I am currently dealing with the sale of a standard semi-detached property. My client has suffered the misfortune of having a car drive into his front wall.
The surveyor, employed by the buyer’s mortgage company, presumably visited the property after the incident had occurred but prior to the wall being rebuilt and, as a result, my client received two enquiries from the buyer’s mortgage company.
The first was ‘when will the wall be rebuilt and who will be paying for it?’. My client answered that the wall had been repaired and the work was carried out under the motorist’s insurance policy.
The second was ‘what steps is the seller taking to ensure that this does not happen again?’.
I kid you not.
I am sure an application to install crash barriers will be looked on unfavourably by the local authority and they will, no doubt, take a dim view of a request to close the road to motor vehicles.
When I informed my boss he told me that the client is doing the only thing he can do to guarantee it will not happen to him again – moving! Needless to say, I resisted the temptation to pass that advice on to him.
Greg Smith, Lambert, Taylor & Gregory, Gateshead
