New house insurance may be invalid if selling your property!

knightstyle

Just to warn everyone that if your house is on the market when you renew your house insurance the insurance is invalid with some companies.
I found this by chance when getting a quote from Churchill.  They say I must go to a specialist broker but I cannot find where in the terms it mentions this!

eddddy

knightstyle said:

Just to warn everyone that if your house is on the market when you renew your house insurance the insurance is invalid with some companies.
I found this by chance when getting a quote from Churchill.  They say I must go to a specialist broker but I cannot find where in the terms it mentions this!

If they don't mention it in their policy, they can't apply that term - certainly not to existing policyholders. (They can't randomly introduce exclusions which policyholders don't know about.)

I guess it may be a condition of taking out a new policy, that the house mustn't be on the market at the time you take out a new policy - but even that sounds a bit unlikely.

It's not because the house you're selling is unoccupied - is it?

davidmcn

knightstyle said:

 I cannot find where in the terms it mentions this!

They don't need to mention it in their terms - if it's a question in their proposal form then they can decide not to offer you insurance (or to renew it) based on your answers. Not sure exactly where the additional risk comes into it but I expect they'll have good reasons.

Anyway, go to the comparison sites (as you ought to be doing anyway) to see what other insurers can offer.

Mutton_Geoff

I experienced this when my insurance policy ran out whilst the house was being marketed. Not all insurers will cover you on a new policy if the house is currently for sale.

knightstyle

I only found this out when using a comparison site and I asked Churchill if I would get credit towards a new policy if I sold my house and moved.  The house is the one we live in.  Their first reply was about buying a house and not moving in and did not answer my question at all.  I had to ask three times before I got the answer saying that if I take out a new policy while the house is on the market it is invalid.
I think something should be done to make people more aware of this.  Perhaps in the sticky???

sal_III

davidmcn said:

knightstyle said:

 I cannot find where in the terms it mentions this!

They don't need to mention it in their terms - if it's a question in their proposal form then they can decide not to offer you insurance (or to renew it) based on your answers. Not sure exactly where the additional risk comes into it but I expect they'll have good reasons.

Anyway, go to the comparison sites (as you ought to be doing anyway) to see what other insurers can offer.

I guess the additional risk is that you are very likely to cancel the policy shortly after taking it, so it's not worth their while to deal with you.