Insuring from exchange when buying and selling

[polkadotpeppermint]

So when buying a house, you need buildings insurance from exchange. How does this work when we’re also selling, and we have one joint policy for buildings, contents and home emergencies?

Should we just get a new policy for the new property from exchange, and cancel the old one on the old property after completion so our contents are still covered until we move? How do people normally manage this?

Out of interest if you have separate policies, do you just change the buildings insurance to the new property from exchange as the old property is now covered by your buyers?

This was so much simpler last time we bought - we were FTBs and wanted to change insurer so we just bought a new joint policy from exchange and cancelled the old one after we moved. This time we want to stay with the same insurer.

Ring and talk to your insurers. See what they suggest.

We exchanged and completed on the same day, which was a different headache to navigate! But only had one set of insurance required.

Oh I will do! But I’d just like to know what others have done / what’s normal. We don’t know many people who’ve bought and sold recently.

We bought separate insurance for the new property on exchange, transferred across our existing policy once we were in and then cancelled the separate. There were fees but it worked well overall for us

When we last moved we were in a slightly different situation as we were moving from somewhere that had separate buildings and contents as it was a share of freehold flat to a house.

We ended up taking out a joint buildings and contents policy for the new place from exchange. And then cancelled the contents for our old place when we had completed (the buildings ran on separately - well, actually the new freeholders had to cancel and take out a new policy apparently, but this wasn't our issue).

We probably ended up paying a bit more for double cover, but it was only a couple of weeks and, tbh, I was so stressed with moving that I went down the easiest route as our broker sorted out the insurance for the new place.

My experience last year was that my insurers were very familiar with this requirement and offered buildings cover on my new place free of charge provided completion was within 30 days. I did need to contact them after completion to confirm that contents insurance was also required at the new address.
Much less complicated than I feared!

New building and new policy and then end the old policy once sale completed on old property.

Agree with all the above. Your current insurer will advise. In our case they advised we take a new policy for the new house, then transfer the old policy and cancel the new one under cooling off regulations

Thanks everyone! Some options mentioned here that I’d not thought of. Feel a bit better about the whole thing now!

My last 2 I ended up insuring with the vendors' existing insurance as the first had a subsidence claim ongoing and the second was in a flood zone. It was easier than ringing around. Changed providers later when I had a better idea of the risks and could explain it all better (and wasn't in the midst of stressful moving stuff!).

Goodness, I’m surprised you even bought the property in those circumstances

Haha, the first was subsidence in a detached garage that had crap foundations, the second (the house I've lived in for 14 years) my immediate neighbours all flood, I'm on higher ground, but we share a postcode/location so we all got lumped together.