Home insurance for occupied inherited property - have probate but not yet transferred into our names

greenspark

Hi all

My brother and I are the executors and only beneficiaries of our mum's estate. We managed to get the grant of probate without using a solicitor (straighforward as estates go but still feels like quite an achievement considering how quickly I glaze over when faced with big forms..).

I am living in my mum's house and will do so until we sell it - this should be within the next year or two. My mum's home insurers kept her existing policy in place until the renewal date of April 2020. We didn't have probate at that point and they weren't able to provide us with a new specialist 'pre-probate' policy so I took one out with another company in the name of 'Executor of [mum's name]'. That one is coming up for renewal and I'd like to shop around.

We have probate but have not yet transferred the property into our names via the Land Registry. I've started looking into this process and it's possible we'll get it done before the home insurance is due for renewal. However, if we haven't completed it by then, does anyone know whether I (or we) can take out a 'normal' home insurance policy as the homeowner(s), now that we have the grant of probate confirming us as both executors and the only beneficiaries? Or would we still need some kind of specialist executor's policy?

I will of course discuss and check with insurance companies before taking out any policy, but it would be good to know beforehand whether I can search for standard policies with mainstream companies or need to approach specialist insurers.

Thanks in advance.

davidmcn

Unless and until the executors transfer title to anybody else, then it's still the executors who are the owners and who should be insuring.

greenspark

Thanks for your reply, David. My brother and I are the executors and when we do 'transfer' the house we'll just be transferring it into our own names, so we'll remain the joint owners. My hope is that we can search for and take out a standard insurance policy as the owners regardless of whether we have completed the Land Registry process, rather than having to use a specialist insurer as I did before we had probate.

davidmcn

greenspark said:

Thanks for your reply, David. My brother and I are the executors and when we do 'transfer' the house we'll just be transferring it into our own names, so we'll remain the joint owners. My hope is that we can search for and take out a standard insurance policy as the owners regardless of whether we have completed the Land Registry process, rather than having to use a specialist insurer as I did before we had probate.

No, because it's currently owned by "The Estate of Mum"- you should be insuring as executors in her estate. Once you've transferred the house you can insure as individuals. The fact the executors are also the beneficiaries is a common coincidence, but not relevant.

greenspark

Thanks David, sounds like it's worth seeing if we can get the transfer done before taking out the new insurance to keep things as simple as possible. Appreciate your input.

tacpot12

I'm helping a friend in a similar situation, and have advised her not to leave the house uninsured for any longer than necessary as the impact of a fire or explosion at the property could leave her homeless. (Property has mains gas). The Land Registry transfer could take a few weeks, in which time anything might happen. I expect that if you will be able to change the name on the policy as soon as you have the title transferred. I would recommend getting it insured asap. 

You might need to go via an insurance broker to find the best insurer as most Executor policies assumed that the property is unoccupied. 

greenspark

Thanks tacpot, yes, wouldn't be good to be uninsured for any period.

The current insurance runs out early April so hopefully we might be able to get things transferred by then (though am coming across little obstacles like no record of the property on the Land Registry website so I think I need to complete an extra process to check if it's registered, a Search of Index Map, am still looking into that...).

If it gets close to the time and we haven't finalised the transfer I'll have a look at insurance brokers to see what they can offer.

davidmcn

greenspark said:

am coming across little obstacles like no record of the property on the Land Registry website so I think I need to complete an extra process to check if it's registered, a Search of Index Map, am still looking into that...).

Umm...how certain are you that she owned the property if you don't even know whether or not it's registered?

greenspark

On the Land Registry site it says that if no record is shown it doesn't necessarily mean it isn't registered, they list a few reasons why this might be the case like electronic records not being linked up. Pretty sure everything should be in order legally, my parents bought the place in the 70s and we have the title deeds (not sure these are something that is used these days but their name is on them from back then). But the search of the index map should hopefully confirm.

davidmcn

greenspark said:

On the Land Registry site it says that if no record is shown it doesn't necessarily mean it isn't registered, they list a few reasons why this might be the case like electronic records not being linked up. Pretty sure everything should be in order legally, my parents bought the place in the 70s and we have the title deeds (not sure these are something that is used these days but their name is on them from back then). But the search of the index map should hopefully confirm.

Ok, but this is the sort of thing you ought to be checking before applying for probate. Having a pile of old deeds doesn't necessarily mean they still owned the property.

But assuming you are confident about the status of the property, you can complete the transfer to yourselves before you do the Land Registry bit - in the same way that in a normal purchase, you own the property from the day of completion, not whenever your solicitor gets around to registering it.

TELLIT01

Nothing showing on the Land Registry doesn't mean it isn't registered.  My mother's house (purchased in 1966) was only added to Land Registry records when it was sold in 2007.  We had confirmation that it had been added to their records but even now it doesn't appear on any searches.