Buildings Insurance For Empty Property

jolfc5

Hi.
We are exchanging contracts this week and know we need buildings insurance in place for this.
The property we are purchasing will not be moved in to straight away, probably about two months as we need to paint and decorate and do a few bits to it.
Does anyone have any recommendations on who to use for this please.
TIA

tacpot12

I would either try a local insurance broker or consider using a standard policy. Usually they only require one day & night of occupation every 30 days, so you can save a lot of money by going camping in your new house the day after you complete on it and again 29 days later. (You would need to complete on the purchase within 30 days, but I would expect you to do so as a matter of course). As long as you occupy the house for 24 hours, you will probably meet the criteria for 98% of the retail home insurance policies available to you as retail customers.  Do  check the Ts&Cs carefully though. You don't want to make a mistake. 

Don't omit the Legal Expenses cover when you buy home insurance. So many legal prolems we see on MSE Forum can be addressed by this sort of insurance.  

Hoenir

Unoccupied house insurance is available. Two months to paint and decorate. Yet not live in permanently seems a very long time. 

theartfullodger

Agreed, "camp" there as required (occasionally) by insurance policy whilst work done.

Slinky

If you decide to go down the specialist route, we used Vasek.

jolfc5

Thanks for the suggestions and help

Bigphil1474

We used a company called Adrian Flux - policy was fine. Price was okay. Although it covered the property when empty for about 6 months, we were required to check the property regularly. Fortunately somebody local could go down twice a week.

As above, probably worth getting a normal policy and spending a weekend each month camping out there if possible.  Our insurer covered us on both houses for up to 28 days when we moved, so worth considering asking about that for between exchange and completion, then a new policy beyond that. 

GDB2222

theartfullodger said:

Agreed, "camp" there as required (occasionally) by insurance policy whilst work done.

Do read the policy carefully, to make sure that camping is sufficient for these purposes. 

I looked at insurance for a property that is empty quite a lot of the time, and ended up with a company called Home Protect.  They provide full cover, except for water damage from burst pipes during the winter months. That risk can be mitigated by turning off the main stop !!!!!! and draining down the system.