Just gone sale agreed - a few questions re documentation

johndaman66

Hi all,

I went sale agreed on a timber frame dormer house last Wednesday after viewing the house for the second time the Friday before that. The house is a one off build in the countryside sitting on approximately a half acre site. In the interm I had spoken to a solicitor re conveyancing and an engineer re doing a survey, on the assumption I were to go sale agreed.

So I went sale agreed last Wednesday and rang the solicitor again to say I would be proceeding with the house purchase and was to contract him.

I got in contact with the engineer the following day, a gent that seems very very thorough to say the least. At first he mentioned that he could do the survey the following day if I wanted. However this was far too soon as there are tenants in the house, fair is fair, they would need more notice to vacate for the few hours and this would just be too short notice. Anyway I mentioned I would rather be there with him doing the survey which he agreed was best and hence asked if this coming Saturday was possible (I work Monday to Friday)

He was able to accommodate and I checked through the EA if the tenants would be able to vacate and once confirmed reverted to the engineer.

The engineer mentioned that I need to get my hands on the following documentation -

1) A certificate of compliance with building regulations;
2) A certificate of compliance with planning;
3) Structural engineers warranty on the pouring of the foundations - Certificate of compliance with part A structure - Building regulations.
4) As the house is timber frame, a warranty for the timber frame structure - house was built in 2006 so there should be at least 2 years remaining on this apparently.

He mentioned he would really wish to be seen these at or before the survey which I'm sure one would appreciate gives not a lot of time.

Rang the solicitor the following day and he mentioned that such documentation would be acquired from the vendors solicitor and he expected them to be sent with the contract of sale.

He, the solicitor mentioned that he would be able to check this documentation over and ensure that all was in order....what I would have expected to be the case, but I'm all new to this. Could somebody advise if this is the solicitors or structural surveyors domain?

Also the solicitor mentioned that he would ideally like the surveyor to have a map at the time of the survey to ensure that the boundary fences are where they should be. Again I could be wrong but I would have thought that this was the solicitors domain - is he trying to pass the buck?

Any input is greatly appreciated.

pwurple

He's not trying to pass the buck, solicitors are not qualified to verify that boundary fences are in the right location. That's the engineer's role. It's also the engineer's role to check that what was physically built was what was outlined in the planning. A solicitor can check that the right process was followed, but not what is physically built.