Selling an unlived-in property - insurance

[LindorDoubleChoc]

The sale on my mother's unlived-in property is progressing although contracts aren't exchanged yet.

Mum no longer lives there but most of her furniture and belongings are still there.

We have to insure the property right up until the day of completion, is that correct? (rather than exchange date)?

I'm assuming premiums go up because the house is empty. Would premiums be higher still if the furniture is still there? Can we insure it on a month by month basis?

Any advice much appreciated.

You don't have to insure the property at all. There are only a few insurances that are legal requirements but private property isn't one of them.

We have been here with an empty probate property.

I would recommend you DO insure it as should the worst happen (fire/flood/vandalism etc) you will be covered.
You can get insurance for any property and any set of circumstances but you need to speak to a broker and not go on comparison sites. It will probably be short(ish) term or have a policy that does give refunds (without charging a huge "admin" fee).

You can get specialist insurance for an unoccupied property, and I believe this can either cover buildings only, or include contents. If the furniture and other items are not valuable, or you plan on disposing of them, buildings only might be enough for your needs.

Note that a standard insurance policy generally won't cover properties that are empty for more than 3 months. I was in this position with my mother's property and the policy was cancelled as a result.

Thanks, yes, we do want to insure it!

Probably best you contact an insurance broker to discuss the options.
It's possible that the the estate agent doing the sale may be able to do weekly inspections for a fee, that might help.

You need special empty home insurance which is more expensive but I would say essential especially for the building, not necessarily the contents. You are likely to have to keep the heating on low unless the system is drained before winter.

Probate or empty property insurance is possible - some companies have 3, 6 or 9 month options

We are in a very similar situation, fingers crossed we will be exchanging contracts next week if the buyers conveyancing clerk gets her act together!

The house has been empty and we took out insurance. Initially it was with the existing insurance company at a slightly higher premium than when mum lived there and we had to make weekly visits to check on things. It’s a good job we did as one evening we were contacted by the neighbours to say there had been a fire in the house - caused by an electricity fault! We had left the power on as there were decorators working in it. The insurance company were brilliant and covered the full cost ( over £20,000) to repair the damage. We were however asked when we last visited and had to provide proof that no one was working in the house on the day the fire started, which was on a Sunday. We then rented out the house.

Then after mum died the tenants chose not to renew their lease so we decided to sell the house. It is in a very good area of Birmingham so has not taken long to sell but we still had to insure it, this time using the company who had provided Landlord insurance. Again the premiums went up slightly and we had to make weekly visits.

We will continue with this insurance until the house is finally sold, on the day of completion. Legally I’m not sure who is responsible for insurance once contracts are exchanged, us or the buyers, but we are not taking any chances after our earlier fire damage.

I don’t know what we would have done about the weekly visits had we not lived fairly near, possibly had to pay a property agency to do the visits?

Yes you can get insurance and yes, you should insure it until completion.

We goat empty house insurance for DP house. His previous insurance did cover a period of it sitting empty (90 days, perhaps?).
Think hard about contents cover - could you remove anything valuable or sentimental, then take a risk on the rest? Thats what we did to save some ££££.