Home Buyers Protection Insurance - how can I check if somebody offered £1000 more?

Halabala9

Hi Everyone,

FTB here. I instructed my solicitor on Friday, my Mortgage Advisor sent my application on Friday too. I would like to buy Home Buyers Protection Insurance but one of the bullet-points sounds difficult to check IMO.

• The property owner receives and accepts an offer which is at least £1,000 greater than the offer they have accepted from you

How can I check such offer? Every time when I was asking EA about the final property price (if it was like "Offers over") they were saying that they are not allowed to share such information.

If I am gazumped, then how can I check if it was more than £1000?

Regards

BarelySentientAI

You wait until the sold price appears on the records - although that isn't offer price it's the only one you will be able to get.

Halabala9

BarelySentientAI said:

You wait until the sold price appears on the records - although that isn't offer price it's the only one you will be able to get.

But that can take months probably, when my insurance will be valid for 180 days. If I am gazumped lets say 4th month into the transaction, then I would have only 2 months left to get the information on the price?

user1977

Mike997 said:

I would like to buy Home Buyers Protection Insurance 

Why? The cover they provide is pretty limited, as you've already figured out on this point. Not really worth the money.

RHemmings

I'm sure I've read of a number of sellers who accepted a higher offer than the one they had previously agreed to, some time down the line the new buyer then has a survey and reduces their offer, and the final sale price is less than the offer they rejected.

I'm sure I've read of people who've had an offer accepted, were told that they were outbid, and then later on found that the actual sale price was less than the bid that was rejected/gazumped. 

Halabala9

The only scenario I would like to be covered against is when the seller pulls out without any reason. When they just changed their mind. Is something like that covered too?

eddddy

Mike997 said:

The only scenario I would like to be covered against is when the seller pulls out without any reason. When they just changed their mind. Is something like that covered too?

You'd need to read the policy to find out what it says.

Taking a step back - do you know of anyone who has successfully claimed on this type of insurance? Or have you found any (credible) reviews by anyone who has successfully claimed?

I've asked on this forum a couple of times if anyone has successfully claimed - so far, nobody has mentioned that they have.

There are lots and lots of positive reviews that say things like "easy to buy", "easy to use website" - but I haven't seen any that mention successful claims. (I've seen a few that complain that their claim was refused.)

I also saw one review that mentioned that customers of one company were paid £5 to post a review - which might explain some of the 5 star reviews saying bland things like "easy to use website".

user1977

Mike997 said:

The only scenario I would like to be covered against is when the seller pulls out without any reason. When they just changed their mind. Is something like that covered too?

We don't know which policy you're looking at - you do, so presumably you have access to the risks it covers? But like I said, the ones I've seen are quite tightly-worded, so I'd expect them only to cover a minority of transactions which fall through.

(as an example, one policy claimed to cover adverse local search results, but it turned out that was only if the searches disclose a compulsory purchase - which is one of the least likely "problems" to arise in a search!)

Halabala9

eddddy said:

Mike997 said:

The only scenario I would like to be covered against is when the seller pulls out without any reason. When they just changed their mind. Is something like that covered too?

You'd need to read the policy to find out what it says.

Taking a step back - do you know of anyone who has successfully claimed on this type of insurance? Or have you found any (credible) reviews by anyone who has successfully claimed?

I've asked on this forum a couple of times if anyone has successfully claimed - so far, nobody has mentioned that they have.

There are lots and lots of positive reviews that say things like "easy to buy", "easy to use website" - but I haven't seen any that mention successful claims. (I've seen a few that complain that their claim was refused.)

I also saw one review that mentioned that customers of one company were paid £5 to post a review - which might explain some of the 5 star reviews saying bland things like "easy to use website".

You never know how much you can trust opinions on reddit but I have seen few where people were rejected (usually when it was due to survey and some difficult to proove stuff) and few where they actually got the money back when the seller pulled out (something like that is rather simple). At lease looking at reddit, it seems like 50/50 chance.

https://hoa.org.uk/advice/guides-for-homeowners/i-am-buying/homebuyer-protection-insurance/ - it is that policy BTW