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Structual Warranty


nod

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Yep covered so many times 

Necessary evil or not 

We are still trying to decide whether to have a warranty or not 

 

We had a Protec warranty on our previous build Taken out four years ago We new we would sell after three years So there wasn’t a decision to make 

The Warranty inspector barely looked at the build But that was ok because we had accepted that the warranty companies are unlikely to ever pay out 

But serve a purpose for lenders 

 

Ive just received a quote of £1500 from CMLC  285m Plus a large double story workshop 

They have a extended list of lenders that accept there product 

Only HSBC missing 
 

As I say They are a necessary evil 

Even for those who think they are moving to a forever home You don’t know what’s around the corner 

In this case it may be worth going for the cheapest 

 

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My structural engineer was going to do a PCC for mine but he disappeared. CMLC have taken over from wall plate without additional cost. Hopefully their warranty will enable mortgage lending if needed in the future but I have no expectation of a payout from a claim.

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47 minutes ago, Bonner said:

My structural engineer was going to do a PCC for mine but he disappeared. CMLC have taken over from wall plate without additional cost. Hopefully their warranty will enable mortgage lending if needed in the future but I have no expectation of a payout from a claim.

This was why we went with Protect last time 

Most of the cheaper ones weren’t recognized by the big lenders 

Evan an Architect cert wasn’t 

Which seams crazy

This cheap quote seams to tick all the boxes I was expecting to pay £3500 plus vat 

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I can confirm that they are useless for problems that arise.

 

Ours relied on the Year 1&2 clause in that any issues discovered in that time period are responsibility of the contractor (unless contractor has ceased to trade in that time period).

 

 

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8 minutes ago, Bitpipe said:

I can confirm that they are useless for problems that arise.

 

Ours relied on the Year 1&2 clause in that any issues discovered in that time period are responsibility of the contractor (unless contractor has ceased to trade in that time period).

 

 

The NHBC are no better 

My Aunt purchased a very expensive home 

that sprung a leak in one of the valleys 

They wanted over £500 to come out and inspect Of course refundable if it was deemed valid warranty claim 

I stripped the tiles back and found the lead had been damaged when the tiles had been cut in situ 

Bad workmanship Probably would have told her to take it up with the builder 

 

Protec spent less than 30 minutes onsite over two years 5 of which was the final inspection 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 27/12/2021 at 22:37, nod said:

Yep covered so many times 

Necessary evil or not 

We are still trying to decide whether to have a warranty or not 

 

We had a Protec warranty on our previous build Taken out four years ago We new we would sell after three years So there wasn’t a decision to make 

The Warranty inspector barely looked at the build But that was ok because we had accepted that the warranty companies are unlikely to ever pay out 

But serve a purpose for lenders 

 

Ive just received a quote of £1500 from CMLC  285m Plus a large double story workshop 

They have a extended list of lenders that accept there product 

Only HSBC missing 
 

As I say They are a necessary evil 

Even for those who think they are moving to a forever home You don’t know what’s around the corner 

In this case it may be worth going for the cheapest 

 


that’s who I use and agree- wouldn’t be without one. Doubt you could ever claim but should you need to see in an emergency or whatever it’s £1800 well spent.

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3 hours ago, DragsterDriver said:


that’s who I use and agree- wouldn’t be without one. Doubt you could ever claim but should you need to see in an emergency or whatever it’s £1800 well spent.

 

If you take the approach that the policy is necessary for future lending against the property for the 10 years from completion and potentially for any sale then you'll be fine.

 

The policies are very carefully worded to give very narrow exposure to the insurer and minimal benefit to the policy holder.

 

Most have a general 2 year exclusion at the start which states that any fault arising or first noticed in this period (even if a related more serious issue is not apparent until later) is for the relevant contractor to fix - unless they have ceased trading within that two year period.

 

If the contractor does not want to fix it then you need to sue them, the insurance is not relevant. If they go bust after the two years, tough luck.

