician/gas engineer in.
About 22 years ago when we bought this place we had to get a certificate for the electrics (it was a paid for move), so we did. About 3 months later we wanted to change something, add more sockets I think. The sparky said there was a problem somewhere that he chased down to a faulty ceiling light, it could have caused a fire he said, the certificate didn't help with that.
Most surveys mention every possible fault and negative possibility, mostly to cover the surveyor if anything does go wrong.
If the survey didn't actually point out any real problems and the mortgage company is happy then the decision with how to go ahead is up to you. My take is unless there was a big comeback from not having the certificates I'd not bother, or I'd get them in retrospect.
As always with property Caveat Emptor. :)

They've had it three years. Why are they moving?

He’s died, in opening post. Family is selling.

The OP says that the vendor had died and it’s being marketed by the family. I am sure the vendor would have liked to be able to stay longer ;)

Yes I thought that about the gas/electricity etc, they aren't needed and aren't a legal requirement so that wouldn't bother me. You can pay to get your own done if you really want one.

The owner died

@Helpmefindmysoul
The sellers are acting under limited title guarantee and therefore are not expected to have all the information regarding the works especially as it was done prior to the legal owners purchasing.

My partner recently sold his late dad’s house. The executor was a solicitor. He was never asked to fill in a TA6 and TA10 - frustrating really as he had lots of information that would be useful and valuable (new boiler with warranty, FENSA certification etc). Could this explain it, that the executor filled in the forms with no information?