A little confused by conveyancer's wording

DarkMuppet

My fiancee and I are getting very close to buying our house in the next week or so, and we're hoping to sign papers with the solicitor on Friday. She's been away this last week due to illness so we've not been able to clarify exactly what she meant by the lines below on an email from last week ...


I refer to our telephone conversation today and to you coming to the office next Friday to sign the contract in readiness for exchange and completion, and accordingly attach a draft completion statement showing the balance due from you to enable me to proceed to exchange and ultimately complete your purchase.




You will also need to arrange to have your building insurance ready to put on risk on exchange of contracts and I would be grateful if you could bring with you next week a copy of the insurance proposal.


Does it mean we should have insurance in place (i.e bought and paid for) before we sign, or does she just want some written quotes from the companies we're going to go with ?
Now I've phoned around and used various comparison sites to get some quotes for home and contents insurance this week, but they say that the can't arrange anything until the house is actually ours.

My fiancee has sent the deposit, fees etc .. by BACS to the solicitor, so all monetary dealings should be ready for Friday.

James_N

DarkMuppet wrote: »

My fianc!e and I are getting very close to buying our house in the next week or so, and we're hoping to sign papers with the solicitor on Friday. She's been away this last week due to illness so we've not been able to clarify exactly what she meant by the lines below on an email from last week ...


I refer to our telephone conversation today and to you coming to the office next Friday to sign the contract in readiness for exchange and completion, and accordingly attach a draft completion statement showing the balance due from you to enable me to proceed to exchange and ultimately complete your purchase.




You will also need to arrange to have your building insurance ready to put on risk on exchange of contracts and I would be grateful if you could bring with you next week a copy of the insurance proposal.


Does it mean we should have insurance in place (i.e bought and paid for) before we sign, or does she just want some written quotes from the companies we're going to go with ?
Now I've phoned around and used various comparison sites to get some quotes for home and contents insurance this week, but they say that the can't arrange anything until the house is actually ours.

My fianc!e has sent the deposit, fees etc .. by BACS to the solicitor, so all monetary dealings should be ready for Friday.

This is what the conveyancer means:

Five minutes after the house becomes legally yours, an electrical fault that nobody can really assign blame to another person for causes a fire and the house burns down. Or an arsonist, seeing the house empty, torches it. But, you still have a mortgage and have spent thousands in savings. Who pays? You do. You carry on paying for a smoldering ruin, otherwise you default on your loan. But you have nothing to show for it and no-one to turn to. You are alone, broke, in debt, with no house.

This is why you need an insurance policy ON RISK from the day you legally take over the house. M&S gave me a good quote and did just this for me. Other companies should do the same. Getting cover a few days early is also possible. A few days LATE courts the situation above. Probably nothing will happen. but it just might.

Grimbal

You seem to have the monetary side sorted out, so that's good. Might be worth checking the funds have made it over there all ok though.

More & more people are choosing to insure their new property from exchange. It's at this point that you are committed to buy the house. The house might be burnt to the ground, but you still would have to proceed with the purchase. It could be argued that the vendor needs to hand over the property in the same state at completion as at exchange, but I guess it's always better to be over-insured than under ! For the sake of a few weeks worth of buildings insurance, it's worth it I think

angelaloveschocolate

I previously worked in a mortgage office for a building society, 15years ago, and even then it was standard practice to have buildings insurance from exchange of contracts. Indeed I clearly remember a client's house burning to the ground between exchange and completion. Thankfully she had taken ins with the society as part of her mortgage deal. Unless things have changed buildings insurance is compulsary from exchange, and even if its not would'nt you rather have it for the peace of mind?

DarkMuppet

Cheers for the replies everyone. I want to get the insurance in place as soon as possible, so that's why I've been phoning insurance companies to see if I could have it in place for when we sign for the house.

Just to get this straight then, am I right in thinking that the companies I've talked with have been incorrect in saying that they can't do anything until after we've signed then ? Grrr!

If that's the case, then I should find someone else that is willing to have a policy in place ready for the exchange ? (I'm assuming that as long as the money is all there, then the exchange could go ahead on Friday ?

Thanks again.

G_M

Just get quotes from insurers for the property for the expected date of Exchange. You can do this online or by phone. Most standard insurers have simple criteria for quotes so don't go into detail on ownership - as soon as you do, you become non-standard.

Take the quote + the draft policy document (you can usually download this from their website) to show your solicitor.

Most onliune quotes will be valid for 30 days. Select your preferred insurer, then on the day of Exchange, as soon as your solicitor says he's exchanged, ring or log on and activate the insurance.

flora48

I had no problem getting insurance from the date of exchange. It seems to be recommended practice for reasons listed above. You can sign a contract but exchange may be sometime away. I signed Aug 20th and exchange was Nov 4th.

Meatballs

Lots of the online ones have 'Looking to buy' and ask you who your mortgage company is - then their interest is noted.

It is normally a T&C on mortgage conditions that you have buildings insurance from exchange.

TheAA all went through in 20 mins filling in form and paying. Within an hour I had the pdf to email to solicitor as proof of insurance. Most online firms are similar.

F_T_Buyer

It's the mortgage company who demand the property is insured from exchange (for good reason), and you will need to show the solicitor the insurance policy before you exchange. You can quite easily buy it online and email the covering policy. When you get a quote an insurance company should know all about this.

DarkMuppet

Thanks again all, I've now organised a policy with an insurance company ready to start from when I call them up from at the solicitors office. I've printed out the quote number and PDF policy documents as recommended above to show to conveyancer .

Richard_Webster

I tell my clients to get it all ready - proposal forms completed manually or on line or over telephone so that as soon as exchange takes place the buyers can phone/go online and get the policy to start.

I am surprised the solicitor will be happy with a proposal rather than confirmation of actual cover.