Inherited house purchased - who gets insurance

Hi,

Not exactly sure where to post this, apologies if in wrong place!

My father recently passed away and we are in the process of settling his estate, my brother and myself had decided to buy my fathers house off my other brother and sister. We have signed an agreement to that effect and agreed on a price.

Since then the house has flooded and we made a claim on my fathers house insurance that was still in place.

The money for the house exchanged hands after this.

As we will have to get the repairs done are my brother and sister entitled to any of the insurance money?

No comprendez.

House is in late fathers name. Insurance is in late fathers name. Estate claims for flood from late fathers insurers. They pay estate. Why does the estate not pay for the repairs out of the insurance money?

If you agreed a price and the property subsequently flooded, then you should not have completed the purchase until the repairs were done. By the estate.

Answer to question - if there is anything left after repairs ( how could there be if payment was made on a quotation?) then the estate is due the balance.

mf

yes agreed, the repairs will be paid out of the insurance money, some have been carried out some left to do. What happens if repairs are done and in a few months time more damage appears (like rot). If the money has been split already, will we have come back? i just want to look after my investment

I am not sure this is correct...

I am open to correction but I would assume the money goes 4 ways , becuase you bought a damanged house with no contract to repair it ?


Where contracts signed before or after the flood ?

"Since then the house has flooded and we made a claim on my fathers house insurance that was still in place.

The money for the house exchanged hands after this."

Risk lies with vendor ( the estate) until completion - when money changed hands.

If the flood was after completion, risk lies with purchaser.

If repairs have been carried out, any subsequent problems lie with purchaser. Caveat emptor and all that. Where some repairs have been done and some not, area is much greyer.

Solution: deal with problems as they arise and not after. Always much harder to deal with issues once money has changed hands.

mf

Slightly off issue, but suppose the insurance needs to be renewed and the estate is not yet "sorted out" and presuming the property is the only asset, ie no cash in a bank ac, who arranges & pays the insurance premium ? Executor ? Solicitor ? Family ?

Its the Executors responsibility. Solicitor should advise but remember that a lot of people now do Grants of Probate themselves so there may not be a solicitor involved.

If there is a property in an estate, by definition there will be a very considerable asset. I don't think I've ever heard of a case where the Executor did not insure because of lack of funds. Maybe because of ignorance........

mf

jhegarty said:

I am not sure this is correct...

I am open to correction but I would assume the money goes 4 ways , becuase you bought a damanged house with no contract to repair it ?


Where contracts signed before or after the flood ?

Click to expand...

Contracts were signed before the flood