Home insurance prior to exchange?!?

Gibbsey

I am in the process of purchasing my first home. I have received the draft contract and supporting papers which I am required to sign and return to my solicitor. Part of the supporting documentation requested by my solicitor is a copy of the building insurance schedule. As the contracts have not yet been exchanged I do not have a completion date and therefore do not know when to start the policy from.

I have been on the hunt for the best home insurance deal both online and locally. Without an inception date for the policy, all insurers are unwilling or unable to provide me with a full building insurance schedule.

Written within the pack sent to me by my solicitor is this:

' Please provide us with a copy of your new buildings insurance schedule as I cannot exchange contracts or, if you are re-mortgaging, complete without this document. The insurance schedule must reflect the reinstatement value contained in the your valuation report. Please ensure that ***** (Mortgage Lender) is quoted on the policy, as if not, this may delay release of funds. '

I fully appreciated the importance of and obligation to have a minimum of building insurance cover. However, I am struggling to find an insurer who will provide me with the required insurance schedule without an accurate inception date and release of funds by me. Most are willing to provide a general quote but none that shows the full schedule, address and lender.
:huh::huh::huh:

Please advise.

Tony_R

I am also in the process of buying (as a FTB). You need insurance from the exchange date. I haven't yet got an exchange date but it is very close. Two weeks ago I got an insurance quote and agreement to give me the insurance from Bank of Scotland. Once I get an exchange date, I need to call them to give them the date so they can supply me with the relevant documents for exchange.

sharon1982

Hi - I was also slightly confused by this! Tony, does that mean you have paid for it already? I have got some quotes online and am likely to be exchanging early next week (I hope!) - so not sure what I should be doing next - ie taking out the quote as soon as I get the date (which may only be 2 days before we exchange) or call up the insurance company now and explain that I have an online quote but don't know the exchange date yet...

Welsh_Totster

When we recently moved I went into my bank asked them for a quote which they gave me there and then and as it was a good one, i promptly set the insurance up, this was about a week before we were meant to be exchanging. What actually happened was we exchanged ansd completed 2 months later so I paid insurance on a house i didnt own for those two months in readiness for exchange. It is possible to get insurance without an exchange date.

However the insurance docs were sent to the new address and I had to ask the vendors to send them onto me before I could get them to our solicitors.

Tony_R

sharon1982 wrote: »

Hi - I was also slightly confused by this! Tony, does that mean you have paid for it already? I have got some quotes online and am likely to be exchanging early next week (I hope!) - so not sure what I should be doing next - ie taking out the quote as soon as I get the date (which may only be 2 days before we exchange) or call up the insurance company now and explain that I have an online quote but don't know the exchange date yet...

No I haven't paid yet. They've told me what the monthly premium will be. Once I get an exchange date, I tell them and they will immediately send me what is needed.

delmar39

You need to push your solicitor for an exchange date and completion date. Although things might change, you can give your insurance company some rough dates and get them to provide the policy on this basis. You will have to accept a quote, although it will take some time for the first payment to go out so you have some time. We took a policy out, so were running two together and although it was delayed by a few days, all was ok in the end. Sort a policy (cheapest and best) and get it to your solicitor so they're ready to go - you can put more pressure on when you've done what they've asked. Take their advice of declaring your mortgage company as an interested party - we didn't at first and it delayed things slightly (it'll form part of your mortgage offer to do this).

livalicious

Im trying to sort out the same thing at the moment. We were expecting to exchange on the 14th, we didnt get a definite date from the solicitor but I thought to get the home insurance sorted just incase. So i done it all online Sunday night with the start date for the 14th.

We didnt exchange, they now saying possibly the 22nd. So Ive been calling the insurers since Monday to change the start date to and put our lender on the policy. But each time I get told I have to wait till the data is converted from the web to their systems. I have to ring back tomorrow again to see if its been done yet. So in order to avoid having the same problem id suggest getting the policy sorted well before exchange, in case something like this happens too! I have paid upfront but have 14 days in which to cancel, so if exchange doesnt happen on that day i will just cancel it and do it again once i have another date for exchange.

Gibbsey

It only take a matter of minutes to take out an insurance policy and I don't expect any issues when that time comes. In fairness to my solicitor she has been very good so far. I can't push for an exchange or completion date as she hasn't got my signed documents in her possesion as yet as I've only just sent them this afternoon!

Not all insurers give you the option of declaring the lender. I also prefer to pay the annual premium due to the high interest with many insurers monthly installments.

It is amazing the difference policies in terms of both price and cover.

I really don't see the point of insuring the property before I actually own it. I don't think this is technically allowed. It's also a complete waste of money.

Once a completition date is agreed. If any party does not meet it then they are liable to penalties. I don't see why it is imperitive to have a full policy schedule prior to having a completion date and don't know how to get around it. I have spoken to the Solicitor who seems to think this is normal. Every insurer I have spoken to so far tend to disagree.