Need advice on unoccupied home insurance

[YourGreyBiscuit]

I am based in England and hoping to understand my legal position regarding an insurance claim.

I purchased a property and exchanged contracts before completion. As is standard in many purchases, my solicitor advised that the risk passed to me on exchange, so I arranged unoccupied buildings insurance from the date of exchange.

Unfortunately, a water leak occurred between exchange and completion while the property was still vacant. I reported the claim to the insurer shortly after discovering the damage and a loss adjuster was appointed. The claim has been ongoing for several weeks while they investigate.

The insurer has now asked for several pieces of information to verify policy conditions. One of the conditions is that the central heating system must have been operating at a minimum temperature while the property was unoccupied.

To evidence this, they have asked me to provide utility bills showing gas/electric usage between exchange and the date of the leak.

The problem is that during this period the utilities were still in the seller’s name, as completion had not yet taken place. I therefore do not have access to these bills and never did. I have asked via my solicitor if the seller could provide them, but the seller has refused.

For context, before exchange I arranged for the boiler to be serviced to ensure the heating system was operational, and I can provide documentation confirming the system was working.

My question is:

Can an insurer legally reject a claim purely because I cannot provide utility bills that were never in my name and which I do not have access to, even though I have attempted to obtain them?

In other words, does my duty to cooperate with the insurer extend to obtaining documents from third parties who are not obligated to provide them?

Any guidance on how this situation is normally handled in insurance disputes would be appreciated.

If the leak happened before completion, it was the vendors responsibility to sort

Confirmed by the solicitors based of normal uk law and signed contracts it is the buyers responsibility that’s why I took building insurance from exchange and not completion.

Deleted.

ok - so you need to pick up phone to your insurer and explain situation

The insurer will have a solution because no one would have utility bills in their name before completion

This is absurd! Remember insurers try and get out of paying if they can help it. What they are asking for cannot happen so you need to try and get to speak to someone elee.

When we moved away from our home for work , we left it empty for approx 18 months .my dh brother had a key and would pop in every few weeks to check all was ok but our insurance company expected us to actually stay every couple of month's so we'd have a weekend ( practically camping ) in an empty house .

I have some questions!
who is the insurer? So have I understood this correctly - you purchased and insured an unoccupied building and whilst renovating this leak occurred? If this is the case then yes your insurers should pick it up but explain to them the utilities where in old owners name. Did you swap utilities over to the same provider ? How much worth of damage are we talking

I took the insurnace out with a broker as it was specialist (unoccupied)

I had swapped the utilities over from completion but the leak occurred before this.

it has gone to high loss they are talking 100k+ damage due to the pipe being mains pressure from the loft.

So if the leak occurred before completion date then it’s the other owners insurance that should pick up? Did this broker not sell you a loss recovery add on with this policy? This is access to a loss assessor to fight on your behalf against the loss adjuster - sometimes this can be bought after the event ( but at a higher premium)
also I would get some legal clarification from the solicitor who legally owned it when this occurred.

Would the Insurance company accept copies of the utility bills directly from the Vendor ? Why has the Vendor refused to provide copies of the utility bills ?

I have gone through my solicitor to request this and the seller has refused. Legally the do not have to provide evidence or an explanation unfortunately

I would contact a solicitor specialising in insurance disputes, they're probably more likely to be helpful than your conveyancing solicitor.

I posted about a very similar issue regarding insurance on exchange of contracts. As stated, on exchange the buyer becomes responsible for the property so should take out insurance. Which you did. And presumably you informed the insurance company that you weren’t living there until completion? So get back to the insurers and tell them the seller has refused to provide bills or to explain why they have refused and there is nothing else you can do. Your solicitor could put that into a letter. I found it very difficult to get this type of insurance. In the end I went to a well known company, explained the circumstances and they were happy to cover me from exchange on a normal home policy. I found the brokers I tried wanted to charge me a lot more and had didn’t cover for half as much.

Thanks this is helpful

my policy documents say the below:
The "Contracting Purchaser" Clause
• Automatic Cover: The policy extends to cover you as the "Contracting Purchaser" from the moment you exchange contracts until the date of completion.

I am covered on those grounds just impossible to provide what the have requested in terms of evidence

It was unoccupied by you but were the vendors living there or was it completely unoccupied?

Completely unoccupied the seller moved in to a residential home.

that was the reason why we took the unoccupied policy