House insurance - previous owner made a claim but unrelated to the house

James19791

I am just about to move into a new house (already exchanged) and am just arranging home insurance.  I was informed by 1 insurer that there was a flood claim at the property by the previous owner.  This would obviously increase premium minimun and mean that some insurers will not cover.  I have evidence (e-mails) from the current house owner that the claim was related to damage to their personal property that was with them while on hoilday (the sea flooded a caravan park) and so not related to the house at all.  They must have claimed it under their house insurance policy though possibly.

Now it seems extreemy unfair that i would be affected by this.  I have tried to contact the sellers insurer myself to ask them to change it so that it does not affect me but since i am not the policyholder they will not talk to me.  I have asked the seller to contact them to sort it but im not sure if they will do it/do it in time for completion.

Any advice welcome please.

DullGreyGuy

You should buy insurance before exchanging to incept at the time of exchanging, this problem would have then come up back when you had more leverage. 

CUE is a far from perfect solution and different firms update it to different standards which is somewhat dependent on any limitations on their own systems. For example if a vehicle was stolen and the thieves subsequently had a crash in the car we would have to change the claim type from Theft to Collision because the theft section of the claims couldn't deal with third parties, didnt have a load of relevant letters etc but that would mean the claim is reported to CUE as a Collision.


By the sounds of it the former owner made a claim on their Home insurance's Personal Possessions cover, the extension that covers your items away from your home. I've never seen the fields of a CUE Home Claims so dont know if PP should be separated from non-PP etc but having seen the reports from Motor Claims, its often that many fields are blank/incomplete and without doubt some the insurer would have had the data to populate them had they wanted to.

Do you know when the claim was? CUE only holds records for 6 years so hopefully it's a short term problem. You really need to speak to the seller of the insurance and explain the situation and ask what other evidence they may accept? Eg, did your solicitor ask about flood etc and you could share their formal response as part of the sales process? 

James19791

My solicitor told me I needed to get insurance following exchange but I can see your point about getting it done before that.  

The claim was made only in 2024 so if it's not sorted we have 5 more years of this! 

I am in contact with a potential insurer and trying to see exactly what they need in terms of evidence.  I've sent them emails I mentioned between the previous owner and their insurer.  I'll see if they will take into account the Property Information Form which states no flood too.  

I really feel I need to get the insurer that listed the claim to re list it properly.

Thanks.  

Grumpy_chap

James19791 said:

My solicitor told me I needed to get insurance following exchange 

The Solicitor was correct, but you may have misunderstood what was said.

You need to have insurance in place effective immediately from Exchange of Contracts as that is the point you become liable for the property, in so far as if there is a fire moments after Exchange, you still have to Complete and you are still liable for the costs of remedy.

If you have a quote for buildings insurance, you really need to get this in place with an immediate inception date to protect yourself against any events / claims that may arise before Completion.  Even if the premium is higher because of the flood damage issue occurring under the personal possessions part of the previous owner at a site away from the property.

DullGreyGuy

James19791 said:

My solicitor told me I needed to get insurance following exchange but I can see your point about getting it done before that.  

The claim was made only in 2024 so if it's not sorted we have 5 more years of this! 

I am in contact with a potential insurer and trying to see exactly what they need in terms of evidence.  I've sent them emails I mentioned between the previous owner and their insurer.  I'll see if they will take into account the Property Information Form which states no flood too.  

I really feel I need to get the insurer that listed the claim to re list it properly.

You need it at the point of exchange because after than you are bound to buy the property even if its just a smouldering pile of bricks and therefore you would typically arrange it before the exchange to incept on the day of exchange and just modify it if the exchange date changes. 

There is no "properly", different insurers fill it in differently and different insurers will interpret it differently. Below is the response from a SAR request by another member on here in relation to a motor claim...



As you can see they've not bothered completing a load of the fields and without doubt they will know the gender of their insured, the dob of the driver and what the status is on the Damage and Recovered. 

Unfortunately have never seen a SAR response to a Home Claim but it's very possible it has been completed "correctly" and it's just the system is setup for dealing with PP cover claims. 

The first time I dealt with HNW insurance I was surprised to see the Home Insurance gave cover for "Hole in One"... ie if you hit a hole in one in a proper game of golf and therefore are obliged to buy the whole clubhouse a round of drinks the insurer would reimburse you up to the first £1,000 of the bill with no excess. Out of curiosity I posed as a new customer for a DL quote and when asked if I had made a claim I declared a hole in one claim. They had no idea what to do with it and I doubt CUE has a way for it to be recorded correctly etc.