Insuring an unoccupied property after death of owner

JAP01

Hi, does anyone have any experience of insuring an unoccupied property while waiting for probate and then for sale process please? Previous insurers of the deceased, Age UK, have excluded so many elements of cover that it has rendered the policy useless, ie the important things to me now are cover from malicious damage, squatters, escape of water, not so much the contents but also things like a tile being blown off the house and damaging someone else's property etc. The house is visited at least once a week for inspection, if not more, but is not occupied at all. Thanks in anticipation!

Mojisola

My Dad's house was insured by Saga and they had no trouble covering the empty house while it was up for sale.

SevenOfNine

Legal & General continued to insure our son's home, they put only a few exclusions in place, no cover for valuables springs to mind, but nothing of a crucial nature. Though we did have to change the name on the policy to Executor of xxx.

We kept the heating on low set at about 14 degrees I think, (it was all during last winter), timers on a couple of strategically placed lamps, & checked the property regularly.

Sevennotemode

I would turn off all the utilities - gas.elec,water.

Clear the house of anything of value.

Put a light on a time delay.

Get a neighbour to keep an eye on the property and to clear the post from the doorway / letterbox.

Get the cheapest buildings only insurance policy which will ask the question "will the property be left vacant for more than 30 days per month?" Say no to this question and get somebody to stay for one night per month to get around that one.

I did this and there was no issues but I never did stay for one night per month but how can they prove or disprove that you didn't actually stay there for one night.

Good luck

TW1234

Fortunately nor did you need to make a claim.
It is never adviseable to give false information on an insurance contract.

JAP01

Thnx. Tried SAGA but unable to cover as I have not yet been granted probate.

JAP01

Thnx. Called L&G but was told they no longer cover unoccupied properties

JAP01

Called British Institute of Brokers on 0370 950 1790 who put me in touch with Complete Cover Group who are brokers who deal with specialized cover. Helpful guy Leslie got me two quotes, a high premium with excess of £500 or a lower premium with a very high excess. We went for the low premium and that policy gave us total cover for everything we were concerned with and we guess that should the worse happen it is going to cost a lot anyway, but we might just get lucky, nothing happens and the premium is reasonable. The company we are now insured with is Modus. Fingers crossed! Appreciate contributors help.

st999

Put a light on a time delay.

Bit difficult

I would turn off all the utilities - gas.elec,water.

Mojisola

JAP01 wrote: »

Thnx. Tried SAGA but unable to cover as I have not yet been granted probate.

I didn't have probate either - maybe they did it because he had been a customer before he died.

SevenOfNine

Mojisola wrote: »

I didn't have probate either - maybe they did it because he had been a customer before he died.

Same here.