Home Getting insurance on house under repair

I'm a first time buyer and the house we are buying is currently having drain repair work done by the vendor's insurance company before we will buy it. Obviously I need to get it insured to get my mortgage approved but is there any way to do this until the work is finished?

Should I approach the vendor's insurance company for insurance as they have all the repair details and would they insure me quicker than other companies?

Hi j1mbo, I'm afraid until the work is finished you won't be able to take out home insurance as while there is work still being carried out it is considered an active building site. Generally the bank will give you a couple of days to take out insurance once work is complete.

Good luck with the new house, MrEBear

I rang AXA today looking for a quote because the house is currently insured by AXA. They said that they couldn't quote me because the house is on the southside of Cork city and they can't quote because of susbsidence in the area. I told them that as we speak the people I'm buying the house off are having it underpinned and would they quote me after the underpinning work was done. They refused.

The biggest joke is that the current owners claimed on their insurance to get the underpinning done. So AXA are paying to fix a problem with the house and then refusing to insure me because of the possibility of the house suffering from this problem???????

It seems that very few insurers will quote when they hear that the house is in an area that suffers from subsidence. Even though the house has already been underpinned. Surely this makes it more insurable not less so, can someone explain this to me?

Hello,
I have another type of difficult house to insure: a protected structure with a leaky roof. Most insurers got badly hit (or so they say) with the flooding and snow this winter so getting insurance is tougher for everyone.
One broker was able to help me in the end (essentially the house will be classified as a building site while I repair the roof): self built insurance (aka Hooper Dolan). They said that the insurance could be transformed into a normal house insurance once the work is done. The insurer is actually British, so they might not be aware of subsidence in Cork...
Another broker that didn't laugh in my face was O'Leary Brokers in Cork. I didn't pursue as they said that the quote I got from the other guys was to good to match.

I know your issue is a different one to mine, but I throw these names in as being in the only two who didn't give me a straight no.

Good luck with it.
Solene