Title Indemnity Calculator
Compare a one-off title indemnity premium against the cost and delay of regularising a defect properly before completion.
💼 Are you a real estate agent or broker? Send this calculator to your buyers on your own branded listing page — every enquiry comes straight to your WhatsApp. Create free agent page →Legal enquiries frequently turn up a defect — missing approvals for past work, a right of way that was never formalised, a restrictive covenant nobody can trace. Indemnity insurance is the usual fix: a one-off premium covering financial loss if the defect ever causes a problem.
It is normally far cheaper and faster than regularising the defect properly. What it does not do is fix anything, and applying for retrospective approval often invalidates the policy, so the choice has to be made once.
The comparison
Regularising costs the professional and application fees plus the value of the delay, since the transaction cannot complete meanwhile. An indemnity policy is a single premium paid at completion with no delay at all. The saving is the difference.
Worked example
A 250 indemnity premium on a 400,000 property is 0.06% of value. Regularising the same defect properly costs 4,500 and delays completion by three months, which at 1,800 a month is another 5,400 — 9,900 in total. Insuring instead saves 9,650 and completes on time.
Do not contact the authority first
Indemnity policies are almost always void if the relevant authority or beneficiary has been approached about the defect, because that turns an unknown risk into a known one. Decide which route you are taking before anyone makes an enquiry.
Turn a calculation into an enquiry
Buyers who run these numbers are ready to talk. Give every listing its own page with your photo, phone and WhatsApp on it — leads land straight on your phone.
Create your free property pageFrequently asked questions
What does an indemnity policy actually cover?
Financial loss if the defect causes a problem — enforcement action, a claim by a beneficiary of a covenant, or a reduction in value. It does not fix the defect, and it does not make unauthorised work compliant.
Will a lender accept indemnity insurance?
Usually for common defects, and most conveyancers arrange them routinely. Some lenders require particular wording or cover levels, so check before assuming a policy resolves the enquiry.
Does the policy pass to a future buyer?
Most are written to cover successors in title and lenders, which is why they work — the next buyer inherits the cover. Confirm this specifically, because a policy covering only you creates a problem when you sell.