Completion certificate vs indemnity policy - long OP but please let me know your thoughts!!

[houseofstraw]

We are buying a house and are very keen to get the purchase finished. When I called today our solicitor said the other party are holding things up because they have no completion certificate for the considerable work they have done on the house. Firstly - I am pissed off with our solicitor - he has had two months to bring this up and just mentions it today when I finally track him down after leaving several messages to check on progress. We are annoyed with him and imagine the sellers think it's us faffing about being awkward when it's actually the solicitor being neglectful.

He recommends asking them to apply to the council to come and inspect the work so they can issue the certificate. The alternative is the sellers paying for an indemnity policy which would cover the costs of the council if they decided to enforce the inspection of the work but not the cost of putting right any substandard work should that be necessary.

As I understand it, the most common practice when there is no completion and no FENSA cert is for the sellers to provide the indemnity and I feel our solicitor is being very picky. That said, if the work done wasn't up to scratch I'd rather know about it now. I feel I am happy to rely on the survey which was very positive and just have the indemnity policy. The people we are buying from are clearly very proud of their house and the work they have done which certainly SEEMS of a high quality.

Has anyone else been in this position as a buyer?

I am reluctant to involved the council since they are likely to be more pernickety than the lawyer. And once you approach the council the possibility of the indemnity being issued disappears.

Why can't the sellers indemnify you against inspection and any substandard work ? That way, you aren't really taking any risks, you both get to complete as soon as possible (without waiting for the council which could add weeks and weeks) and if the sellers are confident in the works they have done, they should have an issue with providing the indemnity

Go for the indemnity certificate - if it includes work that has been covered up (eg: RSJ or insulation) the council will not sign it off unless they can see what has been put in there.

This is my experience:-

Sale of our property plodding along,a few days before exchange buyers solicitor discovers that there was never any completion certificate issued for an extremely small extension on the kitchen (we had managed to buy the house without it!).

So I call council - a right jobsworth came out and said the kitchen wasn't legal because it didn't have the British Kitemark on it and unless the pane was changed they wouldn't be issuing a completion cert.

I was frantic by this time and desperately searching for a glazier who could come out, measure the window, order glass (not a bog standard window) and fit same.

Luckily I kept in phone contact with my buyers at all times (sometimes tbh it's the best way to jog things along between you), so I phoned them to explain what happened, then a miracle. My buyers brother was a double glazing fitter. He came out, measured up the glass,ordered it we paid and then he came back and fitted it.

We exchanged but I couldn't fit a time in for the council to come back before completion so they came out after the buyers were in and issued the cert.

Later it transpired that because the extension had been done in the 80's, it should have just been passed and the cert issued because the window would have complied with build regs then.

We could get an indemnity policy because the council had been told (apparently).

**arrgh couldn't not could

I was in a similar but bigger position - the house I was buying was 10 years old and had never had a completion certificate awarded by the council at all.

I phoned the council to check that all the other checks were ok - ie that the council had done intermediate inspections and were happy with them. They were. No reason to assume the house was in danger of falling down. Also had full structural survey done.

I went ahead with completion but held back £1000 until the certificate was issued. In the event the council insisted on an extra fan being put in a bathroom; that cost £250 which I deducted from the £1000 I had held back. When the paperwork finally arrived I paid my vendors the final £750. All happy.

We had similar. Work was done approx 20 years prior to buying house - no paperwork. May have even been done by vendors but one. We got a builder out to look at it and give us an estimate should for the worst case scenario of putting anything right. We then had price of house reduced by similar amount.

I think once you involve the council you cannot get an indemnity certificate (and we didn't even think about it until post-completion - prob crap solicitor but...)

get the indem policy. you've nothing to lose by having it even with the slim chance of needing it but it will be for the property so you won't need to deal with the issue again if you sell. shdlnt be expensive. sorry baby on lap and one fingered !!

Hi and thanks all of you. Tinker - you are right you can't get an indemnity policy once the council is involved. I have spoken to our surveyor again who thinks the house is in excellent order so we are ignored the solicitor and going on our gut instincts. Hope I'm not back on here in a few months time wailing.

If a surveyor describes it as in excellent order, you should be alright - most of them get a fit of the vapours if they notice a dripping tap. Good luck with the move.

Thankyou everyone.

we had similar problem when buying previous house - they had done loads of work in the 1980s with out any certification (including removal of chimney breasts). In the end we purchased the house cos we were going to loose our buyer and had problems selling our flat. We ended up spending about 1200 paying for structural engineers and regularisation certificates when we sold our house this year. Even though we had loads more documentation then we had, the buyers still kicked up a total stink and were a complete pain in the ass, tried to get 10k off and caused us loads stress. They bought the house in the end, but it wasnt fun. I would recommend getting the certificatation just in case you sell, it really is the sellers responsibility (especially if they have done the work) to ensure that they have the right paperwork