Elevated stress levels
I stupidly decided to ring our solicitor yesterday to check on selling-the-house progress and it has bumped up my blood pressure a bit. Medically speaking, since my blood pressure is usually so low I could be mistaken for a reptile, this may be a good thing but it doesn't feel good in my head. In fact I've had a headache virtually ever since I made the call, and I rarely get headaches...
Our purchasers' solicitor is tying him/herself in knots over the fact that we cannot provide any documentation about there being planning or building consents to use our basement as a self-contained flat. We have never hidden the fact, and indeed we verbally told the purchasers when they came round to view the property the first time, and again the second time. They want us to buy insurance indemnifying them against the consequences of using the flat as a separate property and coming a cropper with the local Council for doing so. Unfortunately, the indemnity insurance we could buy would be worthless as it would presuppose that we were using the flat as a separate property. As we never intended to do so when we bought the building we have in fact integrated the basement 'flat' into the rest of the house so there is no continuance of use. We would be trying to insure ourselves against a risk that hadn't happened instead of a risk that currently exists, which is what the insurance is designed to protect against. So apparently this makes it worthless. All we have to do now is to pursuade our purchasers that they can get planning and building consents fairly easily if they want to since the basement clearly was used as a flat before we bought it and there is a precedent in terms of building usage in this road.
My paranoid self is thinking, 'Oh god, only six weeks to go and we haven't exchanged yet so we can't buy our plane tickets or make any other plans and if we don't sell the house to these people then we won't have any money.... HELP!'
My slightly-more-rational self is saying, 'This is just their solicitor earning their keep. Our purchasers need to buy the house because their tenancy agreement ends on October 2nd because their landlord is selling the flat AND they really want to buy it, so once their solicitor has calmed down there won't be any problems'.
Want to lay a bet on which side wins??
Our purchasers' solicitor is tying him/herself in knots over the fact that we cannot provide any documentation about there being planning or building consents to use our basement as a self-contained flat. We have never hidden the fact, and indeed we verbally told the purchasers when they came round to view the property the first time, and again the second time. They want us to buy insurance indemnifying them against the consequences of using the flat as a separate property and coming a cropper with the local Council for doing so. Unfortunately, the indemnity insurance we could buy would be worthless as it would presuppose that we were using the flat as a separate property. As we never intended to do so when we bought the building we have in fact integrated the basement 'flat' into the rest of the house so there is no continuance of use. We would be trying to insure ourselves against a risk that hadn't happened instead of a risk that currently exists, which is what the insurance is designed to protect against. So apparently this makes it worthless. All we have to do now is to pursuade our purchasers that they can get planning and building consents fairly easily if they want to since the basement clearly was used as a flat before we bought it and there is a precedent in terms of building usage in this road.
My paranoid self is thinking, 'Oh god, only six weeks to go and we haven't exchanged yet so we can't buy our plane tickets or make any other plans and if we don't sell the house to these people then we won't have any money.... HELP!'
My slightly-more-rational self is saying, 'This is just their solicitor earning their keep. Our purchasers need to buy the house because their tenancy agreement ends on October 2nd because their landlord is selling the flat AND they really want to buy it, so once their solicitor has calmed down there won't be any problems'.
Want to lay a bet on which side wins??
posted by Sara Bowen at 10:43 pm
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