Can I transfer my home insurance to the new owner?

Windsorcastle

This may well be a stupid question, BUT my buildings insurance has just been renewed and I am selling my house. I had an insurance claim last year for minor subsidence damage (no underpinning or structural work), so my premium has hardly gone up at all. If I pay my full year's premium upfront, would I be able to just transfer the policy to my buyer so that it will cover them for the rest of the year until they need to renew?

Do insurers allow this? Or will they just try to rip off the new owner now with a compeltely new policy?

ACG

The policy is underwritten for the person applying (age, claims history etc etc), im 99.9% sure it cant be transferred although someone with more experience in the B&C game should be able to give you a concrete answer.

InsideInsurance

Windsorcastle wrote: »

If I pay my full year's premium upfront, would I be able to just transfer the policy to my buyer so that it will cover them for the rest of the year until they need to renew?

Do insurers allow this? Or will they just try to rip off the new owner now with a compeltely new policy?

No, you would transfer it to your new property or cancel it, depending on which is economically better for you.

If you tell the buyer who your current insurers are then they can take out their own policy with them despite the prior subsidence issue. They can likewise cross compare costs with those providers who specialise in houses with movement history.

Windsorcastle

ACG wrote: »

The policy is underwritten for the person applying (age, claims history etc etc), im 99.9% sure it cant be transferred although someone with more experience in the B&C game should be able to give you a concrete answer.

Thanks ACG. I suspected as much, but thought it was worth asking people who might know better than me!

Windsorcastle

InsideInsurance wrote: »

No, you would transfer it to your new property or cancel it, depending on which is economically better for you.

If you tell the buyer who your current insurers are then they can take out their own policy with them despite the prior subsidence issue. They can likewise cross compare costs with those providers who specialise in houses with movement history.

Thanks InsideInsurance. Should I give them my policy number so that the insurer can cross-reference it when they phone them? As in the insurer already has all the property details on file and doesn't need to ask the buyer all those questions again.

I already tried one of those specialist providers posing as a buyer and gave them all the details and they came back with a quote of £850 per year!! For a 1 bed house. :eek:

Quentin

Windsorcastle wrote: »

Should I give them my policy number so that the insurer can cross-reference it when they phone them? As in the insurer already has all the property details on file and doesn't need to ask the buyer all those questions again......

You can do.

But the insurer will want the prospective policyholder to answer the questions again (for the benefit of the tape), to protect both themselves and the policyholder.

Windsorcastle

Quentin wrote: »

You can do.

But the insurer will want the prospective policyholder to answer the questions again (for the benefit of the tape), to protect both themselves and the policyholder.

Thanks Quentin. So does the buyer need to get all that info from me? I don't remember having to go through any of that when i stayed with the same insurers. I definitely didn't get any info from the vendors as they lived abroad and were quite elderly so I know they didn't provide the insurance info.

rs65

Windsorcastle wrote: »

So does the buyer need to get all that info from me?

What info?

Windsorcastle

rs65 wrote: »

What info?

Do they need me to tell them whether it's bricks and mortar, what type of flat roof it has etc etc? I don't want to be liable for giving them wrong information, and I never obtained that info from anyone else - my financial advisor at the time just told me he'd set up the insurance with the previous owner's insurer and I never even had to make direct contact with them!

rs65

Let them worry about their insurance. Their survey report will tell them a lot and they will know other bits.

Windsorcastle

rs65 wrote: »

Let them worry about their insurance. Their survey report will tell them a lot and they will know other bits.

OK thanks. They are just having a mortgage valuation so I'm not sure how much that info gives them. But I'll let them sort it out for themselves as you suggest.