Buildings insurance when moving

[ChessieFL]

We’re moving at some point over the next couple of months and hopefully exchanging contracts soon. Our solicitor has said we need to get buildings insurance on the new house when we exchange. That’s fine.

However I’m getting confused about buildings insurance on our existing house. I assume we need to keep insuring it until we move out. However I also assume the new buyers have had the same advice about insuring it from exchange. That would mean our current house will be insured twice for the period between exchange and completion. If anything did happen to it, who would be liable and which insurance firm would pay out?

Or do we just have to insure our new house and stop insuring our current house as the new buyers will then be insuring it (even though we’ll still be here for a few weeks)?

We’re buying a new build so don’t have a definite date for it to be ready yet. We’re doing a part exchange with the developer, who has effectively already sold it on to someone else (subject to contracts). We’ll therefore be exchanging quite soon but it could be another month or more until our new house is ready and we can actually move.

You need buildings insurance on your new house when from when you exchange and you need buildings and contents insurance on the house you are selling until the day you move out.

Thanks both.

So if the contracts say that my current house is then the responsibility of the new buyers (even if I’m still living in it) why do I need to continue to insure it? I mean I will, because that seems to be the usual procedure, but just trying to get my head round it!

As I asked in my OP, if anything did happen to my current house after exchange but before completion, who would be responsible/whose insurance would have to pay out? Us or the buyers?

You need to insurance your current house as if something happen to it the day before you moved you would want your insurance company to pay out.

For an example, if there was a fire you would want your contents protected.

My understanding is that once exchanged you are responsible for the house you are buying so that's why building insurance is required.

Your right, your house will be insurance twice (by you and your new buyers) but you need to protect yourself and your assets.

Just talk to your insurance company they are very used to this and will make sure the correct cover is in place.

We were annoyed with our insurers about this process.

We had Buildings and Contents on our old property and Buildings insurance from the date of exchange on our new property. We were told that we could just amalgamate the two from completion. This did not happen; we had to cancel our old policy and add buildings to the new one.

They charged £40 to cancel the policy and £20 for the change. I queried this and was told that was their procedure, and that I had been incorrectly advised. I managed to get them to remove the £20 charge but only because it couldn't be done online (which was free apparently) because their website had a glitch on it.

That’s annoying CheltenhamLady.

I will need to shop around because my current insurance company has a rule that they will only insure a new property if there’s 14 days or less between exchange and completion, and as I’m buying a new build I can’t guarantee that. Looks like I will need to set up a separate buildings insurance policy on the new house (hopefully I can find a company that doesn’t have such a strict time limit!) and then cancel my existing policy and move the contents bit over when we complete. What a palava!