Changing Name On Snagging Contract

[GB8583GW]

Hi all,

This is my very first post so be gentle.

The long and short of my story is that we are looking to buy a house from a gent that has purchased a new build. His wife died suddenly and therefore wishes to sell the house...enter me.
price is agreed etc etc but the company building the property, Muir Homes, will NOT transfer the snagging contract to my name and insist it can only be used by the original purchaser...surely this is crazy? Is there no comeback from this?

Regards

Graham

[Colin Jack]

GB8583GW,

By 'snagging contract' do you mean the NHBC Buildmark Cover?

If this is the case then Muir Homes have told you a pack of lies (I have heard this about Muir Homes but they are not alone, practically all house builders will try to pull this stunt).

The NHBC Cover is fully transferable as shown in the following quote from the NHBC themselves http://www.nhbc.co.uk/NHBCpublicatio...,24117,en.pdf:

'This is an important document. We suggest you keep it and your Insurance Certificate (which will be sent separately) in a safe place. If you sell your Home within ten years of the start of the cover (this date is printed on the Insurance Certificate), you should give this booklet and the Insurance Certificate to the new Owner.
If you contact us to make a claim or apply to use our Resolution Service, we will ask for your
name, address and postcode, and for details of the items of concern. It will be helpful if you
state your Buildmark number, which is printed on your Insurance Certificate.
So far as is permitted by the law of the country where the home is located, the rights and
obligations contained in Buildmark are for the benefit of anyone who owns the Home.

Straight from the horses mouth, but be very aware that it won't cover anything that you knew about at the time of sale. So if you had a look around and saw something needing sorted - it needs to be sorted before the sale, otherwise forget it.

I would strongly ugre you to read the terms and conditions of the NHBC Cover, if this is the 'snagging contract', then you will find out just how useless it is (see my other posts). It is a con instigated by the builders, paid for by the owner and designed to remove what little rights you have.

Another quote:
'NHBC is the standard setting body and leading warranty and insurance provider for new and newly converted homes in the UK.'
If the NHBC is the standard setting body then who compiled the Building Regulations? Why do we have Building Control Departments in local and central government? What you will find is that the NHBC Standards or Guidelines are a slightly less onerous copy of the Building Regulations. So how can they be the standard setting body when the standards, in the form of the Building Regulations, already exist. Re-inventing the wheel or what???? It is all a massive con. Also in Scotland the NHBC have absolutely no jurisdiction with regard to building control or building standards so by getting them involved, as soon as the first instruction is made to carry out snagging works, you have just lost all your rights under the law of the land.
It is all a massive con (I am repeating myself now).

Unless of course your 'snagging contract' isn't the NHBC Buildmark Cover?