Building insurance before completion

Troy_af

Good evening, all

I am just looking for a little advice on what the correct procedure is when setting up building’s insurance for a property purchase. I should hopefully be looking to complete within the next few weeks and one final thing to get in place in buildings insurance.

In the final title report my solicitor has said to ensure that the property is suitably insured and to send a copy of the policy to them, along with my mortgage valuation report. This is so that they can check that the insurance meets my lenders requirements. Now what I don’t understand is how I can send a policy if I haven’t yet taken out any insurance because I don’t have an exchange or completion date yet. I also don’t have a mortgage valuation report, which I am told should have been sent to me. I only have a mortgage offer.

I will contact my solicitor regarding this but I thought I would also just look for some further advice first, in case I am missing something obvious here?

Thanks for any help.

LondonLeigh

Just get some actionable quotes ready for the big day, then pull the trigger when you need to. There's lots of comparison sites and buildings insurance is dirt cheap.

pinkteapot

What I always do: 

1. Get quotes and decide which insurer to use, before exchange 
2. Ask solicitor to ring me as soon as exchange has happened
3. Then, as soon as possible (i.e. straight away if you can), buy the insurance and email the solicitor the confirmation/certificate/receipt

My solicitors have always been happy with this - I've told them what I'll be doing and which insurer I'll be using.

Your alternative is to take it out when you think you'll be exchanging and cancel under the 14-day cooling off period if exchange doesn't happen, but that's a faff.

You may need to speak to insurers rather than do it online, as you want buildings insurance from exchange and contents added on at completion. However, if exchange and completion are fairly close together then it barely saves any money so to save hassle you can just get buildings and contents from exchange. The contents cover just won't do anything till you move your stuff in. 

Either way, ring the insurer (making a note of the date and time you speak to them) and inform them that you're insuring a house you're buying from exchange and are moving in on X date. If you make sure they're aware then there can be no quibble from them later if there's a claim but you weren't living there at the time. 

Insurers are well used to all this - it happens all the time. The only problem we had once was when we had an unusually long exchange to completion period (nearly 2 months) and most insurers said no because their system was limited to max 28 days between exchange and completion. We had to go with a higher-end insurer who were more flexible, but switched to someone cheaper after our first year. 

MrCarrot

Not sure if you are an existing homeowner or a FTB?

In my instance my insurance company (LV) agreed to insure my existing house, and the new house, between exchange and completion.  They even gave me an £8 refund!

Oddly though, my solicitor never asked for confirmation of this or even mentioned it after exchange (I think they mentioned it in writing prior to exchange).

1616six

Re mortgage valuation, best to check with your broker if you used one - our valuation was in the same envelope as our offer but we were never asked for it, I was under the assumption the equivalent pack was sent to our solicitor as well. 

Re insurance, I actually work in the industry and although the company I work for specialise in the more specialist sector, it enabled me to be able to spend hours working out who gave the best bang for buck.. we ended up with Quote me happy (Aviva) on their Premier cover. Unlimited buildings and contents, loads of additional covers and bits that you didn’t get with basic plans came to £161. There were cheaper options out there but for the sake of paying £30-£40 more for the year, Quote me happy was the best overall - I may drop to a lower level next year but for the first year it’s peace of mind.

I saved the quote online then when our solicitor called to get authority to exchange, I jumped on and paid for it. Was very straight forward! 

user1977

Not very helpful request from your solicitor - it's commonplace for neither you nor them to get a copy of the lender's valuation report (and generally if the lender wants the solicitor to see it, it will come to them directly along with the rest of the instructions).

If your solicitor wants to approve whatever policy you'll be using, get the details of what the cover will be (without actually starting it) and send it to them.