Does anyone know anything about having to have new searches if over 6 months old?

[notasize10yetbutoneday]

Hi All

I'm just a bit concerned our solicitors might be trying to pull the wool over our eyes.

We are in the process of buying a house which had the HIP (and so land searches) done in August 2009.

The solicitors have emailed me to say that as the searches are more than 6 months old, they want us to pay £115 for new searches.

As I understood it however, it is not necessary to have new searches done when searches are over 6 months old (but less than 18 mths old) as long as your lender will accept indemnity insurance?

I queried this with the soliciotr who didn't really answer my question and said it was a 'precaution'. I don't really want to pay £115 as a 'precaution'- only if we have to!

DH is ringing our mortgage co today to see if they will accept indemnity insurance.

Has anyone else had any experience of this?

Thanks

Sounds iffy for a number of reasons.
1, the new govt has announced they will abolish HIPs.
2, these are/ were the responsibility of the seller, not buyer. we sold a property in 2008 and had to pay for it... not the buyer.
3, what you say about time frames makes sense. ie most searches should be valid for a while. anyway, one the problems with the HIPs was that they covered the same terrain the solicitors have to do anyway, ie local auhtority etc

I would ask a friend for a recommendation for another conveyancer and give them a call, put the situation to them and ask what they would do. if you don't trust your solicitor you really need a new one.

Grr, I had this too, we just paid up because I wanted to just get on with it, doesn't mean it wasn't annoying though. They are a reputable solicitor we're using, and it did state this may be the case in terms and conditions sent through. Not much help, but at least you're not the only one!

Some councils allow searches to be "refreshed" without cost - worth checking with your LA.

My team will do a refresher search for £25 call the Local Land Charges Office direct we take 48 hours to do a Search.

We had a really long house move and the people we bought from found that their mortgage offer had expired.
They had to reapply.

Thanks all, I rang 3 different solicitors posing as a potential client and they all said the same thing...that alsthough in the HIP the seller pays for the searches, there is no legislation that says they have to pay for them once they go out of date- it remains the responsibility of the buyer. Our mortgage company said they wanted new searches so we are £115 down, grr.

Good luck with the rest of the move - hope it all goes smoothly.