Buildings insurance on or before exchange?

dreyfuss

So we're hopefully only days away from exchange. We haven't got a definite date for exchange/completion but am trying to get everything done so there is no delay from our side. Question is, and this has caused arguments between me and OH, do I arrange buildings insurance before exchange as solicitor/lender needs proof or for/on day of exchange.

I'm worried about insuring before as house not ours and it could all fall through (already happened to us at this stage before), however don't want to hold up anything.

What to do?

kingstreet

Apply with 'TBA' as commencement date.

Get summary of cover/letter of intention and pass to solicitor so they can check it's compliant.

When notified of exchange of contracts, put cover in force as you now have an insurable interest

sevenhills

I got my house insurance a few weeks ago, hopefully completing next week.

Rambosmum

When we had a 'plan' for exchange I bought insurance to start on that day - about 3 days in advance. The documents were emailed to me that day and I forwarded them on to the solicitor.

I figured if I didn't exchange, I'd use the 14 day cooling off period to cancel.

purpleparrotuk

Do you end up having 2 insurance policies at once then or is your own house the property of the new owners after exchange? What about the contents?

xylophone

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/what-you-need-to-know-about-contract-exchange-and-completion

Organise buildings insurance and make sure it’s valid from your exchange date. Find out more in our guide Protect yourself and your home

http://www.ehlsolicitors.co.uk/buildings-insurance-place-exchange-contracts-completion/

phill99

purpleparrotuk wrote: »

Do you end up having 2 insurance policies at once then or is your own house the property of the new owners after exchange? What about the contents?

I think that you are getting slightly confused.


The reason you have insurance from point of exchange on the house you are buying is that at that point you are duty bound to buy it. If the house burns to the ground between exchange and completion, you need insurance in place to make sure it is rebuilt. There is no onus on the vendor to have insurance in place, so it is easier for the purchaser to take responsibility for insurance at that date.


You may also have an insurance policy on the house you are selling as will the purchaser of that house.


Do not bring contents into it as they have nothing to do with the sale of the house.

dreyfuss

Irritatingly there's a holdup as vendor told us that the building regs certificate would be with us on Thursday but today said he still hasn't got it. So still have not got insurance as no idea when we're going to exchange

Husband getting fed up with chasing/nagging and getting increasingly fed up with me

verinov

Having just been through this recently, I agree with Rambosmum, who said :

When we had a 'plan' for exchange I bought insurance to start on that day - about 3 days in advance.

If I had to do it all over again with the benefit of hindsight, I would:
1. Get a range of online quotes and shortlist the three best possibilities
2. Ring each one and check they're happy to cover people in your position (i.e., who aren't yet the full owners of the home to be insured). Then tell them you will go away and think about it and come back to them in a day or two.
3. Do everything else necessary in the lead-up to exchanging contracts. Set an exchange date with your solicitor and ask them - specifically - to speak with the seller's solicitors and make sure they hold up their side of it and are committed to meeting that exchange date too. Emphasise that you need a firm exchange date in order to buy the home insurance.
4. When you have the exchange date, go ahead and buy insurance from your preferred insurer to commence on that date.

Also, here are my additional random thoughts; I hope they're helpful.
When you're shopping around for buildings insurance as a soon-to-be home owner, comparison sites are helpful at the outset to get a range of quotes, but make sure that before you actually buy the policy, you phone the insurer to talk everything through. I almost did something very stupid in this regard. When ready to exchange on our house purchase, I phoned our preferred insurer (based on the online quote) to buy the policy, only to be told we didn't meet two of their three requirements. So I had to call around at the last minute to find an alternative. It was fine in the end but it was stressful.
(In case anyone is curious, it was Policy Expert who told me no, and said they are a low-risk insurer meaning that they would only insure us from after the point of exchange – not before, and not even on the same day of. Moreover, they stipulated that they’ll only insure in cases where completion happens within 14 days of exchange. That ruled us out, since we were due to have a gap between exchange and completion longer than 14 days).

SandraX

Always before and contents as well if there are any in the property that you will be getting, EG non fixed items

ATB

Sanne

I looked around before exchange (check lender requirements; ours - Nationwide - wanted a lot of things covered that the cheaper policies exclude like riot) and then took out the insurance after I got the call from the solicitor to confirm we had exchanged. Emailed the documents across to my solicitor as proof straight after.