Inheriting furnished house, needing insurance.

Carpetcleaner

Hi,
If this has been posted elsewhere, please advise.
I am inheriting an empty furnished house and awaiting probate to come through ( approx 6 weeks.) I need insurance to cover contents and buildings for the forseeable future. I will be selling the house.
Could you please advise on the best way to do this? Is there anything I need to watch out for?
The house has been unoccupied since the death of my relative, and it will not be occupied again. I go to the house once a week to check on it.

JGB1955

The executor of the estate is responsible for insuring the property.  
Are  you the executor/administrator?  If so, at date of death you needed to contact the existing home insurance company, inform them of the death and see if they were willing to continue cover.  If not, you would have needed to take out specialist 'unoccupied house' insurance,  which will come with obligations to keep the heating at a certain temperature, (maybe) drain down the water supply, keep a record of physical checks etc etc.

Carpetcleaner

Hi. Yes, I am the executor. I informed the existing house insurance company immediately upon the death of my relative, and they extended the insurance cover by 90 days. That 90 day period is almost up, so I'm looking for new insurance.

xylophone

Hi. Yes, I am the executor. I informed the existing house insurance company immediately upon the death of my relative, and they extended the insurance cover by 90 days. That 90 day period is almost up, so I'm looking for new insurance.

Will the existing insurer not offer you a policy?

Otherwise https://www.homeprotect.co.uk/probate-insurance might be worth a look.

Carpetcleaner

Hi,
Thank you for the information.

Yes, the current insurer will offer us a policy, but I'm being MSE and want to shop around.

poppystar

Carpetcleaner said:

Hi,
Thank you for the information.

Yes, the current insurer will offer us a policy, but I'm being MSE and want to shop around.

Companies vary widely in cover offered and requirements from you. Also did you check that the current insurer is offering cover on the same basis as before? Some policies appear to exclude so much that short of an aircraft falling on it you wouldn’t be covered! I initially went with the previous insurer then changed to a specialist precisely because of this. I also went via a broker which is not something I would usually do for insurance but they were able to come up with several specialist policies to choose from. I decided on the basis of the requirements to go with one that required less frequent property checking but had other winter precautions that were compulsory. Another friend went with one that was less rigorous in some conditions but they are required to check the property three times a week. Reading the small print is key.

jasdog

You are inheriting a furnishied house and you are shopping around for unoccupied house insurance why just carry on with original insurer they have already given you 90 days.

getmore4less

We found that the main differences were quite a lot of new exclusions came in and some cover was dropped

No valuables cover,  accidental damage to contents and building was either removed or limited depending on insurer
some rules like heating on or water off. 

Excess went up for some sections..

If selling then get it dressed to sell and start that process with EA ASAP you want to be ready hit the advertise button when ready

You get 6 months from grant before the council tax kicks in.

Savvy_Sue

getmore4less said:

If selling then get it dressed to sell and start that process with EA ASAP you want to be ready hit the advertise button when ready

It is possibly worth getting it on with the EA before you have done much in terms of clearing and 'dressing': we sold a house pretty much completely uncleared on first viewing. 

Carpetcleaner

Thank you for all your replies.
I will be contacting a broker today to see what they can offer.