Death of insured person (house). Is cover still there ?

Madra

Registered User
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My friend's mother was the householder and the insured person on the policy. The house was occupied by parent and two of her grown up children. She passed away and the insurance is not up until end of March. Is the house still insured ? The house will probably be now sold later in the year so can you get 'rolling' insurance on a onthly basis ? Also assuming the sale agreed to sold timeframe it will not be occupied so is there a solution in place for this ?
 
The house was insured ,so its insured until end of March. The issue on a claim would rest with deceased ,s estate.

Suggest contact home insurance company and I expect you will find they will ensure cover is in place up to sale time,
and get any cover confirmation in writing.
 
Policyholder is deceased so the estate needs to notify the insurer of that fact and have this noted. Otherwise there is no cover.
Its unlikely the insurer would decline to cover in the event of a claim given the circumstances. but Gerry's initial assertion is wrong.
 
Is your friend the executor of her late mother's estate? Preserving the estate is the responsibility to the executor. So it is for the executor to sort this out.

Assuming your friend is the executor, the friend should write to the insurance company concerned enclosing a copy of the death certificate and identifying the friend as the executor. The insurance company will then respond with details of cover in the event of death.

As for rolling house insurance, in my experience as an executor, this is not available, but it should be possible to obtain insurance from the same company for another year and then obtain a refund of premia covering the period from the sale of the house until the expiration of the policy.
 
Also, make sure that the house was not under insured.


If it is, increase the level of cover.

Marion
 
any change in circumstance needs to be notified on any insurance policy, but the house will still be insured as the policyholder will simply now transfer to the estate of the deceased. It can be a lot of hassle if a claim arises in this period as any payment would go to into the estate and if there are any issues in the estate the executor might not be in a position to allow the money go to fix the issue. I have seen this happen on a handful of occasions where there were disputes over a will.
 
Peteb,

I had assumed that since cover was on the HOME not the person taking out the policy that cover would continue?

Thanks for highlighting that , because its a potential BIG issue.
 
The matter insured is the the property. But the contract is with the policy holder. Same as anything else really. No policy holder, no cover technically. Plus the obligation to inform the insurer of any material fact.

As I said its not generally a problem. Most will just change to "Reps of". And will also renew policies in that name. Any possible problem will surround whether the property is occupied or not.
 
Occupancy? if unoccupied, then review the policy document to see if there is any cover at all! Soem companie insist on house being occupied, whilst others might give up to 90 days unoccupied. As peteb says, contact insurer and inform them of the true situation. Whilst a lie or even an exaggeration of the truth might give a lower premium, in the event of a claim, there is NO cover at all.
 
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