House Insurance

[mcb]

Hi
We are to close the sale of our house on the 10th March and have got a mortgage from Bank of Scotland, who want a letter of indemnity from our insurance company obviuosly to prove that we have insurance. All straight forward I thought.

We have both cars insured with Hibernian and also the house which we are living in now.

I rang Hibernian to insure the new house, gave the girl all relevant details and she asked me would the house be occupied, I said no, as we are going to be renovating the house before we move in.Hibernian then said that they cannot insure a property if it is not occupied but would insure it if we are going to start living in it within 30 days of the policy starting. Renovation works will take approx 4 months.There is no way we can live in the house the way it is now.

I was totally taken back by this. So now I cant get letter of indemnity for BOS, who then wont release mortgage. What do I do? What do other people do as I am sure there are plenty of people who buy a house and dont move into it straight away. Any advice welcome

 

[sam h]

Call them back and speak to someone else as I reckon you should be able to get it sorted - aren't holiday homes are covered and are mostly vacant? Plus, wile you house is technically "vacant" - there will be people in and out all the time. The problem with a long-term vacant house is that it can take a long time to identify if there is a problem (eg - a water leak can cause huge damage over 2 or 3 months). If they are still adiment, call around the other companies....someone will do it.

 

[briancbyrne]

what I would do there is go into a broker and place all of your insurances with them - they would def be able to get this cover in place for you - I do it all the time - with Hibernian aswell !! - you will pay through the nose for this cover however so be prepared (avg in a building in course of construction / renovation in around €1,500)
any queries pm me.

 

[mathepac]

Try ringing FBD insurances or a broker that does FBD home cover. Before I moved into my house, I had to have tilers, floor installers, plumber, electrician, landscapers do work in and around the house, after the builders moved out. In order to take possession of the house and have the mortgage released, FBD provided cover on what they referred to as I think a "reconstruction / fire only" basis which I converted to full cover, including contents, once I moved in - painless and seamless and kept BoI happy.

It cost slightly less than the full cover for the 2 months.