Re-sale of Indemnity Protected Property???

[ccip123]

Hi

I have been reading various threads with interest, around purchasing/selling houses that have indemnity insurance in place, instead of completion certificates. I do understand pretty clearly what this insurance does and how it can be used - however I would appreciate more comment from experienced contributor's in regard to the realistic abilty to 'sell-on' a property with insurances in place instead of regs certification.

In short, the contect of my situation is that I have been looking to purchase a 3 bed semi detached property, built in 2001 by David Wilson homes. At the rear there is a conservatory that was added in 2003. The house if part of a large development of around 200 homes or so and at least 20 homes on the site of similar design.

After a very very lengthy period of conveyancing (where I've been trying to keep my buyer on side in the meantime), my solicitor has informed me that they have not received any building regs 'completion certificate' information for either the house itself, or the conservatory located at the back of the property, however planning permission however does exist for both and has been received. Finally - also no 'transferor of consent' documentation has been received either.

My solicitor tells me the vendor (actually a large building company - as this house is being sold as part of a part exchange - current owners are moving into a new build scheduled for completion soon), is not prepared to request the certificate information because they are not 'prepared to foot the bill for any works that may be required to bring the property up to the standards required by building control if a final inspection is required '

However they are prepared to pay for legal indemnity insurances for both the lack of building regs completion certification and 'transferor of consent' documentation. It should also be noted that the NHBC inspection/warranty didn't cover building regs certification at the time - for this property (according to my solicitor)

So I am stuck wondering weather to proceed - and take the insurances (and likely keep my buyer of my house), or drag this out and try and obtain the relevant certification for myself (and therefore ensure any related issues are re-sale are removed) . In light of this I would like to ask for opinion on the following.

• Resale: If I continue with the insurances in place, and purchase the property I wonder what the likelihood is that I will encounter issues in trying to sell the property, most likely in 5-7 years. High, or Low. I know it depends on the exact house/location etc, but would appreciate people's experience on this, as I have no experience in how often this kind of scenario occurs for this type of property (post 96 build - requiring certification). I have noted Richard's prior text in a forum stating ' there are a few buyers out there who are amazingly risk averse ', and would like to understand more on how 'few' there may be out there. In addition I would like to ask for opinion on how often their are problems around getting buildings/home insurance and mortgage loans against such properties. (I am currently awaiting response from my lender/insurance company)
• Ability to get regs completion certification - for the house: I have been advised (via a friends former local conveyancer in the area I'm moving to) that the local authority did not actually do the 'building control' on the site where the house was built, so I am wondering if I should approach David Wilson direct, find out who did the building control and ask directly - for the completion certificate for the house at least. I would like some opinion from those contributing to this thread on if doing this invalidate any proposed 'indemnity' insurance , or likely cause me some other issues - if a completion certificate can not be easily/readily found (I have been advised not to talk Local Authority anyway by my solicitor as a general point).

These are my main concerns, that I would like comment on , however any constructive reply are welcome in regard to likely implications. I'm just after some more voices of experience to help understand broadly how normal or not this kind of situation is.

Personally I am surprised the vendor doesn't want to get the completion certificate - at least for the house, and I wonder if their is a reason for this I am unaware of, and this is why the conveyancing has taken so long to get to this point. On the face of it - however looking at the survey and the state of the property - it is very likely structurally sound - and if it wasn't about the question mark around re-sale I'd be reasonably happy to move in - (as I have read up on likelihood of enforcement proceedings (low) and have a good survey)

Anyway - as I say any comments are very much appreciated.

Thanks

[Richard Webster]

Try contacting David Wilson direct - they may well be bale to provide the information but they will have to dig into their records so may charge....