Claim Case Study: Local Authority Search Outstanding licence fee Background
Solution
The insured purchased a Buy to Let property and obtained a Local Search by a personal search company. However, some ten months after completion, the insured received notification from the Local Authority demanding payment of an outstanding licence fee together with a late payment fee.
In order for a claim to be successful under the policy, a request has to be made to the Local Authority to establish whether the full Local Authority Search would or should have revealed the adverse entry, i.e. the new scheme. If it would or should have revealed the new scheme, then, subject to its terms, the policy would provide cover for the loss incurred by the insured.
Challenge Fortunately for the insured, they had obtained a Regulated Local Search. All Regulated Searches are required to adhere to the Search Code, which requires suppliers to provide additional consumer protection to cover errors and omissions in the source data held at the Local Authority. The Local Search in this case benefited from an insurance policy from First Title Insurance, which provided cover for any adverse entry that should have been revealed by a Local Authority Search carried out directly with the Local Authority (had one been obtained on the policy date) but had not been made available to the personal search company at the time of their visit. The licence fee in question was due under a new Local Authority scheme for Private Rented Housing, and was recorded a month after the insured purchased the property, therefore, was omitted from the Local Search Report.
The Local Authority confirmed that the new scheme should have been revealed at the time the Local Search was completed. First Title, therefore, accepted the claim and made payment of the licence fee and the late payment to the insured in full settlement of the claim.
Client Testimonial “Thanks so much for your help with this – after months of trying get to this sorted, it has now been resolved so quickly and efficiently.” Insured
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