Taking on a buildings insurance policy when buying a new home

Mrs_RC

Hi All

We are currently in the process of buying a new house. Our parents had said that we might look into taking on the current owners buildings insurance policy as they have held their policy for 40 years. Their current provider say this is not possible as new owners = new policy.

Has anyone come across this before as our solicitor thought we would be able to transfer the policy across so we were taken aback when we were told we couldn't.

Thanks!

Alison

Sally_A

Agree - new owners, new contract.

However, if you are deemed to be in a flood area, and the previous owners have insured the property without loss (or other similar history that looks risky, built on landfill, over mines etc etc) - they may be prepared to give better cover, as they have a continuous record of the property.

FlameCloud

The property is only the subject matter of the insurance- other things like your parents, their claims history etc will have a bearing on the cover and premium offered. As such a new contract should start.

Ian_W

In fact, I've never personally heard of passing buildings insurance from an old owner to a new one. What relevence does the fact they've held the policy for 40yrs have to you?

One thing your solicitor should have advised is that you have your own buildings insurance cover on the property from exchange of contracts, although you don't own the property until completion you are committed to buy it even if it suffers serious damage between the 2 events.

TEDDYRUKSPIN

As above, new owner - new insurance. No difference than any car insurance.

eg. if the previous had 40 years no claims on their car, they would not be able to transfer this policy to the new owner! Same for homes unfortunately.

Mrs_RC

Ian_W wrote: »

In fact, I've never personally heard of passing buildings insurance from an old owner to a new one. What relevence does the fact they've held the policy for 40yrs have to you?

One thing your solicitor should have advised is that you have your own buildings insurance cover on the property from exchange of contracts, although you don't own the property until completion you are committed to buy it even if it suffers serious damage between the 2 events.

Many thanks all.

It was suggested to us as the house is an older property with evidence of some slight movement that came to light in the survey. Surveyors have told us this is nothing serious but parents who have had a problem with subsidence some years back thought we might look into a policy transfer. This way if we needed to claim the insurance couldn't get out of paying out.

However if this is no longer done then we will take outa new policy. We're aware we need cover from exchange so can start this process with our current provider.

Many thanks.

magpiecottage

It is usually possible to get an existing insurer to insure a new owner of the property.

Alternatively, there are specialist insurers and Legal & General apparently have no problems if there are no signs of movement in the last 15 years.