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

This, exactly!
Just have a survey done.

You don't have to have any of these certificates to buy the house. This is about you feeling assured as to the standard of work, and to be honest, a lot of the certification is tick box anyway and a building regs certificate does not guarantee work to a certain standard, they actually have that caveat written on to it. Your solicitor will be pushing for them, because that's what they do. Personally I would not be bothered about any of this, many places particularly when work is older don't have certificates for things, in some cases certification requirements have changed, and yes you can get your own surveys and sign-offs for much of it if needed.

There has been a shift towards conveyancers asking for certificates for everything, and it is often holding up sales, I've had a buyer's solicitor insisting on certificates for things where it was never even an option to have one. But it is your choice whether to proceed, don't let your solicitor lose you a house if you really want it.

Is it possible that the vendor did get the certificates from the 2023 vendor but then lost them/ didn’t keep them? I’ve bought a couple of houses in probate and info was pretty limited both times as family simply didn’t have the answers so the info form was just a sea of “don’t knows”. I had a survey and had to just decide if that was good enough.

I too don't understand this obsession with certificates.
If the surveyor can see it's had a new roof and it looks sound on their inspection, what difference does a certificate make?
It's a real passing the buck and money spinning exercise imo that doesn't make houses any safer.

Well if an executor is selling a property they would still usually be asked to complete the protocol forms however they would just put basic information.
Your property is being sold as limited title guarantee so they evidently don’t have the certificates but the works were also completed much prior to their ownership too so for the purposes of what you’re asking it’s irrelevant.

As per my previous post take the indemnity, request the gas and electrical check or ask for a price reduction due to the survey results and lack of certification.

It is buyer beware in the UK and sometimes even with all the certificates you could still end up with a boiler not working the day after a completion 🤷‍♀️

I recently sold the home of a relative who had died. As gas and electric aren't legally required I said they were welcome to arrange them at their own expense if they wanted. I certainly wouldn't have accepted a reduction for something that is a preference rather than a necessity.

My 1930 house had work done in the 1980s and 1990s and some of the certificates are missing. The local authority said they did not keep electronic records for that period.

It is not uncommon for old houses as regs change over the decades.

However I would wonder why work done in 2018, so fairly recent, does not have up to date planning applications, certificates and so on.

You don’t have to accept a price reduction if you don’t want to. Many people do if the buyers cite a long list of issues on the survey. Very very common currently.
Yes electrical checks and gas checks aren’t legally required but if you’re selling for a substantial sum of money and the checks cost a couple of hundred pounds is it really worth not just doing it to satisfy the buyer?
Each transaction is different and circumstances vary. Do what feels best.

Does it, we didn’t get this for our reslating. Was over 15 years ago. I dont have fensa certificate for the bay window either. 🙈

When I sold my dads over hundred year old house they asked for building regs for chimney breast removal. My dad had only lived in the house for two years and this hadn’t been flagged up when he bought it. I slightly lost my shit at this point and said for all I knew it had been removed 90 years ago before building regs existed and the buyers could either buy the house or bugger off as I had people fighting to buy it. Never heard anything more about it 😆

OP, I think the only thing I’d be bothered about is a gas safe certificate and I’d ask for one to be done. And probably an electrician to inspect the electrics and declare them safe.

the roof and window wouldn’t bother me at all.

i have no idea about cavity wall insulation, can it fail? Do they normally have a guarantee?

It came in about 2007/8 for roofs. At that pont it was just about upgrading loft insulation I think. I found that out after I had my roof retiled in 2009. My roofer didn't know about it either. 🙄 I didn't bother doing anything further. Will sort if and when we sell.

I think the fact this is for work done so recently as 2018 it would concern me. The certificates at least suggest that the work was done by someone competent. Not a guarantee I know but it's something. I mean things like a new boiler or rewire do need professionals.

I don't even have to chase my electrians every time they have done relevant works they've left paperwork and then it appears on local register. It might be that they've lost their paperwork but it's on the local register. Have you checked there?

My home was built in 1961 and it had no certificates for the windows, electrics or boiler. The ex owner had also died.

I had the electrics and boiler thoroughly checked by my own trades as a condition of going ahead. The electrics were fine but the boiler wasn't! So they had to fix it and I had it rechecked. We went halves with the checking costs.

For the windows I knew I'd have to get new ones and I think the price reflected this. The back windows were drafty and 30 years old and the front only 8 but horrible.

But you need suggestions from your solicitor.