Hello.

Building our new house and we are waiting for building warrant to come in so I'm trying to get ahead with anything I can. (please feel free to suggest things I may miss!)

We have had a quote from buildstore for their structural warranty at £2500 - lots of money but is this just what you have to do now for mortgage companies? I know you can get architec certificates but from what I read they are not worth the money plus my architect could not do this anyway.

thanks :)

The information I got was that most mortgage companies won't lend without one. You might get a self build mortgage for yourself but if you try to sell within 10 years you can have problems so unless you're absolutely certain you won't it's probably a good idea.

You can combine the inspections for the warranty and for building control which means the incremental cost of the warranty isn't so bad.

If you want to borrow or plan to sell with 10 years you will need a structural warranty or a professional consultant's certificate. I use and engineer who does the design calcs and provides a regime of inspection and certification, Contrary to popular opinion, a professional consultant's certificate is not cheaper than a structural warranty from the likes of NHBC or Premier. Personally I would not go with the NHBC, they are slow, uncooperative and will impose all their own set of standards on top of building regs. Pointless extra work. The Buildstore quote sounds OK to me, no more than NHBC or Premier. Be careful with the warranty outfits, few of the marginal operators are accepted by mortgage lenders. Check the Lender's handbook on the website of the Council for Mortgage Lenders. I think there are LABC warranties but not sure if that is available in Scotland - assume you are up there as you use the warrant expression.

Whatever you do stop until it's sorted. Do not put a spade in the ground prior to the warranty or certificate being in place. Retrospective warranties are somewhere between inpossible and extortionate.

I have a BuildZone self build warranty which was £1300. It can't be sold on for two years, so no good for developers.
I had soil test done first so structural calculations for foundations could be done. Also sorted out sewage treatment and soakaway, because we're out in the sticks a bit.

Posted By: dicksterGot our mortgage with the Ecology Building Society on Architect's Certificate backed up with engineer's blah. Neither had the cheek to charge any extra as they had already been paid rather well.

Me too. I'd rather the architect and structural engineer signed it off. Even if they go bust or cease trading you are covered for 10 years by their professional bodies.

I had both Site Insurance and 10 Year Warranty with self Build Zone. They had (my be still have) a deal if buying both together.

Had to have soil and a foundation engineer report because I built in a clay area of Surrey; local council need it before giving the thumbs up. As it happens, we had to have piled foundations, and the piling company did all the foundation structural tests and integrity test when completed. All passed and the local building control were happy.

I have used a firm called Professional Consultant Certificates who do a couple of inspections and sign off for some converted flats. They were a lot cheaper than a warranty company but are only approved by about 80% of lenders. You can look on the CML website to see if your lender is OK with them.

Thank you all very much for your comments

I'm not going to go down the road of architect certificate as need to be flexible in future with lenders, plus he's not keen to do it at all and as he's been good on price it's definitely something extra. We are having lots engineering reports done as there are some tricky bits - tying in to the next door house, sewage, clay soil etc. It just looks like a costly thing we need to do.

Sounds like I'll go buildstore for insurance and warranty - just had a quote in from BLP for £7,750!!! No thanks!

I'm checking out the CML lenders handbook for more companies to ask for quotes from, but so far buildstore seem to be most accessible and I know our inlaws used them on their self-build.

As far as I know if your architect goes under you may not be covered. This was certainly the case where an architect round here was jailed for embezzlement. His clients (not the people he "borrowed" the money from) where left in the lurch with a badly messed up half completed building. They were unable to claim anything from his insurance. There is an article in BD Online about it but I don't subscribe so cant post a link.

I can't comment on the quality of the warranty itself but you lose the ability to choose your own 'approved inspector' for building regs - you get whoever they assign. So far it's looking like you lose the advantage of being able to choose someone who understands/is amenable to what you're trying to achieve. It's early days yet but we had to push back on a couple of their initial requirements and our contact seems relatively junior so always has to ask someone else.

Posted By: jwdAs far as I know if your architect goes under you may not be covered. This was certainly the case where an architect round here was jailed for embezzlement. His clients (not the people he "borrowed" the money from) where left in the lurch with a badly messed up half completed building. They were unable to claim anything from his insurance. There is an article in BD Online about it but I don't subscribe so cant post a link.

This sounds like a specific case. I did look at it before and certainly once completed, if the architect ceases trading, the indemnity is taken on for the balance of 10 yrs by the professional body.