Indemnity insurance

[pewe]

When we bought our house 4years ago it was a new build.
It had a set of patio doors and a window at the back of the house which we wanted to be replaced with bifolds.
The site foreman said it was a simple job to use bifolds instead of the patio doors and window a nd if we supplied him with a set of bifolds he would arrange it which he did.

We are now looking to sell the house and have been told that even though the bifolds were a replacement for the doors and window, building regs approval should have been sought to do the change because the originals had already been installed - despite us not having moved in at the time.

If that is correct, I am told that as we don't have a signed off regs certificate we should ask our conveyancing solicitor to arrange indemnity insurance to cover the unlikely event that at some point it may come to the attention of building regs that a certificate was not issued,

I am also told that we should not contact building regs to see if they hold a copy of a certificate because if they don't, if we alert them to that fact no insurance would be possible.

- Is this correct?
- Should I just arrange the insurance - just in case.
- Is it likely to be expensive.

Thanks

[des8]

Indemnity insurance for lack of building regs depends on value of property but should only be a few hundred pounds.

Besides asking if Building control have the certificate, you could request regularisation, i.e. retrospective approval.
I believe some builders/installers can self certify their work meets building regulations, so perhaps contact your builder?