Buyers solicitor and FENSA certificates and indemnity insurance!

[elvislives]

We accepted an offer on our house mid April. We are currently renting elsewhere and the buyers are also renting having already sold their house. So there is no chain. We anticipated completing mid June. Apparently the buyers are anticipating moving in end of June/ beginning July, so we are on a similar page.

We had a request for certificates for boiler we had replaced in 2007 and windows put in in 2006. After some difficulty we located the paperwork and our son took it to the solicitor about 2 weeks ago.

Today we get yet another letter from the solicitor saying the papers for the windows aren't an actual FENSA certificate so we need to pay an indemnity insurance. Strangely enough a colleague who is also at the same stage of the process has just been asked to pay indemnity insurance over an alleyway for rear access WTF is indemnity insurance and why should we pay it?! (colleague has told them what they can do with their insurance and has threatened to pull out if not sorted by the end of this week)

The windows were put in by a reputable local company who are still there in the High Street. They told us at the time that details go on file at the council so any future house move the solicitor would just check with the council and all is fine. The buyers solicitor has allegedly checked with the council and says there is nothing on record. The paperwork we provided has the FENSA certificate number on, so I can't see what the problem is.

DH is going to phone the council tomorrow and has already spoken to the window company (who remember the job and the 10 year guarantee).

We have already had endless stupid questions from the buyers solicitor (apparently the property does not abut the highway..) all of which suggest they aren't doing what they are being paid to do and are expecting us to do it for them. In the meantime the time is flashing by and we appear to be getting nowhere fast.

I know the whole process is always fraught, and I expect the buyers think it's us holding things up. Anyone else come across this?

I would hold fire on talking to the council as it might jeopardise your chance of obtaining indemnity insurance.

If you had it, it would be revealed by your buyers searches. you should get on to the window company to see if they can rush it through, if not I would just pay the indemnity insurance.

This is a one-off premium designed to protect the owner (to a certain degree) if the council were to take proceedings against you for this breach of building regulations.

The policy is unlikely to cost very much and will save you twoing and froing with the glazers and council

We just completed on our house 2 weeks ago. Two weeks before that, we were about to exchange and our solicitor told us that the buyers solictor wanted us to pay for 2 indemnity insurance before they will exchange. Apparently one was for the the archway (through lounge) between our kitchen and the dinning room. As we could not produce a document saying it was opened up ok, we had to get this. We told them that we bought the house over 11 years ago and that was there already. Also, my husband being a party wall surveyor says that when that was done, no rules exist for getting those docs as a old neighbour says that was done in teh 1970's. The other indemnity was for our house being in a conservation area which we beleve its not. But as we didnn't want to hold up the exchange, we paid £150 for the 2 indmnity insurance so if anything happens in the future, its covered.

We are annoyed about this as they left it one day before exchange to contact us for this and in our opinion, its not necessary to have it.

But why should we pay for an insurance when we paid £7k for windows only 4 years ago? They were done properly and we have the certificate number. It's their solicitors not doing their job properly

Sounds like it's the latest con.

(DH is all for ripping the windows out and taking them with us!)

But the buyer's solicitor ARE doing their job, which is to ensure that everything is above board and legal for their clients, your buyers. It is NOT their job to chase your FENSA certificate. What did the window company say when you spoke to them, apart from remembering the job? Are they going to chase the certificate for you? If not, you need to get on and do that yourselves rather than waste time phoning the council who apparently don't have a record of the job.

We required indemnity insurance from our vendor for various things, some of which the venodr claimed (and we believe him) were already there when he bouht the house. However, his solicitor's lack of stringency when he bought the property is not our problem. Protecting our investment, is.

Do not speak to the council about this issue. It could affect whether you can get the insurance, which could in turn lose you the sale. I don'r remember the reasons, but our solicitor explained that the indemnity insurance only covers you if you have not had any dealings whatsoever with the council over the matter.

Just take out the insurance. It is not a scam. Is it really worth jeopardising your sale over £150? Particularly as, if this buyer requires the insurance, any further buyer might also require it.

I'm a Building Control officer.

If the fitters were FENSA registered, their certificate is sufficient, but they would have had to notify the Council that they were doing work as a registered 'competent person'. If not, the local council will retrospectively certify it (for a fee!) or you can indemnify it.

I went onto the FENSA website last night and in 2 seconds got confirmation of the certificate number and the date the windows were put in. I have ordered a certificate so we can give it to the solicitor. Yes it was our responsibility to provide the certificate (we didn't remember getting it, and it isn't with the rest of the papers) but a quick check on the website by the solicitor would have revealed that it was registered.

Rang our solicitor to let them know and she said she had another letter from the buyers solicitor. They've "noticed" we converted the garage.. and another demand for indemnity insurance DH calmly pointed out that far from "notice", it was on the sales details, and pointed out to the buyers when they looked round the house. It was done in 1997 and we didn't need planning permission because it's an internal modification (garage door still on). We checked with the council at the time and it was all above board.

Just wondering what else they are going to query.

When I said their solicitors are expecting us to do their job for them, when we bought the house 12 years ago our solicitor came back to us and told us it was an unadopted road owned by the flats opposite, and what other local things affected the property. This solicitor seems to be asking us for this sort of information (in addition to the certs etc which obviously we have to provide), rather than checking through the proper channels.

Perhaps this is how it works now, but they don't seem very efficient.

Quite a few of what we considered to be perfectly reasonable queries were answered with something along the lines of "the buyer must ascertain this for themselves". And no doubt we answered some of their queries in the same way.

It's a very annoying statement! As the vendor have to rely upon you solicitor to advise you which questions you must answer and which you can bounce back to the asker. Sometimes we were able to challenge the seller's reply, and insist that this bit of info was their responsibility, other times we just had to accept it.

Glad you found out about the FENSA website as that was going to be my advice - you get a replacement cert for about £10.

I've just been through the same in selling my house. On day of exchange the buyer's solicitor requested indemnity for work to convert an old outhouse to an internal part of the building. I paid £60 for it only for them to say it's inadequate because it only covers work 12 months old. (It's 12 months old next month!). In the end my buyer was so freaked out about what it all meant that they pulled out!

They have you over a barrel - especially as Twolittledarlings says - how can you certify work that was done years ago when knocking down walls was prolific! I am now waiting til my work is 12 months old and am going to keep quiet unless specifically asked!