Insurance on a empty house.

Angie200963

My mum should be going into a care home within the next two days on speaking to the solicitor I was advised to insure the house as an unoccupied dwelling, I have been calling round but a lot of the big companies don’t do it. I did find one firm Home Protect but came across a question I was not sure how to answer. I am not sure whose name to put I thought of putting mine but my mum owns the house and if a claim is made could they not pay out. Should I be filling it in as if she was doing it with all her details would appreciate any help.

csgohan4

Do you have a power of attorney?

Find a broker to see if they can find an insurer who can?

chanz4

very very expensive that's for sure, cheapest we could get was around £200

Nebulous2

Have you tried the current insurer?


I know someone who has recently been through this with a relative and their insurance gave them reduced cover for the first 12 months that the house was unoccupied.

Linton

Have you discussed selling the house with your mum? If you do manage to insure the house you may well find that the insurer requires a regular and frequent internal inspection - . Do you live near enough to make this practical? Also, empty houses are liable to deteriorate over time. So if Mum is never going back home, keeping the house does not seem the best idea.

OceanSound

Angie200963 wrote: »

.... I am not sure whose name to put I thought of putting mine but my mum owns the house and if a claim is made could they not pay out. Should I be filling it in as if she was doing it with all her details would appreciate any help.

You can put your mum's name on the policy but add your name as an additional policyholder.

The option will be available (even) when you use comparison sites like confused.com. With the later I've seen the question 'Will the property be left unoccupied for 30 days or more at a time?

If you select 'Yes', up pops another question:

What's the longest time it's left unoccupied?

'30 to 60 days' or '60 days or more'

I've been able to get quotes after selecting 60 days or more. HomeProtect was one of the companies that came up on confused.com site. Although, once I clicked through to the HomeProtect site there seems to be special endorsements under 'property security - lock security'. e.g. Any French doors must have bolts at the top and bottom of each leaf.

Our french doors only have bolts at top and bottom on one leaf. So, unless we make changes to the doors the policy is not suitable.