Home insurance, where to start?

[youngadult109]

We are buying our first house and the mortgage offer states we need to get a building insurance. How should I go about in doing this? Friends have suggested comparethemarket and confused.com, how do I know what's the good/usual price? What shall we look out for?

Conveyancer also said they'll need to look at the draft before we go ahead as it needs to include the interest of our lender. Is it do-able/something straightforward?

Also, does it usually start on the day we exchange? If we don't know when it is, can we just put an estimated date for the contract to start?

Any other advice on this is welcomed! Many thanks in advance!

Have you got a mortgage advisor? I think our mortgage advisor sorted ours but am not certain.

Cal the company and explain. They probably have seen this situation a million times and have a way around the unknown start date.

We are insured with intasure and it's £16 a month for buildings and contents. This is much less than more than/standard companies and the mortgage lenders (Kensington) are happy with them.

Get the quote,
Usually valid for 30 dayS. It will ask when you get online quote if you would like to add an interested party - select yes. Then add the details of the company.
Nice and easy.
erm - we have a house in middlesbrough and pay £110 a year with more than for buildings and contents.
comprison sites are usually best bet - any questions just let me know - recent left working at axa home insurance so most questions have been asked :-)
And congratulations on the new home!!

Get quotes and let them know your situation. We had ours set up in principal and rang on the day to confirm completion but ours was through the NFU.

We have car insurance with direct line so we just rang them to set up home insurance as well. It's very easy & you can set up a date you think is likely so long as it is sooner or same as date of exchange.

look on moneysavingexpert for the sequence of getting best quotes; it isn't an interesting way to spend time but it could save you quite a lot of money. Don't under insure and think of all the things you own and all the risks you want covered. Spend some time playing with quotes. Do it yourself and save a lot of cash.

you can put in rough dates and the quotes will be held, then when you have exchange you simply call the company (IMMEDIATELY!) to start the insurance.

other people's costs are not relevant because it varies massively by area, building type, contents, what you do and dozens of other variables.

You won't get the best deals using comparison sites. Some of the main insurance companies don't use them and some quote higher prices than they do on their own website.

that's why you need to use the comparison sites and those of the companies not on them: Direct Line and Aviva are the two big ones.

you MAY get a good deal on a comparison site, you may not. You'll also see huge variations in quotes.

At the moment halifax are offering £50 cashback plus £50 off quidco.

I got buildings, contents, accidental damage & legal for £55 this year. I did a quote for mil (smaller house) and she'd be £4 in profit.

Check the small print.
I'd suggest you want accidental damage to sanitary ware / glass hob included as standard (not as part of accidental damage add on - speaking from experience when luckily I did!)
If you are planning on doing DIY, the accidental damage add on is probably worth having.
Check policy regarding loss from / damage to your garden, if applicable.
Check wording regarding 'release of water' e.g. from washing machine leak. That can be expensive.
Most of the really cheap ones will specify you need certain locks on ALL doors. If you don't have these, e.g. on back door, you won't be covered.

Thanks all for your advice. We've also just spoken to our solicitor and she said we can go ahead to purchase once we have a fixed exchange date.