Lobster wrote:

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Huge wrote:

The Natural Philosopher writes:

You really, really, *really* should make sure you can get buildings
insurance
on this property. If you can't, even should you be foolish enough to
buy it,
you won't be able to sell it, so it will be valueless.


Its insured right now, and there may be a claim on it by the current
owners.


I would add that you should contact the current insurers and check
whether they are willing to insure any future buyer of the property to
ensure continuity of cover by the same insurer. I always thought there
was an 'unwritten rule' amongst insurance companies that they would
always do this; however when I recently looked into buying a property
which had been underpinned (properly, with all necesary guarantees etc)
the current insurers said 'no'. Which rang alarm bells. A few
enquiries via brokers produced either responses of
'not-with-a-bargepole' or 4-figure annual premiums (where about 150GBP
would be the norm).

We walked away!

Good advice. I will relay that to the prospective purchaser.

However in terms of 4 figure insurance, well 1000 quid a year more is -
at say 5%, £20,000 equivalent on purchase price. So since this is a
commercial buy, simply another factor in the cost benefit equation.
Knock 20 grand off the asking, and it comes to the same in the end.

I reckon the site alone is worth about 150k, and the current 'guide
price' is 300, but we suspect that it might be worth offering 265...

My 'demolish and rebuild' costs show that it could be reproduced in good
order as a 4-5 bedroom house for around 450k including purchase, so in
the final analysis, if the property is cheap enough its not a losing
proposition.





David