Is indemnity insurance required a reason to pull out of a purchase?

Not automatically. Indemnity insurance required severity ranges from cosmetic to deal-breaker. Pull out only if the cost to remediate exceeds the renegotiation headroom the seller will accept, if your lender refuses to lend on the property, or if a specialist report confirms an active, worsening defect. Most buyers renegotiate rather than walk; a written quote from a local trade is the strongest evidence to use.

Survey finding

Indemnity insurance on your purchase: what to know

Low

Indemnity is a routine workaround for missing certificates. This page covers what it does and doesn't cover.

Last updated: 6 May 2026. Editorially reviewed: 20 May 2026.

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Common findings

Finding

Indemnity insurance required

Low

What this usually means

Indemnity insurance is a one-off premium policy that covers the buyer (and lender) against specific risks: missing building regs, missing planning, lack of restrictive covenant consent, chancel repair liability, and others. Cost is small relative to the risks insured.

Why it matters

Lenders accept indemnity for most minor issues. The premium is paid by the seller in negotiation, often automatically.

Ask your surveyor

Check:What specific risks are being indemnified?
Check:Are there alternatives such as regularisation or LDC?

Ask the seller

Check:Will the seller pay for indemnity policies?
Check:Are there policy documents already in place?

Next steps

•Get two written quotes from local trades before negotiating with the seller.
•Speak to your mortgage broker before exchanging if the finding affects mortgageability.

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What you need to know

Severity

2/ 5

Maintenance item. Worth quoting and including in negotiation.

Typical cost to fix

Indemnity premiums typically £100-£500 per policy depending on risk. Multiple policies on one transaction add up.

Mortgage impact

Lender approves specific policy wording.

Insurance impact

Standalone — does not affect home insurance.

When to pull out

Not relevant.

When to renegotiate, and by how much

Negotiate that the seller funds policies; cost is £100-£500 per policy.

Thinking of pulling out or renegotiating? What to do after a bad survey

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How MyPropertyScan produces this guide, and what it is not

Published by MyPropertyScan and written by Ziad Nasr, who is accountable for its accuracy. No page here is written or reviewed by a chartered surveyor, conveyancer or regulated adviser, and we do not claim otherwise.

This page is not:

Chartered surveying — we do not inspect properties or produce RICS Home Survey reports
Legal advice — we do not act as conveyancers or advise on title, tenure or contracts
Mortgage or insurance advice — we are not regulated by the FCA and give no recommendations

Figures and process steps come from the published UK datasets and standards listed on this page, not from professional practice. Pages are updated when source coverage, survey cost assumptions, or lender and legal requirements materially change. Dataset limitations are set out on the methodology page.

Spotted something out of date or wrong? Email hello@mypropertyscan.com and we will correct it and change the update date.

Sources used

We use UK public and specialist sources where they are available. Public datasets can be incomplete, delayed, or missing for some addresses. Treat them as a starting point, not as a replacement for professional advice.

Source standard: preference goes to official government datasets, statutory bodies, professional standards, and primary dataset publishers. We cite the source family on the page and explain coverage limits rather than filling gaps with unsupported estimates.

Professional standard: RICS Home Survey StandardRICS standard for condition-based residential surveys in the UK.
Learn more from: RICS consumer guide to surveysConsumer-facing guide to survey types and when each level is appropriate.
Official guidance: GOV.UK buying or selling your homeGovernment overview of the home buying and selling process.