Exchange - confused about buildings insurance

[fullsteamahead5]

Hoping someone can advise and sorry if I sound stupid!

I'm buying my first house and will hopefully be exchanging in the next week or so, but I'm struggling to wrap my head around the logistics of it. I know the property will need to be insured from the day of exchange, not completion (please correct me if I'm wrong though)

I'm currently renting and have a multi cover policy with admiral for contents and car insurance. I won't be moving into the new house straight away (probably 3-4 weeks later) as it needs some work and I'm not sure how the insurance will work. Do I just set up a separate policy with admiral for buildings insurance on the new house? Does it matter if I have 2 different policies with different addresses on? If not, presumably I can merge the policies under the new address once I've moved in?

First time buyer and nobody tells you about anything of this, so any advice will be appreciated. Thanks!

Separate policies for each house during the interim, and just cancel the old policy when no longer required. That's what I did, anyway! It's an expensive business, they usually have an 'admin fee' for cancelling before the end of the term, but hey ho. The other way to do it is look at the cooling off period for the new policy, cancel that within the date for no charge, and then amend your old policy to the new address. Not always possible with timings and terms of the old policy, but worth looking into.

You need separate policies short term then terminate existing when you move. If you ring they will have a process to cope with moving.