Logic would probably say that you should start your insurance cover when you get the keys to the property. After all, that’s when you buy the property. That’s when you hand over most of the purchase price. That’s where you get the keys to the property and that’s when you get control of the property. But in actual fact, most solicitors and conveyancers will advise you to ensure the property from exchange to contracts. And the reason for that is that virtual solicitors will use what’s called the standard conditions of sale to buy and sell the property. Those standard conditions of sell provide that the risk of the property passes from the seller to the buyer on exchange of contracts. And because of that, the buyer is advised, therefore, to take out insurance as soon as the risk passes to them. Again, there is an exception to that, which is a common exception, and that’s where a buyer is buying a property, which is in the course of construction, or is newly built from a developer. In those situations, it’s quite common for the developer to maintain business insurance cover on the property until legal completion.
