Buying a half completed house

Who is the designer, i.e. the registered architect, architectural technologist or engineer who designed the house and oversaw the building stages?
What is his/her contract? Has s/he Professional Indemnity (PI) Insurance and does it cover the build to date and to completion?
What certificates have been issued? You will need an undertaking from the architect/ builder/owner that Building Regulations have been complied with so far. If in NI, get the Building Control inspection approval for the stages that have been completed. In ROI check if there’s building certification available.
What insurances are in place if any, and can they be transferred to you?

Get and check structural warranty and warranties for any specialist items installed, e.g. solar panels; are these transferrable?
Get contact details of main tradesmen and query their warranties.
Check the builder’s warranty and if it too is transferable.

Planning Permission details: check that these have been complied with, also anything that might be a problem in the future. Watch out for things like visibility splay requirements.
Also check what’s happening round about in terms of future development.
Check for wastewater and sewage permissions.
Check for necessary road opening licenses, etc.
Check for agreements regarding connections to the electricity, water and sewage networks where required.

You should have an independent surveyor go over the building, including foundations, before the purchase.
Get the full working drawings from the builder.
If first fix electrics has been completed, obtain the name of the contractor and contact them to complete the job as it’s better to get the same person to do the rest of the work. Likewise any plumbing.
Many builders do not want to take up where someone else has left off and may charge a premium to do so. The best plan is to get one or two builders to quote for the job before signing the purchase agreement.

Written by Astrid Madsen