Buildings & contents insurance when?

stinkypluff

I'm buying my 1st house and I wondered when I need buildings and contents insurance to commence -

Do I need it from exchange of contracts?
OR
From completion date?

Thanks for reading )

stinkypluff

Forgot to say that exchange should be next week and completion date is 27th april.

G_M

Ask your solicitor. Contracts can vary between buyer/seller as to who takes on the risk between Exchange and Completion, but general advice is to insure the building from Exchange. After all, you are committed to buying from that point.

Contents - well, if you have no contents in the building, you don't need to insure them!

Having said that, it's easier (and often cheaper) to set up both buildings/contents insurance at the same time, and for the sake of an extra 2 weeks contents, well, the cost isn't worth worrying about.

sirmosh

Kitchen units and the such are contents are they not? Surely you need to insure these as if the house burnt down you'd then need to fork out for a kitchen, bathroom etc yourself?

Yorkie1

As G_M says, it depends on which edition of the Law Soc contract is being used. One edition transfers the risk from the seller to the buyer at exchange - the other edition does not.

But I agree, best to have the insurance in force from exchange to be on the safe side.

G_M

sirmosh wrote: »

Kitchen units and the such are contents are they not? Surely you need to insure these as if the house burnt down you'd then need to fork out for a kitchen, bathroom etc yourself?

In determining what is covered under buildings insurance, and what is contents, the general rule of thumb is.... imagine you turn the property upside down. Anything that falls off is contents, anything that stays put is buildings.

So kitchen units that are 'ftted' ie screwed to the floor/wall etc would be covered under the buildings insurance. A free-standing cooker, however, would come under the contents insurance.