How to go about getting buildings insurance on a house being purchased.

A_Lert

I'm supporting a family member through their first house purchase, which is being paid for outright (no mortgage).

The information I have is she should have buildings insurance in place when contracts are exchanged, but I'm feeling clueless about the process of doing this. We don't yet know the date for exchange. Do we need to know this before getting quotes? What happens if the exchange is delayed? Is there anything else I need to be aware of that would differ from getting a "regular" quote for insuring a house I already own?

I've had a Google and didn't find much useful.

user1977

She can shop around in advance without needing an exact date. Her solicitor will tell her when exchange is going to happen, she doesn't need much advance notice to put the policy in place.

Tojo33

I exchanged a week ago.  I went on to comparison sites a few weeks before using a guestimated date to get quotes.  Once my solicitor told me when we going to exchange I bought my chosen policy.

Leave purchasing the policy until you are as sure as can be that exchange is definitely going to happen.

TheJP

Google, insurance comparison, buy insurance. Complete

youth_leader

I got caught out by accepting the very cheapest quote from a comparison site.  When I had to claim I realised they were very cheap for a reason.  

If you do use a comparison website and have a few choices of company to insure with, I would recommend looking at their 'one star' reviews on Trustpilot - normally from people having difficulty with claims. 

[Deleted User]

Agree, cheapest is cheap for a reason and it'll be very noticeable when/if you needed to make a claim (same with car insurance). 
Study the comparison sites in depth @A_Lert

BobT36

youth_leader said:

I got caught out by accepting the very cheapest quote from a comparison site.  When I had to claim I realised they were very cheap for a reason.  

If you do use a comparison website and have a few choices of company to insure with, I would recommend looking at their 'one star' reviews on Trustpilot - normally from people having difficulty with claims. 

Indeed, never go 'very' cheapest. Usually the third or 4th cheapest is ok. Same with energy and everything else, there will be a massive difference in reviews between the third / 4th and the absolute cheapest. Usually the absolute one is a small no-name company that purely gets by with ripping off others. 

A_Lert

Thanks all. Sounds like I was overthinking it a bit then.

dimbo61

Make sure you don't under insure the property ?
Are you getting a survey ?
What does it say about rebuilding costs ?
Consider NFU  insurance 

AlexMac

When I last bought, my lender, the Nationwide, offered cover from exchange to completion if I insured with 'em.  So I did, for the 1st year; then bailed out back to AVIVA. Cos although Nationwide have been a fantastic lender over my 30+ years with them (great rates, flexibility, porting and latterly, lifetime loans that aren't rip off Equity Release deals), AVIVA have been an equally fantastic insurer