Risk Management Tips:
Unoccupied House Insurance During Probate

Insurance companies will expect you to behave as if you were not insured.  If you weren't insured, you would take all reasonable measures to identify any potential risks that could cause loss or damage to property or injury to its visitors.

As such, your insurance policy will contain a condition requiring you to take all reasonable precautions to minimise damage, accidents, and injuries on the premises.

Failure to do so could result in a claim being rejected or reduced. For serious breaches, the insurance contract could be cancelled back to the date the condition was breached.

This means that you should carefully consider the following:

• Anything that could potentially increase the risk of a claim or a claim and take measures to minimise or eliminate this;
• the condition and security of the property.  For example, a leaky roof or damaged/missing roof tiles could result in a storm damage claim being declined;
• What maintenance is required to prevent loss;
• All the conditions referenced in your insurance policy to ensure you can comply with them.

When arranging house insurance during probate, you must be careful not to underinsure the property.

If the building rebuild cost is incorrect, you could be shocked when it comes to a claim.

This is because some home insurers could refuse to pay a claim if the property is significantly underinsured.  However, they will most likely reduce the claim by the amount of underinsurance.

The beneficiaries may look to the executors to refund any shortfall. The cost could be significant.

If you want to learn more, check Insuristic's article for Today's Wills and Probate Magazine: The risk of building underinsurance for executors.

How Insuristic helps you avoid building underinsurance:

If the property has 4 bedrooms or less and a rebuild value below £750,000, you can request a quote without providing a rebuild value.

The policy you buy then has £750,000 building sums insured as standard, meaning you don’t need to worry about underinsurance, provided you are confident your property rebuild valuation is below this figure. If you are unsure whether it is, we recommend completing a rebuild cost assessment to be on the safe side.

If the property will likely exceed a £750,000 rebuild valuation, you can speak to our underwriting team directly at SJL Insurance.  They can provide advice, tell you how to get a valuation and then provide insurance based on a true rebuild cost.

Alternatively, you could arrange a rebuild valuation yourself. BCH is a specialist in building insurance valuations and offers discounted prices to insuristic customers. You can arrange a building rebuild valuation for £115+ VAT from the BCH website. 

When arranging unoccupied house insurance during probate, your insurers expect you to keep the house in a reasonable state of repair. This will help preserve the house's value and prevent claims or issues.

Failure to keep the house in a reasonable state of repair could result in some claims being declined.

For example, if there is storm damage to a roof with defective or missing tiles.

Your insurer will cover the property's contents up to a maximum of £30,000 without a referral. Higher limits can be considered offline.

But you need to know that, unlike standard home insurance, the maximum an insurer will pay for an individual item of contents is £1,000.  This is pretty standard on most unoccupied home insurance policies.

Remove all valuables, collections, art, and jewellery from the house to reduce the risk of uninsured losses. These items are theft-attractive and should be secured away from the empty house.

Significant Insuristic benefit: when you arrange unoccupied house insurance during probate with Insuristic, we class carpets, blinds and fixed appliances as part of the building sum insured, with claims restricted for these items to £5,000 for any one loss.  Many of our competitors class these items as contents, making your insurance more expensive and perhaps limited with the single article item restriction.

Significant Insuristic Benefit: Clients who arrange unoccupied house insurance during probate with Insuristic only need to confirm that there are locks on all exterior doors and accessible windows.  We do not require you to specify or comply with a specific lock type.

With other Insurance providers, you are likely to find a more onerous minimum security condition, which may invalidate claims if you cannot comply with it. 

Typically, minimum security conditions can resemble the below, but check your quote or policy documents as these conditions do vary:

External Doors will need either:

• a 5 Lever Mortice Deadlocks (conforming to British Standard 3621); or

• if a composite or UPVC type door, a multi-locking point system.

Patio Doors: will need:

• a central locking device

• key operated bolts at the top or;

• a multi-locking point system.

Windows: need key-operated security locks.  These need to be on all ground floor and other accessible windows.

If you fail to keep the house secure, it could mean claims following illegal entry are declined.

