Saga won't transfer mum's policy into executors' names :(

Cubicsrube

Need to get new insurance for her flat until we can sell it. We have probate.

Getting new quotes - any recommended firms? And is there anything we need to specify other than that its a contents policy for an unattended property?

MyRealNameToo

Any tenants improvements or fixtures/fittings that you want insuring that the buildings insurance may not (assuming its in England/Wales and is leasehold)?

What's more important is understanding the terms of the policy. Some require action to be taken the longer the property is left unoccupied like either turning the water off and draining system or having the heating set to 10C constantly. Some can go more extreme and require windows/doors to be boarded which probably won't help the prospects of sales.

Ms_Chocaholic

We used Adrian Flux when we needed to insure an empty property. One of the conditions was that someone had to check the property weekly I think, so we paid our local dog walker and she sent us a text message each week to confirm she had done it and that the property was okay. It didn't cost much as it wasn't empty long but I went down this route as if there were any quibbles regarding a claim further down the line I had someone independent who had checked.

Are you sure it's contents insurance you need and not buildings?

eddddy

You say you want a contents insurance policy only - presumably because it's a leasehold flat and the building is insured by the freeholder.

Ideally, you should ask the freeholder for a copy of the buildings insurance policy to see what it says about vacant flats (e.g. whether you have to check them fortnightly, monthly, etc)

Failing to follow the building insurance policy conditions is often a breach of the lease. And if the insurance company rejects a claim because you breached the policy conditions, you might get sued for damages by the freeholder and/or other leaseholders.

Cubicsrube

thanks for the input everyone.

We have been keeping the heating on and my sister checks it weekly as those were “unattended” conditions of the saga policy, but saga have just told us that actually the policy expired as soon as we got probate, so it has been uninsured. That was a contents policy as the freeholder has the buildings policy, so I was assuming that is what i would need to replace with a new contents policy. Good advice to get a copy of the freeholder buildings insurance policy, thank you. Then we can get quotes for the specific coverage required.

Cubicsrube

I have a new complication: per the advice here, we requested a copy of the buildings policy held by the freeholder to ensure that we get a policy that works with it.

The managing agent just came back saying that he has spoken to their broker for “options moving forward” and the broker is quoting us over £200, unclear why, that coverage on the flat will be reduced, and that “unfortunately we will have to add this to your account”.

There are ‘unattended’ conditions in the building policy which we are already compliant with - heating on, weekly visits etc.

it just sounds like a totally opportunistic money grab - the managing agent knows mum died last year and has had a copy of the probate certificate for months so why would this just come up now? Is this common practice? If we do need to purchase some kind of extra cover can we shop for it elsewhere instead?

Tia for any further advice from those who know the insurance field. Greatly appreciate it.

Cubicsrube

To close the loop on this for future forumites searching similar issues:

I ended up speaking to the commercial broker myself, skipping the managing agent. I learned that as soon as the flat became unoccupied for 60 days, the coverage reduced and we needed to pay an admin fee for registering that change. This wasn't flagged or done at the time so we did that belatedly. Executors were offered the option of restoring full perils at a price, but that still came with the caveat of a £5000 deductible/excess for any claims arising from water egress from our flat. After a year with absolutely no issues, we took the calculated risk (i.e. not opting for full perils) since we were only a few weeks from contract exchange at that point.

Sod's law, there was a cistern leak within those few weeks. As it happened, the damage to the flat below was minor and wouldn't have reached anywhere near the 5 grand deductible so we would have had to pay it out of pocket either way — but it was a lesson learned. Could have been much worse and in retrospect this was a false economy.