Taking out your own indemnity policy

[hididdlyho]

Our buyers have asked for us to take out an indemnity policy 'in relation to the replacement window, boiler installation and electrical works, as the relevant Building Regulations certificates are not available'. For context it's one window, the boiler has been serviced every year and the only electrical works have been that we got a qualified electrician to upgrade the consumer unit after we moved in 12 years ago.

Our solicitor is asking for £180 to arrange it once they add in their fees. I've done some research online and it looks like if I take out a building regulations indemnity policy in my name, it then passes on to whoever buys the house in the future and I can do it for £20. Has anyone else done this, and do I just basically need to make sure that the policy is for the sale amount of the house?

I think it's a fairly pointless policy as all this work has been done over 10 years ago, so the chances of anyone taking enforcement action seems incredibly unlikely. Paying £20 for it feels less painful than nearly £200!

When we were selling/buying 10 years ago our buyers asked us for 1 window and I believe for the boiler. Our solicitor asked our seller for one I think it was for the boiler which was 10 years old but hadn’t had a recent service (or something like that).

Our seller said no he wouldn’t do it.

We did the boiler one for our buyers but not the window. Our boiler was 7 years old and I can’t remember the issue to be honest. The window was one that had been replaced as part of a refurbishment 6 years before but didn’t have a FENSA certificate.

Everyone decided to proceed.

So you did the work on the cheap without compliance sign off and thought you’d get away with it.

doesn’t matter the age it’s about safety.
Indemnity is pointless, it covers legal costs not repairing or replacing, the only people that gain from it are the solicitors and insurers. If you must buy your £20 one.
Personally wouldn’t be proceeding if the boiler /electrics were potentially dangerous and I’d wonder what else was “bodged” for me to uncover later

I'm not sure where you've got 'done on the cheap from'? We've used reputable tradespeople for all the work we've had done and not had any issues with it. I don't think it's common practice for trades to issue certificates for all small jobs they do, otherwise they would spend all their time filling out paperwork. If I'd have had the house rewired or all the windows replaced, then I'm sure certificates would have been issued. We did have one for our boiler, but unfortunately the house number was incorrectly recorded by the council and we couldn't get them to change it.

We did have a certificate for the boiler that was here when we bought the house originally, stating it had been installed by a competent person. It had been installed incorrectly, black smoke was coming out of it and it needed to be scrapped and a new one fitted.

If the buyers want to get their own tradespeople in to check gas, electrics etc before proceeding with the sale then I'm more than happy to provide access as I'm not trying to hide any bodged work. The reality is, we haven't replaced the windows or rewired the house because we haven't had any issues with it in the time we've lived here. I made the buyer aware of all this and the missing paperwork during the viewing and was honest about not knowing how old the windows, wiring etc are. We priced the house to reflect some of this work may need doing in the next few years and the seller presumably is happy the house is priced sensibly for the condition as they offered asking price and haven't asked for any reductions post survey.

If the indemnity insurance gave them some sort of financial reimbursement to fix any potential issues which came up as a result of work we've had done to the house, then I would take it out without questioning it. My point is, this work has all been done 10 years+ ago, so falls outside the building regulations enforcement period, so I'm unsure what purpose it serves.

It won’t be your buyers asking really, it will be their solicitors.

We were told by ours that we needed to ask the seller to get indemnity insurance even though the thing in question was something we were planning to remove asap. So if the council suddenly decided they cared, it wouldn’t be an issue. The solicitor told us it would be required by the mortgage company.

It was asked for for something that the seller reckoned was more than 10 years old, but couldn’t prove that (probate sale, son of deceased owner was selling).

As buyers, we didn’t personally care.

"we got a qualified electrician to upgrade the consumer unit after we moved in"

That is notifiable work that needs building regs sign off. That's not an unreasonable request from the buyers given the importance of safety in this regard. Did you get it?If not then your tradesperson was not reputable.

As I said before this would be a red flag for me. What else have you done/bodged/hidden?

@Tortephant you're not buying my house, so I'm not sure why you're interested in my bodged building work. I'm sure it's extremely common for sellers to not have building regulations certificates for every piece of work which has ever been carried out in their house. Even if I were buying a house with certificates for everything, I would still get my own tradespeople in to check the gas and electric once I get the keys, because issues do arise over time. Just because something was installed competently x number of years ago, it doesn't mean a fault hasn't occurred over time, it's basic common sense. Or like in the case of the boiler which was originally in my house, it could have the required sign offs but still turn out to be dangerous.

@MellowSubmarine that's a fair point, it's most likely the solicitor pushing for the policies. I think we'll go ahead and get the building regulations one. They're also asking for a restrictive covenant one for our driveway which falls under permitted development and a conservatory which the previous owner installed back in the 90s. Again it meets the criteria for permitted development, so I'm not sure how the council would enforce action after this amount of time. I'll get our solicitor to question this one I think.

I don’t think permitted developments are relevant for restrictive covenants.

My parents had to take out indemnity insurance when selling because restrictive covenants from when the house was built 30 years before said you couldn’t add anything to the original elevation of the house, and they’d added solar panels. As if any one from the company that put those covenants in was ever going to come round the estate and do anything about it!
It’s a racket imo, but not a huge amount you can really do about it if the lender is insisting.

Thanks, that's fair enough if the lenders are asking for it. Like you say, noone in real life is actually going to challenge any of these things, it seems like a legal box ticking exercise.

I don't remember the seller of our house having to take out IPs when we bought, but that was 12 years ago, so maybe they're more commonly used now. Our solicitor did say if we can prove the conservatory has been there for 20 years or more, we may be able to avoid that one. I've sent them back the paperwork we got when we bought the house where the seller said it was built in the 1990s. I doubt that will be good enough for them, but no harm in asking.

It's frustrating that they're only raising this now when the buyer's solicitor has known since the start of September that we don't have this paperwork. It makes me wonder if there's anything else they'll spring on us just before we're (hopefully) about to exchange contracts.