Home insurance - Party Walls

Hi,

We are selling our 150+ year old terraced house. The buyers surveyor noted that there is no party walls between our attic space and our neighbours. This poses a fire risk and therefore he is unable to get home insurance until fixed.

Any suggestions on how to go about fixing this? Could we just affix fire proof curtains between the houses or will something more substantial be needed? And does this need to be performed by a certified contractor to fix this issue to a standard acceptable to the insurance company?

Where on an insurance application form does it ask this question ? I have never seen it.
It has to be fixed of course but something the buyer should do, with all the other fixes buyers would need to do with a 150 year old house.

JoeRoberts said:

It has to be fixed of course but something the buyer should do

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Most insurers will ask many more questions on a 150+ year old property.

Most buyers won't actually proceed unless something as problematic as this is resolved. Would you buy a house you can't insure in the hopes that your new neighbours would agree to resolving the issue?

Paros24,

Let me ask you a question. Is your house insured? If yes, then yes, it can be insured. I live in a 130yr old house and review insurance every year. I have never been asked about this. Sounds to me like their surveyor is trying to get you to do work that would be the responsibility of the buyer (if they so desired to do this). There is no obligation to do this. Of course, it is good practice to do it, but to say the sale cannot proceed until until it is rectified is just plain wrong. They may choose not to proceed because of it, but that is a choice. Similarly, they may choose not to proceed if, say, for example, the roof was in poor condition.

Hillwalker123 said:

Of course, it is good practice to do it, but to say the sale cannot proceed until until it is rectified is just plain wrong. They may choose not to proceed because of it, but that is a choice.

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I don't think anyone suggested this issue would preclude a sale, just that the current potential purchaser (and other potential purchasers) may be put off proceeding.

It's possible the potential purchaser here has not actually approached an insurer at this point. Any surveyor will highlight this as a fire safety issue, perhaps the prospective purchaser misunderstood.

The choice for the OP here is to do nothing and risk losing this prospective purchaser and put it back on the market where other prospective purchases may also be put off or seek a lower price, or talk to a few builders with experience in this area about resolving the issue. There are curtain type products available, a builder will advise on the most effective solution once they inspect what they have to tie into.

Friend of mine was selling a semi detached house built in 2003 and same situation arose. Possibly due to Local Authorities not inspecting housing estates and builders taking shortcuts. Anyway, both home owners, that is seller and lad attached to him, agreed to split the cost of the wall, which was about €13K.

I would think that any solicitor advising a purchaser would not recommend proceeding with the purchase unless the matter was fixed.

Is there also a likely problem here for the mortgagee / financial institution being asked to finance the purchase ?
The financial institution might not be happy to advance a loan on a property where there is a fire vulnerability.
Remember that the property is the financial institution's security for it's loan irrespective of the insurance position.

The insurance underwriters of the putative purchaser might not be happy to offer cover whilst the hazard remains.
There are relatively new rules about what proposers for insurance can be asked by underwriters.
However, if the insurers list a schedule of specific questions / assumptions and ask the proposer about those matters specifically the proposer might end up in difficulties if a less than complete answer is given.

I don't know what insurance companies do nowadays but there was a time when they would have a non-standard property inspected by one of their own in-house surveyors or a external surveyor who would pick up on this.
Once the issue about the absent party wall was identified there should be no problem if the insurers are happy to accept it or to impose terms such as requiring that the issue be corrected within 6 months of purchase. I would not hold my breath to see the type of flexibility and imagination that the last point might require !

Apart from insurers and mortgagees what legal advice would a responsible solicitor give to the intending purchaser?
I suspect that the advice would be to walk away given the potential problems.
+1 Ravima's observation at #6 above.

Is it a terraced house or a semi-d ? Is there much work to be done or is it nearer turn key ? I suspect that the buyer is angling at a reduction rather than saying they won't proceed. Back in the day (2016) my family home didn't have this in the semi-d but it was never mentioned by any purchaser afaik. The house needed a lot a work (which subsequently took well over nine months) so it was probably just added to that as a by the way though.