Home Insurance (March 2018)

I stumbled across something online which stated that prior to completion it is necessary to have insured the house. Whilst this is clearly sensible, no one had told me that it was a pre-condition for completion.

So next step was to find out how to go about getting a quote. There is the choice of insuring with a UK company or a French one and there are pros and cons with both. I'll post later on what I find (once I've gone through the process), but for now I will share the fact that you will probably need to know:
  • When the property was built
  • How many reception rooms it has
  • How many bedrooms it has
  • How many room are over 30 square metres
  • How many rooms are under 30 square metres
  • The area of the cellar
  • The value of the house
If you're like me you probably only know the last of that list for sure. And as we're not planning to go back until it is time to sign the act de vente, how do I get the info I need?

By looking at the diagnostics report I was able to determine the build date was pre:1950 but not the exact date (I think 1900-1949 will suffice).

There were floor plans in the diagnostic reports but without dimensions. I have therefore estimated based on the fact the frontage 'looks' to be 8 metres and the plans suggest the building is basically square.

The number of bedrooms is an interesting one, in that the house is on three floors (plus cellar) and it is debatable whether one of the rooms on the 1st floor is (currently) a bedroom - we will probably use it as a study. And though there are 3 bedrooms currently on the 2nd floor, we are thinking of turning one into a salle de bain. For initial insurance purposes we'll probably declare the three on the 2nd floor as the bedrooms.

The above provide me with the basis for estimating the information the insurers may want, but I'd be more comfortable if I knew the information to be accurate. I've therefore written to the immobilier asking if they can confirm my estimates. Hopefully they will be forthcoming.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Receipt of Compromise & Diagnostics Reports (Feb 2018)

I'm still building this blog, setting up the 'Retrospective' pages which describe our activities between first embarking on this adventure  and finally deciding to create this blog. However, I've decided to create the first blog post as we've hit the first major milestone to occur since I started blogging - the receipt of the Compromise and the Diagnostic Reports. The Compromise is the first of two contractual documents and commits both parties to the sale of the property. The other contract is the main contract at the end of the process. Rather than travel to France we had decided to give the notaire (similar to a solicitor but working for the State rather than the two parties) power of attorney  to sign the Compromise on our behalf. This seemed seemed sensible as it involved no additional fees and saved us the journey. We would still have a 10-day cooling off period and, even if we had traveled there, the chances of understanding even a small part of what we w
Read more

A Night at the Chateau. 4-5 July

Image
 Up at 05:30 and on the road, as planned, shortly after 06:00. Nice clear run to the Eurotunnel terminal, as a result of which we were offered the 10:20 crossing (we were booked on the 11:50). Great result! Except we then queued and queued as traffic crawled through the customs and security checks. Eventually we found ourselves on the 11:20 crossing - still 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Anecdotally, the return delays are currently even worse. Isn't Brexit bliss 😒. We had booked a night at the Chateau de la Bucherie, just to the west of Paris. And French leg of the journey from the terminal was a s smooth as the journey to the terminal. I can highly recommend the chateau. The price was very reasonable, the room spacious (all be it in the roof with only a moderate sized Velux window).  The staff were delightful and friendly and the grounds (with impressive flora and fauna) were exceptional.  The kitchen garden was well stocked and we weren't surprised to see its produce feature
Read more

Baking Bread without an Oven & Accosting Strangers - 28 & 29 June.

Image
  On Sunday we tried, unsuccessfully, to find the workshop of the bicycle repairman that had a stall on the market the previous year. He'd told us he was opening a shop but we failed to find it  – perhaps it didn’t survive the pandemic; perhaps we simply were looking in the wrong place. We more groceries (we can only buy a few provisions each visit due to transport being limited to the push bikes) and ordered a full size fridge-freezer. Sally reckoned it was a good price and we’ve been managing with a small fridge for long enough – especially as we’ll be visiting for longer periods now (hopefully). Delivery was only €10 so we arranged for it to be delivered the next day. In the evening we looked for hotels in Paris and, having booked three-nights there, changed our return train ticket; a surprisingly simple process. Up at a more reasonable time (07:45) on Monday – thanks to setting the alarm. We needed to be sure to be up in time for the fridge-freezer delivery (scheduled for s
Read more