House insurance after probate before sale?

rolysatch

Hi

Probate has been granted on my mum's estate. I notified the house insurers of the death and they kept the policy running. The policy has now expired, but because the land registry is still under my mums name and probate has been granted, they won't renew the policy.

I've looked online and there seems to be insurance policies for during probate, but in my case probate has been granted, but the house is still owned by my mum's estate (which i want it to remain for tax purposes when we sell).

Does anyone know what sort of home insurance policy I should be looking for and any suggestions of providers?

Thanks in advance

poppystar

Assuming the property is unoccupied you should look for insurance specifically for that. Each company will have its own specifications on your responsibilities - how frequently you will need to check the property, keeping the house warm etc etc. I chose a company that only required fortnightly inspections as that better suited my circumstances - some wanted checks every few days which would not have been easy. 

I went to a high street insurance broker rather than just choose a provider online. It probably cost a bit more but I felt it worth it.

Probate being granted should not be an issue but you should ensure they are aware of that and be guided by them in terms of whose name the insurance is in. 

rolysatch

Thanks Poppy for the advice, much appreciated!

BooJewels

I can reiterate what @poppystar said - I too went to a broker in the end, as the quotes I was getting were unacceptable in terms of the details of the endorsements - some were positively silly.  One wanted me to change the locks on the outer porch door for the front door as they weren't to the appropriate BS - which was totally pointless as the wood of the porch was so rotten and the doors so askew that you could get in by just leaning on the door - and the back porch was held closed with a bungee cord!  The inner doors were properly secure, but they were only interested in the outer doors and couldn't see reason.  So be prepared for some odd and frustrating conversations.  But the broker came up with a much more sensible and practical option.  It was quite expensive, but considering that this one was during lockdown, so visiting and clearing it weren't possible, it was worth it for peace of mind.

What you want is unoccupied property insurance - Probate and ownership never came up the twice I did it - just whether it was lived in or not.  With the second one I did last summer, the incumbent insurer would renew for six months and then only renew for a month at a time after that, but thankfully we sold and completed within 7 months.

You'll probably be asked to take measures like keeping the heating on, controlled by a thermostat and visit at a specified interval and keep a log of it and of everyone who enters etc.

Savvy_Sue

And third vote for a broker, and note that 'valuables' won't be covered (at least weren't for us). I did idly wonder to the broker what the point of the insurance was in that case, but of course I had cover for lightning strikes and the like. 

If there is still a lot of 'stuff' in the house, I can thoroughly recommend using a clearance company once you've done a trawl for anything you need or want to keep. The one we used did a partial clear, and left it 'staged' for selling purposes - we weren't sure how fast it would sell, and didn't want it to look empty, better to SEE how a double bed looks in a room than have to imagine it.  Then they did their final clear just before completion: they said it was either that week or not for six weeks, so I can't tell you how relieved I was when my solicitor phoned with a date two days after they'd called! 

BooJewels

A second vote for a professional house clearance.  The EA recommended someone to us and we used him for both properties - my sister has moved and is taking her time clearing her old flat and she'll get him in for that too, once she's sorted through everything. 

The first, larger house, was very full of stuff and he performed nothing short of a miracle and was worth every single penny - we'd have paid his fee for the garage alone.  My sister went to have a look after he'd finished and thought she was hallucinating - she stood there blinking in disbelief and sent me a photo and said "please tell me you can see what I'm seeing and I'm not dreaming".  I just wish we'd given in and called him in sooner.

SacredStephan

I recently used the broker Adrian Flux for an unoccupied property.

BooJewels

SacredStephan said:

I recently used the broker Adrian Flux for an unoccupied property.

They certainly do unoccupied property insurance - someone recommended them to me to try.  But they were the one with the silliness over BS locks on rotten doors that I mentioned.  I wasn't prepared to pay a locksmith to fit new locks in rotten wood, so they wouldn't insure me.  I went with Vasek Insurance, via the broker I used.

poppystar

Like @BooJewels I went with Vasek. I got the policy through APlan brokers. I notice the company at that address is now Howdens so either they bought out APlan or have simply moved into the same offices and employed the same staff. Check locally to see what brokers there are. 

These insurances are expensive but I got a good refund on the annual premium when I sold the property before the year was up.