Insurance on unoccupied property.

patman99

My F-in-L recently died and we have the job of clearing his house in preperation for it's sale.


As the executor of the will is in prison and not due for release until June 2019, the solicitor has informed us that the sale will likely take a year.


My F-in-L never had insurance. We now wish to insure the house. Are there any insurers that will insure an un-occupied property?.

AdrianC

The executor can renounce the role, and let somebody else do it.


It's a lot harder (and more expensive) to remove somebody from acting as an executor, if they don't want to renounce the job voluntarily, but it is possible.

davidmcn

...and it's the executor who should be arranging the insurance. Or are you doing this on their behalf?

Owain_Moneysaver

Lots of insurers will insure an unoccupied property, but with exclusions and will usually require all utilities (especially water) disconnected, and weekly inspections of the property.

TBagpuss

Yes, there are. The solicitor should be able to suggest one. The executor may need to arrange for the property to be checked regularly and possibly for water to be turned off and tanks drained.

There is no reason why the executor being in prison should stop the process, they can instruct the solicitor to deal with the majority of the work and paperwork can be sent to the prison for signature. It may make it a little more expensive, for instance if someone has to visit the prison to arrange for the executor to swear the probate oath, for instance.

Alternatively, the executor could renounce and someone else can take on the role. Why is the solicitor suggesting it will delay things?

Clutterfree

You'll probably not be able to get contents insurance on an unoccupied house.
My dad was in hospital for almost 3 months and the insurance company said that after 60 days of it being unoccupied they would no longer insure the contents, only the building.
I can't recall if that was only for theft and criminal damage that he wasn't insured for.
It made no difference that I went twice a day to check on it and open and shut the curtains.

G_M

Persuade the Executor to renounce his role, then apply to be the Administrator.

Margot123

It would be quite simple to remove an executor who is serving a prison sentence of 6 months or more.
I don't understand why your solicitor hasn't advised how to do this.

You (or someone else) can then apply for letters of administration. It would be in the best interests of the estate to do this as soon as possible.

Back to your question............I found the only company willing to insure a Probate property was Towergate (there may be others). However, they would only do it in maximum of 6 month increments which proved very costly.

patman99

My spouse and I have a meeting with the solicitor Tuesday week.


We are gradually clearing the house of rubbish and selling anything sellable (we are keeping account of incomings and expenditure before anyone asks).


There will, however, be one room where there will be stuff. This stuff is my B-in-L's so cannot be desposed off. He is the one in jail. We are not worried about the distance of his release date as we have agrred that the house should not be sold until after his release as one of the terms of his release is that he has to remain in the Town he lives in, so having an address for him to temporarily live in solves that issue.


We will be asking lots of questions when at the solicitors, but wanted to get the place insured. We want to keep the house in good order so have set the central heating to 10 degrees C, so need to keep gas, water and power running.

Flugelhorn

mother's house was with SAGA and they carried on insuring it through the probate process and up until the sale. they required someone to check on it weekly (helpful neighbour did this)