Empty Property Insurance Advice

toady

Hi

Daily lurker, infrequent poster, so please be gentle!

I own a property which I had to leave last year, as I have mobility issues following a spinal op, and can't get up the stairs to the property.

The property has been on sale for a year but to date only 3 viewers and no immediate prospect of sale.


I am not able to rent it out as it would play such havoc with my benefits that I would be out of pocket. Am also still undergoing treatment so really don't need the landlord hassle.

The buildings insurance on the empty property (which is visited every day by my daughter, who collects post/checks on each room) was supplied by the Halifax, who wrote to me today to say as the property has now been empty for a year they will no longer insure it. Checked my records of the conversation last year, nothing like this was mentioned, so rang them back and they have agreed to extend for a month to help me find another insurer.

They say no ordinary insurer will insure an empty property after a year, I will need to find a specialist insurer.

Does anyone have any info about such insurers, or where I would find them? Obviously if I can't get buildings insurance then this has implications for my mortgage too. Are they much more expensive than an ordinary insurer? it's a 2 bed tenement flat, and I am currently unable to work, so am paying all expenses out of benefits.

Sorry to go on a bit, but am quite upset by the whole thing. Any thoughts/advice would be welcome.

thank you.

InsideInsurance

A local broker will be able to help, alternatively there are a few specialist providers selling their own product like Towergate (not a recommendation).

Due to lack of competition their prices tend to be higher for the level of cover you are getting but not stupidly so.

You need to be careful to read and understand the terms properly. Some will require water systems to be drained down, letterboxes blocked, windows barred etc after a certain duration of being empty which may or may not be avoided by a daily visit

toady

Many thanks indeed for that suggestion. A friend's mother moved to a nursing home and Aviva covered her insurance whilst the property was empty, so I shall try them too. We don't have any brokers locally.

Thanks for your time.

InsideInsurance

toady wrote: »

We don't have any brokers locally.

They dont literally have to be local, by it I meant a traditional brokerage (not swintons) who will have access to the whole market of insurer and intermediary products -v- a broker like Budget or AA who almost act more like a direct insurer selling only on a non-advised basis a set list of products from a finite number of insurers.