 

Post 2 years, the scope of what is covered is narrow and I expect will be just as tricky to claim on and you may need to spend your own funds to prove that it's a genuine latent defect.

 

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Hello from a newbie to this site,

 

Manoeuvring the issues of Structural Warranties and Self-build insurance and I wanted to ask some advice. We too have had extortionate quotes back for Structural Warranties from Self-build zone and Protek of circa 12/13K. Yesterday a smaller independent quoted £2.5K plus VAT. Rather than being thrilled, I'm concerned that it's too good to be true given the disparity with the other quotes. I did some digging (because I simply cannot help going down rabbit holes) and discovered that their company accounts show assets of less than £1,000 and that the company  has previously (up to 2019 at least) been registered as dormant. Apparently underwriters are Markel. Should alarm bells be ringing? I'm loathe to pay the Structural Warranty at all and simply don't understand why we need this plus Building Control but am worried about future buyers not getting a mortgage blah blah blah.  What if the provider goes bust but the underwriter stays afloat?

Thanks in advance

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1 hour ago, Dave Jones said:

underwriters have gone bust CRL went a few years ago leaving the warranty worthless. 

 

Our original underwriter went bust also but the book was bought by another insurer. At that point we were offered the £3.5k premium back or the policy under the new firm.

 

Took the insurance - kind of wish I hadn't bothered as it's proved impossible to claim on for my render issues. I've re-mortaged three times since the self build, only once was I asked 'do you have a warranty?' I said yes but they never asked to see it. 

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I'm comparing the market with warranties at the moment and another thing I've realised you need to look at @JulesFormosa is their accepted list of lenders.  I've so far had quotes of 11k selfbuild zone, 7.5k build care which is build store and their inspectors are also self build zone very confusing, then just over 5 thousand from Advantage AHCI and Protek. This list (of accepted lenders) can apparently change from time to time, but ones that are more widely accepted by all the big banks are obviously favorable. A very expensive piece of paper but I can just imagine how it ticks a very big box if you do want to sell in future. Anybody got any experience of Protek or Advantage warranty inspections? Were in Scotland (hence the price which is mostly the inspection audit fees) so this policy and these inspections will run along side Building control inspections and while I obviously want them to be thorough I don't want them to cause any unnecessary hold ups!

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My lowest quote gave me a print out of their accepted list of lenders but when I cross checked on the UK Finance website, they were not on it. Their reply was that they were covered under the lenders handbook paragraph 6.7.4 for the provision of Professional Consultants Certificates. His implication was that this was just as acceptable to lenders however from my research this is not the case. On questioning his 'professional' was a private RICS consultant. It is a minefield. 

 

What Site Insurance company did you use may I ask?

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@JulesFormosaI'm going with Protek. I'd give them a ring now and see if you can get a quote because they are back offering policies. Mine went to the underwiters they looked at all the site investigations, structural drawings, elevations and they advised increasing the rebuild cost cover and their quote was the same as next best but with higher rebuild cost covered. So all in all 5 grand for alot of peace of mind. Our location is the reason for high audit/inspection costs but there is also risk to them as I am project managing. I think stick to the ones that can give you a big list of lenders their accepted by usually via a link to their websites where its all clearly laid out. The way I have now justified this cost ha ha, is that If you've got a main contractor they might be able to provide you with an NHBC warranty but your obviously going to pay the main contractor fee, possibly i think 10% of the build cost i would think. So now I've convinced myself that this is great value ha ha not as exciting as buying a bathroom suite but essential... next on the list for today sewage tmt plants ?... 

