Insuring inherited family home

BooJewels

That was one of the endorsements I preferred when I made my choice @Daniel54 - that I could stay overnight, with the insurer I used, but not with others.  I'm one of those people that cannot get away with anything - so we declared everything - to council, utilities, even bought a TV licence.  We too had to visit weekly and keep a log of all visits. 

Daniel54

BooJewels said:

That was one of the endorsements I preferred when I made my choice @Daniel54 - that I could stay overnight, with the insurer I used, but not with others.  I'm one of those people that cannot get away with anything - so we declared everything - to council, utilities, even bought a TV licence.  We too had to visit weekly and keep a log of all visits. 

It's horses for courses,is it not ? that restriction was of no concern in my circumstances and although I am not required to log visits,I am safe in the knowledge that the subjectivity s being complied with and could be proven

Likewise I have advised all utilities etc that the property is unoccupied and will be until sold post probate

I also changed the policy from a fixed sum insured to unlimited rebuilding costs .Just wanted to take underinsurance and average out of any possible claim

So I was possibly ultra cautious in the policy I chose, but feel secure that in the event the policy is called upon to pay, then the claim will be valid and settled

My co-executors have agreed with me on this and I can sleep easy at night !

poppystar

Like @BooJewels I used Vasek because their conditions were more suitable to what I needed but the premiums were very high compared to the usual house policy - I guess it reflects the increased risks when not regularly occupied. It gave me peace of mind though and in the end I got a refund as the house was sold before the year was over. 

Savvy_Sue

I'd support the idea of using a broker for anything like this, outside the ordinary business of home insurance 

shiraz99

Daniel54 said:

You don't say if probate has been granted or not.It sounds as if ownership lies with the executors 

If the actual situation is that you are acting as an executor of the estate, then that is what you need to declare to the insurer.

Are you spending 8-10 nights a month there ,or just visiting?

I have just taken out a policy as executor and one of the conditions is that no-one stays overnight, although I had to to confirm it is visited at least once a week.

Like BooJewels, my main focus was that the policy fitted the situation and that the terms were as wide as I required

Which is maybe why I paid roughly the same as BooJewels

Do be careful about making potentially false or inaccurate statements that could come back to bite you should you ever need to make a claim.

Probate has been granted however we're yet to decide on what we want to do with the house. I am staying overnight when I visit, I'm usually there for 3 or 4 days at a time.

I explained all the this to Adrian Flux when I rang them yesterday and so they were happy to put this forward under my own name and as a holiday home/second residence, however the best they could do was around £450.

poppystar

This still sounds incredibly cheap for a house that is not occupied all the time. I would agree with the advice above to speak to a broker. I did this after getting some quotes online, mainly because I hadn’t heard of most of the companies offering this type of insurance. The brokers had much more experience of this area of insurance and also of dealing with/claiming from these companies too. 

I was offered cover from the previous insurers which would have been cheaper but reading the details and conditions it appeared they’d pretty much only pay out if it was hit by a civilian plane, the list of excluded events was so comprehensive.

BooJewels

I'd agree with @poppystar - £450 sounds very cheap to me (I pay a lot more than that for my own, fully occupied home) - so please do check the endorsements and policy docs before committing.   The details are more important than the price - no point saving money up front if the policy won't pay out if a winter storm takes the roof off or a water pipe bursts - and check what they expect you to do, like having alarms maintained or keeping the heating on etc.

I too went through a broker, as I was finding the endorsements with quoted policies didn't meet our needs, hence I ended up with the policy that I did, as I'd never heard of them before.  I was swayed by the fact that the lady herself had a policy with them for her late mothers property, so was happy to personally recommend them.  She'd said they'd been very good with the couple of claims she'd handled for clients.