If you do choose another insurance provider and you are unsure what types of locks you have on the building, these guides from the Master Locksmiths Association will help. Click the link for an example of each lock:

• 5 Lever Mortice Deadlock Conforming to BS3621

• A 5-lever mortice deadlock

• A Rim automatic deadlatch

• A multi-point locking system (often found on patio doors too).

When arranging unoccupied house insurance during probate, you need to be aware that the most common cause of a claim and damage to empty property is caused by a burst pipe or escape of water.

Some insurance providers will exclude this type of claim altogether, but specialists like Insuristic may provide an option to include some cover, but with claims restricted to a maximum amount for any one loss, which is currently £3,500 on our silver cover, or  £5,000 on gold.

Whether or not you choose to insure against the risk of damage caused by an escape of water or burst pipes, it is advisable to drain your water systems.  This should be at the point of entry to the house, usually from an internal stop cock.

Where you are insured, there will usually be a condition to keep your heating on in winter.  Insuristic policyholders with this cover must maintain their heating to a minimum temperature of 15° Celsius and, where fitted, must keep the loft hatch open. 

If you don't do this and there is a claim, the level of cover provided could be reduced.  For more information, please check your policy documents.

Tips:

• AA Plumbing have produced a useful guide on isolating a water supply.
• If you can't complete this work yourself, consider appointing a specialist like Humphrey & Gray, who will give a preferential price to Insuristic customers.

Insurers are concerned about the risk of fire and explosion, which increases for unoccupied property.  

To help manage this risk, your policy will include a condition about turning off utility services at the mains whilst the property is empty.  The exception is when electricity is needed to maintain a heating or security systems.

If you aren't keeping the heating on, you will need to turn off the gas.

Failing to do so could mean a claim related to the services at the house is declined.

If you need to switch back on lighting or power to electrical sockets when visiting or inspecting the property, make sure to switch these off again at the mains when leaving the property empty again.

Here are some helpful guides to switching off utilities:

• Cadent Gas have produced a guide on how to find and turn off your gas supply.
• Better Homes and Gardens have produced two guides:
  • How to Turn Off the Power In Your Home;
  • and for older homes, without a consumer unit, how to turn off power at the fuse box (although fuse boxes aren't common now as they aren't compliant with current regulations).

If you need help on any of this, we'd recommend Humprhey and Gray, who provide a nationwide service for our policyholders.  Let them know you are an Insuristic customer and you will receive a preferential price.

It is advisable to redirect all mail and newspapers to prevent a build-up that not only makes it obvious the property is empty but also presents an increased fire risk.

In fact, insurers are also concerned about the risk of fire from the buildup of mail and other combustible materials. Your policy will include a condition that such items be regularly removed from the property.

Therefore, unless the mail is redirected, you should:

• Remove post and combustible material such as packaging, newspapers, etc., on each house inspection.
• Consider asking the neighbours to help collect mail and parcels for you.

This helps the property appear occupied, thus reducing the threat of illegal entry.

A messy garden can help thieves, vandals, and squatters identify an unoccupied house. 

Conversely, keeping the garden and lawns tidy can make the house look lived in. 

Consider:

• Cutting grass early in the spring and re-cut every two weeks.
• In the autumn, if trees are on the property, clear any debris.
• In winter, clear snow from garden paths and driveways.

Significant Insuristic Benefit: Renovating empty property is common, and insurers expect you to tell them (other than basic painting and decorating). So, if the property has new windows and doors, a new kitchen, bathroom, extension, walls removed, etc., you must tell them.

We have made this easier for Insuristic customers.  Providing you aren't extending the property or knocking down walls; we will allow the cover to continue for projects up to £50,000 without referral to our underwriters.

If you aren't insuring with Insuristic, you must speak to your insurance provider before any work starts.

However, you must check that your contractors have a valid public liability insurance policy.  This is very important as home insurers won't cover any damage they cause to your property or injury to third parties.

If a contractor has a valid insurance policy and damages the property, you could claim against their insurance to receive the money to rectify any damage or loss. It also provides protection if they injure someone in your house that doesn’t work for them.

You should check their public liability insurance policy schedule to ensure:

• The business activities listed match the work they are doing for you,

• The expiry of the policy is in the future,

• That the level of cover they have purchased for their work is adequate to repair or rebuild the property should the worst happen.