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Okay, good advice @Highland build, thank you. The rebuild cost thing is also confusing. Out of interest, did you state the same rebuild cost on your site insurance quote as in your warranty quote? I get making sure the site insurance/contract works is high enough to give you safe coverage, but one broker basically implied that with regards to the Structural Warranty - the banks are only really bothered by the sqm x generic price per sq m to rebuild. Not sure where to stop... do I include fixtures and fittings/ decoration/ initial landscaping with regards to the Structural Warranty? With every 100k added to the overall cost, the premium on SW seems to jump

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3 hours ago, JulesFormosa said:

Okay, good advice @Highland build, thank you. The rebuild cost thing is also confusing. Out of interest, did you state the same rebuild cost on your site insurance quote as in your warranty quote? I get making sure the site insurance/contract works is high enough to give you safe coverage, but one broker basically implied that with regards to the Structural Warranty - the banks are only really bothered by the sqm x generic price per sq m to rebuild. Not sure where to stop... do I include fixtures and fittings/ decoration/ initial landscaping with regards to the Structural Warranty? With every 100k added to the overall cost, the premium on SW seems to jump

@JulesFormosathey say for the structural warranty rebuild cost as if you were starting from scratch, so I would include all the fittings and fixture costs if you can afford to. You can ask them to do a few quotes on different rebuild costs because yea past certain value the premium can jump up I think, but you just have to be happy with the level of cover. You could go lower theres no mortgage requirement for it so if it was literally there to sell a house in future I guess you could go lower but i think if its unrealistic the underwriters might say.

 I've got a site insurance quote thats for a bit less than the underwriters suggested rebuild value i.e my build cost estimate (with a 10% contingency) the same figures i used for my mortgage  and thats about 40 quid lower, in the grand scheme of things £40 more, I think I'm just going to go with the site insurance at the same cost the underwriters suggested for the structural warranty because that would be the rebuild cost for sure if a main contractor was involved. I got 4 quotes 2 were ridiculous and then the lower two I jiggled about a little with rebuild costs to get a level i was happy with. I'm no expert just learning as i go here!

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On 27/12/2021 at 22:37, nod said:

Ive just received a quote of £1500 from CMLC  285m Plus a large double story workshop

 

This is not a Structural Warranty but a Professional Consultants Certificate.  The buyer has the ability to claim on the provider's professional indemnity insurance.  The Structural Warranties have their own insurance policy.

 

I don't think either are worth much other than to be able to obtain finance and sell on.

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34 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

 

This is not a Structural Warranty but a Professional Consultants Certificate.  The buyer has the ability to claim on the provider's professional indemnity insurance.  The Structural Warranties have their own insurance policy.

 

I don't think either are worth much other than to be able to obtain finance and sell on.

Absolutely 

The main thing is that it’s recognized by almost all the lenders 

Same bit of paper 

At half the price 

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1 hour ago, Mr Punter said:

 

This is not a Structural Warranty but a Professional Consultants Certificate.  The buyer has the ability to claim on the provider's professional indemnity insurance.  The Structural Warranties have their own insurance policy.

 

I don't think either are worth much other than to be able to obtain finance and sell on.

 

no good for a buyer to get a mortgage with. Same as an architects certificate.

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1 minute ago, DragsterDriver said:

Cmlc call it a ‘structural warranty’?

I have spoken to the MD 

He did say it is a Structual warranty 

But went on to talk about there insurers liability of 3 m and maximum claim of 1m

But Mr Punter As alway hit the nail on the head 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi all,

 

I haven’t started building yet but am hoping to clear site any day and want to get a warranty as it’s only a small property and can’t imagine I’ll stay for 10 years.

 

I have had a quote of £2000 from CMLC but I’m getting confused if this will count towards warranties and other people getting mortgages? 
 

Any advice will be greatly received!

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14 hours ago, Nicky198 said:

Hi all,

 

I haven’t started building yet but am hoping to clear site any day and want to get a warranty as it’s only a small property and can’t imagine I’ll stay for 10 years.

 

I have had a quote of £2000 from CMLC but I’m getting confused if this will count towards warranties and other people getting mortgages? 
 

Any advice will be greatly received!

Cmlc list all the mortgage companies that accept it.

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