Home insurance cover on risk between exhange of contracts and completion date

jordan88

Hi, Just a quick one in relation to home insurance between change of contracts and completion date. Contracts have been exchanged today for house purchase, I told our solicitor we had purchased home insurance starting on date of completion which is the 31st July. Then received a confirmation letter about contracts being exchanged and completion date confirmed for 31st, but it also says we must contact our insurer to put the cover on risk? Is this an necessity now contracts have been exchanged or if we just leave it is it just us taking the risk>? Thanks in advance

Aretnap

When you exchange contracts you are committing to buying the house - usually no matter what happens. So if the house burns down between now and completion it's your problem - you will still have to buy (what's left of) it for the agreed price. (APA t from the consequences this would have for you, your mortgage provider would not be very happy if this happened and you weren't insured) So yes it's pretty important that you insure it from the day of exchange - don't wait until completion date. Call the insurance company and get them to start it immediately.

(I believe there's an exception of you're buying a new build in which case the developer covers the risk until completion)