Is it okay not to cancel home insurance when moving?

Yorkie006

Hi,
about to move house.
I've calculated that the refund due on my current home insurance is less that the cancellation fees. Is it okay not to tell the insurance company (auto renewal is off)? I'm the only person named on the policy so nobody else can make a claim anyway.
Already have new house covered under a different policy so don't need to transfer this one (going from contents only to building+contents).
Thank you!

400ixl

If the new person in the old home made a claim against their home policy for that property your insurer would be liable for 50% of the claim and you would be deemed to have made a claim.

So yes, someone else could make a claim which affects you even though you are the only named person on your policy.

You also likely have a term which requires you to cancel it. If they identify another policy on the same property and you haven't cancelled they could cancel the policy which you would have to declare that has happed in the future affecting future prices.

Risk is probably low, but it is still a risk.

New_in_the_fens

I was in a similar situation with my car insurance once. As the admin fee was greater than the refund, the insurer just called it quits. It seemed like a standard situation - have you phoned the insurer to check? 

user1977

400ixl said:

If the new person in the old home made a claim against their home policy for that property your insurer would be liable for 50% of the claim and you would be deemed to have made a claim.

Can you explain why, given the OP wouldn't be liable for the loss?

TELLIT01

user1977 said:

400ixl said:

If the new person in the old home made a claim against their home policy for that property your insurer would be liable for 50% of the claim and you would be deemed to have made a claim.

Can you explain why, given the OP wouldn't be liable for the loss?

Presumably because they have still have a live insurance policy on the property, insurers would be able to see that and only pay part, expecting the second policy to pay the rest. 

DullGreyGuy

400ixl said:

If the new person in the old home made a claim against their home policy for that property your insurer would be liable for 50% of the claim and you would be deemed to have made a claim.

So yes, someone else could make a claim which affects you even though you are the only named person on your policy.

You also likely have a term which requires you to cancel it. If they identify another policy on the same property and you haven't cancelled they could cancel the policy which you would have to declare that has happed in the future affecting future prices.

Risk is probably low, but it is still a risk.

They wouldn't be liable on two grounds:

1) The building would fail to meet the definition of "Your Home" given the OP no longer lived there nor had any financial interest; and

2) The OP's insurance would be void for an intentional non-disclosure under CIDRA for having not informed their insurers that they'd sold the property

In Motor insurance there is the risk of letting insurance run because of the RTA and MIB agreements but there are no equivalents for Home. That said, the long term consequences of 2 is probably worse than if they did have to payout half the claim

TELLIT01

I would call the insurer of the old property once I moved out and tell them I no longer live there and let them make the decision.  I certainly wouldn't say I wanted to cancel for the reasons the OP outlined.