House insurance - HELP

[DeeJaymax]

Hi, I hope I am posting this in the right place, its my first time!! LOL

We live in the UK and are buying a property in the Limousin area. The property needs renovating although mainly new wiring, plumbing decorating etc before we can start using it as a holiday home.

We are having problems getting insurance as its going to be empty for 6 - 7 weeks at a time in between our visits - HELP does anyone know of insurance companies that deal with this type of property.

We are signing on 17th December and insurance must be in place, we are running out of time!

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Alex H]

Are you looking for a UK based company or a French one?

We insured our house immediately after purchase with the local AXA agent - no problems at all.

[Benjamin]

Welcome to the forum.

Are you looking at French or English insurers?

If you're buying through a French selling agent then ask them to help. They'll be able to recommend someone local.

[DeeJaymax]

Benjamin - Hi thanks for your quick reply, we don't really mind I suppose UK is easier as we can pay direct from our UK account but as long as we get covered it doesn't matter. Our selling agent has given us a couple of names/emails etc but responses are really slow!

The people we have made contact with either don't cover properties, that are not habitable or need assurances that someone will go in at least monthly to check it all out, which we cannot guarantee. Do you have any suggestions?

[DeeJaymax]

Tandem Pilot, our Agent has told us we need to show the Notaire confirmation of insurance at the signing for the property - I presume you did not have to show it at that point?

btw - was your property habitable when you bought it?

[just john]

When we first bought we asked our Notaire to arrange insurance with someone local, so that was already arranged by him (the house was a renovation and the insurance covered for this). However it was through an AXA agent and we experienced lots of problems; when we suffered a break-in and they wriggled out of the claim. We are now insured through an agent who speaks perfect english and is aware of the conditions that need to be meet for French insurance companies, I'm not sure how close you are to him but I've PM'd you his contact details. Good Luck

 

[Alex H]

[quote user="DeeJaymax"]Tandem Pilot, our Agent has told us we need to show the Notaire confirmation of insurance at the signing for the property - I presume you did not have to show it at that point?

btw - was your property habitable when you bought it?[/quote]

I'm fairly sure that wasn't the case, but it has been 6 years.

We did buy through an agent who arranged this for us and the property was habitable (in a rural French sort of way :-) )

[Quillan]

Firstly the OP is right, you will need insurance in place to start on the date you sign for the house.

Secondly the OP should be careful when using the words 'not habitable' as rewiring, some new plumbing and some decorating does not make it so. I would use a French insurer. Phone your agent and ask them to make the arrangements for you so that you can visit an agent the day before to sign the paperwork etc and they will give you a letter to take to the notaire saying it's insured. You won't be the first nor the last to leave this almost to the last minute.

[KathyF]

Over 7 years ago we bought a house which was technically habitable but needed everything doing to it, and Axa insured it for us without hesitation.  We asked our estate agent for advice and went along to the agent to take out the insurance while we were over for the final signing. Ours is empty for 9 months of the year, with no interim checks whatsoever, unless a friend has a look at the roof after a severe gale. So far, no problems at all.

[Hereford]

Surely the house is already insured by the present owner? When we bought (a shell - definitely not habitable) we just carried on with the existing insurer for a year.

[DeeJaymax]

It should be yes, I have asked our agent to check to see if we can just carry it over which would be easier then we could change it if necessary afterwards - but getting a quick response is a nightmare, even though he is english living in france :)

[AnOther]

We were told by our Immo that evidence of insurance would be required at the signing so we arranged it (we would have anyway) but in the event it was not even mentioned on the day and frankly I'm not convinced that it is a legal requirement at all !