Home Insurance - When to Purchase

Hi Folks,
I believe most banks require home insurance to be in place before you can draw down a mortgage and if this is the case then it obviously means you are paying for the house to be insured before you actually own it.

So the question is - when should you obtain house insurance for a house you intend to purchase? 1 week before the closing date perhaps?

Thanks

Home insurance is optional.

Drakon said:

Home insurance is optional.

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Not when purchasing a house with a mortgage it isn't. The bank wants to know its got security if it burns to the ground. If you don't know, don't say.

And to answer the original question, you can take it out at any point. You won't have an insurable interest until you finalise contracts. So you are effectively paying for a policy you can't claim off until you own the house.

That said if you had a decent broker or good online site where you know you could get the necessary schedule and indemnity letter on the day, that would be the way to go.

Apologies, my interpretation of "home insurance" may differ. I was thinking of the contents, e.g. furniture.
I think what you're referring to is building insurance?

One is Life insurance related to covering the mortgage in the event of a death. The other is Home Insurance relating to buildings & contents insurance.

Life Insurance can take a while to put in place if there is a medical condition or any medical history that needs a doctor's cert or whatever. So that can take a few weeks sometimes.

Home insurance can be done in a day/couple of days, but you need time to shop around to get insurance quotes. Sometimes you can arrange the insurance, and the insurance company will 'start' it for you closer to the time of closing. Make sure you know who needs to have a copy of the insurance and when they need it by as the closing process can be delayed by one oversight here.

If the annual policy is €400, as an example, that's just over a euro a day so having it a week early will only cost you less than a tenner.

Hi,
From my own experience
1) Ask your solicitor for expected/agreed clsoing date. Lets says it 30 days in future, 1st of Dec.
2) Start shopping, i.e. calling insurers and you can buy the insurance say for 25th of Nov. Its only 30-50 euro a month so 5 days extra payment wont break the bank. Buy in advance just in case thinks happen quickly.
I bough mine on 18th of Nov last year and closed deal on 29th of Nov and didnt mind paying 10 euro more for extra 11 days.
Thanks

Hi Folks,
Thanks to everyone for helping to advise on this matter. We plan to close one the sale at the end of November so we will get going on our insurance research this weekend.
Thanks.

Hi there, I was told low.ie is a very good website and you get a quote instantly. Hope that helps.