Conveyancing Explained

If your solicitor has told you that you need one of these policies, it’s either because;-

1) He is protecting your interests if you are buying without a mortgage.

2) He is protecting both the interests of you and your mortgage lender, if you are buying with a mortgage.

If option 2) is relevant to you, then it’s unlikely that you have any choice in the matter. The mortgage lender will not allow the conveyancing solicitor to proceed to get your mortgage monies without the relevant policy is in place, protecting the mortgage lender’s security.

It is unlikely that your conveyancing solicitor benefits in any way by recommending policies to you. To my knowledge, it’s not something that the solicitor makes any money from, the money is just a third party fee (known as a disbursement) paid direct to the insurance company on completion.  Solicitors usually use the cheapest insurers offering the best cover, or they should do if they want to offer a good service to their clients.  Some I suppose may receive an incentive from the insurer for passing clients to them but if this is the case, then the solicitor is duty bound to inform you, so check the small print.  If this is the case, then ask for alternative quotes, because you may find a cheaper supplier.

If your seller refuses to provide a policy for something that’s wrong at the property, then you can either pull out of the transaction, threaten to do so and see what the result is, or bite the bullet and pay for the policy yourself. Unfortunately, some sellers point blank refuse to pay for policies, even though those policies are required due to something that the seller has done. In my view, this is completely unreasonable but as explained above, your conveyancing solicitor can’t actually proceed if you’re getting a mortgage without the policy is in place. It’s therefore up to you as to how you want to proceed.

It’s worth asking your conveyancing solicitor whether or not they obtain their indemnity insurance policies online. I get mine through a company called Legal & Contingency Limited. Their online policies are actually quite a bit cheaper than the paper ones, I recently managed to save my client over £50.00 on two policies by getting them online. Otherwise, the conveyancing solicitor basically has a file of sample policies, called “instant issue policies” which they just write out, and then send the cheque to the insurance company.

Before issuing the policy however, you should see a copy of the proposed policy, its terms and the quotation as to cost.  I always provide these documents to my clients for them to look through before we go ahead and instruct Legal & Contingency.  GCS and Norwich Union also offer such policies; however in my experience, they are more expensive, even when obtained online.

New regulations apply to replacement windows and doors installed since 1st April 2002. Basically, all replacement windows, rooflights, roof windows and glazed doors (more than 50% glass) will have to comply with the FENSA Regulations/new Building Regulations.

Either a FENSA Certificate or Building Regulation Approval/Completion Certificate should be available.

If you’re buying, you need to ask the seller whether there are any such replacements. If so, do they have a FENSA Certificate/Building Regulation Approval? Whatever their answer, tell your conveyancing solicitor, as this document is now required by law. The solicitor can ensure that it is available and that you will get the original Certificate on completion. If it is not available, then remedies such as indemnity insurance or retrospective building regulation aproval can be obtained.

If you’re selling a property and you’ve recently had replacements made, then find your Certificate, because the buyer’s solicitor is bound to ask for it. If you had a FENSA Certificate and you’ve lost it, a replacement can be obtained from the FENSA website at a cost of 10 pounds. Obtaining this sooner rather than later will avoid delays in exchange of contracts. If you didn’t get a FENSA Certificate or Building Regulation Approval, then you need to make sure that you tell your conveyancing solicitor. As indicated above, it is usually possible for you to either pay for an insurance policy to cover the buyer or to contact the Council for retrospective building regulation approval. If you use the latter option though, be aware that if retrospective approval is refused, you cannot then get insurance, because the insurance company will consider the Council as being notified of the breach and therefore likely to take enforcement action against you.

You can find more information from the Building Control Department of your local Council or by visiting www.fensa.co.uk.