Thanks again

Mike

Thanks for your enquiry. I’ve read through what you say and I’m pretty sure that the situation you describe would not constitute “notice” to the Council, but I would suggest that you contact an indemnity insurance provider to ask the question – they would be best placed to decide what does and does not constitute notice. Even if they cannot offer a standard policy, they may be able to offer a bespoke policy tailored to this situation. Generally speaking, I recommend Legal & Contingency, simply because that’s who I use at work, due to their reasonable costs and the fact that I’ve never had any problems with them. Alternatively, ask your solicitor to make the enquiry for you – that’s what you are paying for!

My own thoughts are that the insurer could take one of two views – firstly that the Council have not been told there is a breach as such, they simply came out at several stages and said it wasn’t ready to receive full approval. The second view may be that because it will show on the Council’s records that approval was never granted and that the works were actually undertaken, then it could therefore be assumed that they were aware of a potential breach, if not necessarily an actual breach. I would be interested myself to know the answer on this, so if you can get clarification from a provider, please let me know.

I’m sorry I can’t give a definitive answer, but I can at least point you in the right direction! For your info, the indemnity insurance provider I use can be contacted on Tel: 020 7397 4343.

Hope this helps!

Gemma

Many Thanks
Mike

My apologies for the delay in replying; your message came through on the day before my wedding and Im afraid I’ve just managed to get to it!

Firstly, how did you find out that building regulation approval was definitely required? Did you contact the Council and if so, did you tell them the property address, as this would constitute “notice” and prevent you obtaining an insurance policy?

Assuming indemnity insurance is a possibility, I cannot see why this should make your property impossible or even more difficult to sell. Make enquiries with an indemnity insurance company – I would suggest Legal & Contingency.

Kind regards,

Gemma

Firstly, keep pursuing your previous solicitors! They may have on file an indemnity insurance policy for your flat and havent told you, you never know. If they didnt sort this out when you bought the property, then this could amount to negligence and a claim could be pursued through the Legal Complaints Service. In my experience, the threat of a formal complaint is usually sufficient to get a response from even the busiest solicitor and you may wish to test this out.

Please note that in order to be in a position to refer the case to the LCS, you would first have to proceed through the solicitor’s firm’s complaints service and I suggest that you telephone them and ask for a copy of their complaints procedure. Follow that procedure, the starting point usually being a formal letter of complaint outlining the issues, including the continued lack of response to your calls.

Dealing with the main issue, I honestly cannot answer whether or not the other leaseholders’ policies would be invalidated by your enquiries. I would suggest that you find out who their provider is and either you or the other leaseholders should make enquiries. Alternatively, ask your solicitor to make enquiries on your behalf; this is what you are paying them for!

Kind regards,

Gemma

My apologies for the delay in responding; as you can see from my other posts today, I’m currently away on honeymoon and have taken the opportunity during a hotspell to reply to some of the enquiries coming through!

My advice is that before you decide to proceed with this property, you should obtain a copy of the proposed indemnity insurance policy and check the terms of it. I would strongly suggest that you contact the proposed insurer directly and ask them this question; they will be best placed to provide you with the correct information and I am concerned that if you proceed without making these enquiries, you could proceed with a property that you subsequently cannot alter as you wish. Certainly it would be inviting problems to undertake further work on an extension which does not already have approval, because the approval for the new work may be dependent upon you rectifying any breach committed when the previous work was undertaken. Retrospective consent can be obtained, but the cost would entirely depend upon what works, if any, need to be undertaken before the extension is compliant. I would suggest therefore that a better course of action may be to obtain a bespoke policy from the indemnity insurance company which would cover your works and the previous works. I know that such policies can be obtained and perhaps it could be agreed with the seller that the cost of a standard policy should be deducted from the sale monies by you on completion and that you pay the balance required to obtain a bespoke policy.

Hope this helps!

Kind regards,

Gemma

Im afraid it is correct that by contacting the Building Regulations Department, notice has now been provided to them of a potential breach.

As to who needs the policy, well technically, both of you. The seller will need the policy in order to be able to sell the property to a potential buyer, particularly one who is obtaining a mortgage because whilst a cash buyer could simply choose to accept the risk, a mortgage company would not agree to do so. I assume that you are buying with a mortgage but if not, it is a decision for you as to whether you want to proceed without the benefit of a policy.

Assuming you are getting a mortgage, I would suggest that the seller should pay for the policy and indeed this is usual; however, it is not unusual for a seller to simply refuse to pay for it, a decision which I think is somewhat unfair given that they have committed the breach. Different policies have different terms, so it is difficult for me to answer your question regarding future buyers; however it is usual for a policy to cover any successor in title i.e. any future buyer, as well as you.

One issue you should be aware of however, is that if there has been a breach of building regulations and you are able to obtain a policy (which is unlikely given the issue of notice) then such a policy does not cover you for any structural problems; it simply covers any potential action taken by the Council to enforce the breach. I therefore recommend to everyone where there has been a breach of building regulations that the offending structure should be inspected by a suitably qualified surveyor to check that there is no structural defect which could affect your future enjoyment of the property.

Hope this is of some assistance.

Kind regards,

Gemma

Firstly, my apologies for replying to you; Im currently on honeymoon but checking my messages and saw your enquiry! (Fortunately for my new husband, I can type very quicky!)

The short answer is that I do not believe that an insurer would provide indemnity insurance now. As you can see from the posts, if the relevant bodies have been notified of a potential breach, then usually, it is considered to have been put “on notice” and as a result, insurers refuse to insure.

It is possible I suppose that an insurer may offer some sort of bespoke policy, but I strongly believe that the best answer lies with your solicitor. She could write to the relevant department, rather than your boyfriend making endless telephone calls. This is what she is being paid for and certainly I would have no hesitation in writing urgent correspondence to either the Council or the Water Department (in fact, I would suggest both and see who replies first!). This really should have been done as soon as the issue came to light and I wonder whether it has been or not? I agree that it sounds very unlikely that after 35 years, anyone is going to raise issue with this and I cannot see either how the Council or the Water Company could successfully enforce anything after such a long period of time has elapsed.

I hope this offers some assistance – I would strongly recommend that Andy contacts his solicitor and asks for urgent letters to be faxed to the Council and the Water Company. In the meantime, he may also wish to consider discussing the issue with an indemnity insurance provider to ascertain whether or not they would definitely refuse to offer cover – there is no harm in asking! I use a company called “Legal & Contingency” and would suggest that he contacts them, as they offer good discounts for policies obtained online.

Kind regards,

Gemma

I’m in the middle of buying a house and the HomeBuyers report mentions the fact that a chimney breast is present in bedroom, but not in kitchen below and there is no stack outside. The surveyor advised to seek building regs cert.

I phoned the Council to check if there was planning permission, who advised to call Building control who said there was nothing on file. I do not know when this was removed. I assume this counts as notice, as in thread above?

I’m confused as to who needs the indemnity me or seller? Also when I come to sell will the policy cover me?

Thanks

Alex.