Building insurance on unoccupied house

deefadog

Hi, I have not got my deatils with my on my late mums house, so i cannot phone them and wanted to ask a question.

1) I have cancelled the contents insurance as the house is empty, good move?

2) i have just carried on the building insurance that was already on the house, i'll change this soon to get it cheaper, but on a standard buliding insurance policy are there any clauses that exclude claims if the house has been unoccupied for a period of time? if so are there insurance policies that would cover this

Many thanks

Astaroth

You can get insurance for buildings unoccupied for extended periods but the price will be much more (effectively the "idea" is that if your home has roof damage in a storm you will notice it fairly quickly and get work done to prevent further damage. If no one is in the property though it may not be noticed for much longer (esp if you dont even live close so to even know there was a storm to have potentially caused damage) and so there will be much more subsequent damage and so higher claims costs)

If there is no contents then there is no contents to insure but remember that things like carpets count as contents

deefadog

Thanks! There are no carpets, it's an empty shell really,, bar the fitted kitchen (which is very old).

The house is soon to go on the market!

Are there any good building insurance comapanies i could try it's with Norwich Onion at the moment so i want to get out from them ASAP!

justmarried06

Hi just as a quick aside to it as well, at a lot of insurers when it come s to unoccupied premises whether residential or commercial they will require that all the services are turned off and water system drained down if the property has been empty for over a specified period of time. Some companies also request that they be boarded up but this does depend on who is providing the cover, with some they are satisfied if the letterbox is sealed. Empty properties are a massive target for malicious damage/arson attacks etc so they will want to make sure their interest is as protected as possible. Like Astaroth says, premium is likely to be much higher if its empty.

With regards price etc, it might be best to try one of the shopbots like https://www.confused.com or even a high street broker (I'm not sure how many quotes you'll get back through confused if the house is empty you see).

HTH

JM

deefadog

Only problem with confused is that i would have to choose landlored to get anywhere

I'll shop around, there must be policies for this typical situation, can't be that uncommon

Thanks

Astaroth

It isnt uncommon at all as holiday homes (not rented out) are in very similar situations - google for second home insurance or such

Having looked at our underwriting guide I see we only will routinely accept this when our PH has died and a relative asks for us to continue cover - we will not accept this situation at new business stage as standard. Even when we do accept it there are a number of additional criteria including an additional Excess to be paid and the property must be inspected by a responsible adult on a weekly basis

deefadog

Thanks, not sure what cover is on there at the moment, not sort thing you tend to think about when your put into that kind of situation! The property is visited at leats once a week, if not more and i don't live too far away!

I'll search uncle google and see what crops up, are there any particular leagal clauses i should look out for?

mattymoo

Main thing is the unoccupied property warranty referred to by justmarried06. The other thing that you need to check is the name of the policyholder. The usual practice is to put it in the name of "The executors of X X deceased" and ensure there is a second correspondance address so that all policy paperwork is sent to you and not the empty property.