Insuring from exchange of contracts

[wowfudge]

I know we need to insure our new house from exchange, but does that mean we need to insure the current one simultaneously too? Won't/shouldn't our buyers be insuring the buildings? I don't quite understand how it works. Our situation is complicated in my head by the fact that our current home insurance policy runs out a couple of days after the anticipated date of exchange - what might be a good deal for this house may not be the new one.

Hi Wow...yes you do need to run the 2 properties simultaneously (although possibly not if you are mortgage free). The current house must be insured to protect your mortgage provider and to make sure you can still pay for the new house that you have contracted to buy. The new house you need to be able to rebuild if something goes wrong as even if it falls into the ground you have promised to buy it.....

Talk to your insurance provider as they are often happy to insure the two properties together for the same price as long as there is not a prolonged period between exchange and completion. It is usually possible to insure for a limited period ie extend the cover for month rather than for the full year if you wish to shop around later...tho they may charge more than 1/12 of your current premium.

Personally I decided to just go with the same even though they were not absolutely the cheapest as I know I wouldn't get around to shopping around for a few months.....

good luck with the move

Thank you - for speed we said we'd take the mortgage company's insurance when we were signing everything last weekend. That's probably not very cost effective though and we've still got time to change our minds.

We've just moved and insured both properties. After moving, we cancelled the new policy we'd taken out, and because it was within 14 days and booked online, we had the money refunded so there was actually no cost to insuring the new place for the 10 days that we needed to do so.

couple of years since we did it, but since this idea came in the insurers are well used to two policies running on both houses for the period between exchange and completion.

No need to insure both places with the same company. I ran comparison quotes on the new place and chose the right one; the quotes are valid for 30 days or more so when you do exchange, all you do is phone up and the insurance starts. It is worth a chat with the insurer though to make sure they understand the circumstances; you may get a discount for the time until completion as the contents value is lower. This is because your only interest are carpets and curtains, the sellers are insuring their portable stuff.

as for your current place; speak to your insurers about a short extension and the cancellation charges. You may get some but with house buying, it gets lost in the noise.

Thanks for that - much appreciated

good luck with the move - it will all be over eventually!!

Thanks special this one has been dragging on. We have vowed not to move again for a very long time!