Insure my late mums house

Dalglish

Hi,
My mother died nine months ago and her home cannot yet be sold or rented due to a will dispute. I have a lady who visits the house every week to inspect all is ok but the house insurance people are reluctant to renew the policy. They have requested a copy of the death certificate but I fear I may be left looking for a new policy.
How difficult will it be for myself, a co-executor, to obtain house insurance for a house that's not lived in?
Any advice welcomed thank you.

dacouch

When applying for Insurance, you would normally have the policy issued in the name of "The executors of the late Mrs X". This allows the executors to handle the Insurance and any claims.

Insurance for unoccupied properties is relatively expensive, excludes certain covers and has strict requirements for you to reduce the risk of claims.

I would suggest you start looking now, use a good local broker (Avoid Swintons).

It's very important you understand what you are and are not covered for and also that you follow to the letter the Insurers requirements to reduce the risk of claims.

I recommend that you have a note book by the door or taken home by the neighboor, where you record the date/time of each vist, who visited, any damage to the house and any actions taken

InsideInsurance

Also ensure that you understand all the terms of the policy, some vacant property policies require certain actions to be carried out (eg blocking up the letter box) after a certain length of time and a simple weekly visit by a neighbour may not be considered sufficient to remove this requirement.

System

InsideInsurance wrote: »

(eg blocking up the letter box)

That will tell passers by that the house is empty, and a prime target for vandalism or squatting. Better just to arrange for all mail to be forwarded.

InsideInsurance

Its not optional, with some unoccupied home policies it is a contractual requirement after X months hence saying to read the terms and conditions carefully! Esp if you dont want to do it

*Scarlett

It's not unheard of that the current insurer would want proof that the policy holder is deceased and that you have authority to act as regards to the insurance of the property. They may continue cover for you with restrictions.

If the current insurer cannot continue cover you could try

http://www.adrianflux.co.uk/unoccupied-homes/

http://www.homeprotect.co.uk/home-insurance/unoccupied-property-insurance.aspx

Most unoccupied properties will have restrictions on cover and will want you to comply with certain requirements - ie inspecting the property, water turned off, etc.

PasturesNew

We took a gamble, it was winter and the insurance policy wanted the gas/water to be switched off.... house was for sale so I wanted the heating to be kept on, plus I was over there 3-4x a week for post and odd jobs, so wanted the services.

We were lucky and got away with it (nothing happened).

blossomhill_2

Certain requirements I came up against when I was an executor included

Notifying local police that property was empty
Blocking up letterbox - I got them to agree that this would be counterproductive
Having random security lights coming on
Draining down boiler or keeping min 17 degress
Switching off gas and water at mains - I talked them out of this as needed
Twice weekly visit to house
Weekly external inspection of house

It was way more expensive on renewal than when it was just an alteration to the original policyholder's policy - I shopped around but there was not much leeway on empty properties
HTH