Video - When To Get Home Insurance

Our Real Estate team offers a broad range of services in all types of residential and commercial real estate matters. Our team is experienced in all areas of real estate law in the Okanagan, including purchase and sale transactions, mortgages, land developments and subdivisions.

A common question Partner Doug Flannigan hears when dealing with real estate is centered around home insurance and how different it is in today’s market compared to a market of the past and also when should you actually START your insurance? He discusses.

Transcript

A common issue that I come across on an almost daily basis is with respect to insurance from people who have just bought a house. If you are like me and you are buying a new house, you would need a mortgage to help pay for it because of the cost of homes these days. The people that lend you the money, usually the bank or the credit union will require that you have insurance on the house. House insurance used to be fairly simple and straightforward, that is no longer the case. Accordingly, it is very important that once you have purchased the property that you attend to insure, you do that immediately because it can take some time particularly if you are in an unusual type of homeownership, leasehold or strata that can cause complications. When getting the insurance in place, make sure you distinguish between the completion date, the day that you have to pay for the house, and the possession date, the day that you actually take over. Frequently they are at least one day apart. It is important and imperative that the insurance start on the completion date or even the day before. If you leave it to the possession date that’s when life happens and it could burn down overnight and you may not be insured at all and accordingly you will be in a lot of trouble.