Homebuying: Insuring BUILDING until completion, then adding CONTENTS

tominghana

Hello

I just spent a long time getting quotes for Building & Contents insurance for a house we'll be exchanging on next week. We understand that you should have Building insurance from the date of Exchange.

We'll be completing early next week so I was happy to take the hit of paying for a week for useless Contents insurance to make the saving of buying them together, and save the hassle of having to go through the process again to add Contents insurance on moving day.

However, I just called the chosen provider, eSure, to check that it was OK to start a policy before the house actually belongs to us (some providers had an option to tick 'I don't own this property yet', but not this one). Long story short(ish), they told me I could only buy Buildings insurance before I fully own the property - and that to buy this alone was actually going to cost more (£379) than the Buildings & Contents combo I'd been quoted (£363).

* Has anyone come across this before?
* Any ideas on the best way to deal with it, or if other providers will allow you to bundle B&C before you take full possession of the property?
* Does it cost a lot to add Contents to a Buildings cover (or cancel if within a period), if I search again for a competitive Buildings-only insurance?
* Is it possible to get short-term Buildings cover, to allow me to get B&C on the day we complete at a competitive price?

Cheers

Tom

dacouch

Do you own a house already and if so is it insured?

How much contents cover are you looking at with Esure

WestonDave

Might be worth trying a broker for something like this - far easier to ask someone who knows and can get a good deal than having to go through each one individually, get a quote and then try to find out if they will take it. Even if the price is slightly higher than an online comparison site (which isn't a given) then its worth it to save the massive difference.

tominghana

Thanks for your help.

We don't own a house at the moment - living with my parents. So don't have any cover on anything at the moment. We're looking for £30,000 contents cover with eSure (and £300,000 rebuild cover - 4 bed house).

Any recommendations of a good insurance broker?


Thanks for your help,

Tom

dacouch

You need to keep an eye on your contents sum insured as if it's not already not enough it won't take long to become insufficient. The average home has circa £45k of contents.

Esure are very strict on contents sum insured and if you have a claim and don't have enough cover they frequently void policies.

http://www.biba.org.uk/CustomerHome.aspx

huckster

If a company really wanted your business, they would quote you for combined Buildings and Contents, then offer you Buildings only from x date and Contents from Y date, with them agreeing that the amount you paid would not be more that the combined annual premium quoted.

Sometimes, if you use the Insurers that your mortgage company uses, they will offer free Buildings Insurance from exchange and then arrange B&C from the completion date.

Use a broker or phone around for the best deal. I don't know whether any Internet sites allow you to put different start dates for Buildings and Contents. I think the AA sites used to do this.

kingstreet

One of the firms I use offers the following;-

- a monthly contract with no cancellation charges
- two months free cover
- £300k buildings and £40k contents cover with bedroom-rated premiums
- ability to start buildings insurance on exchange and contents on completion
- monthly premiums as standard (no credit agreement).

The bulk of the mortgage brokers in this country probably have access to these products so it should be easy to find help in your area.

Quentin

Sometimes it is cheaper to have separate policies (esp if you get cashback on both)!