Banking - Current accounts

[BT Summers]

Is it possible for someone to start a bank account, possibly on line, without having any correspondence to the home?

Also, is Finance the correct section to ask about House Insurance?

A neighbours house was destroyed in a fire last week, currently has no roof. The house has been unoccupied for several months, would you expect insurers to repudiate liability?

[Mr Pointy]

BT Summers said:

A neighbours house was destroyed in a fire last week, currently has no roof. The house has been unoccupied for several months, would you expect insurers to repudiate liability?

It depends on the terms & conditions. It's very common to limit unoccupied periods to 30 days although longer periods can be agreed, usually with the condition that someone visits the property regularly. There is a different type of insurance for unoccupied properties which is often taken out during renovations & the like but not all insurers offer it.

[BT Summers]

Mr Pointy said:

BT Summers said:

A neighbours house was destroyed in a fire last week, currently has no roof. The house has been unoccupied for several months, would you expect insurers to repudiate liability?

It depends on the terms & conditions. It's very common to limit unoccupied periods to 30 days although longer periods can be agreed, usually with the condition that someone visits the property regularly. There is a different type of insurance for unoccupied properties which is often taken out during renovations & the like but not all insurers offer it.

Thank you.





The house is going to be a mess very quickly with this bad weather.

The house had been in the hands of a letting agent who allowed cannabis growers to set up in the loft,

[valiant]

Went through this last year whilst we were sorting out my late mother’s property.

Had to let insurance company know that it’d be unoccupied for more than thirty days (was a couple of months) and it was a stipulation on continuing to insure that the property was visited regularly and was advised to leave the heating on low (‘twas winter). How they checked on whether we actually bothered or not I’ve no idea (we did!) but they were happy to continue cover while we sorted probate and subsequent sale.

[colin79666]

On bank account if a normal current account the amount of paperwork varies but at least the debit card has to be sent. With Starling that was all that was sent as everything else was in the app and email.

Perhaps a branch based bank could arrange and account and have the card delivered there instead.

[BT Summers]

Thanks to all.

[Max5476]

Aunt & Uncle use to tour Europe over the summer, and regularly for longer than the 30 days.

We would go and stay over for 1 night to check the house & ensure it wasn't unoccupied for too long.

We used to give them a call from the landline to leave some traceability that someone had been in the house. Never had any need to call on the insurance, so no idea of this would have been enough.

With the OP's situation, if the house is being let out, the landlord should have specialist insurance anyway. This will probably have different terms regarding occupancy, hopefully with longer periods to account for in between renters, but I've never looked into this.

[BT Summers]

Max5476 said:

Aunt & Uncle use to tour Europe over the summer, and regularly for longer than the 30 days.

We would go and stay over for 1 night to check the house & ensure it wasn't unoccupied for too long.

We used to give them a call from the landline to leave some traceability that someone had been in the house. Never had any need to call on the insurance, so no idea of this would have been enough.

With the OP's situation, if the house is being let out, the landlord should have specialist insurance anyway. This will probably have different terms regarding occupancy, hopefully with longer periods to account for in between renters, but I've never looked into this.

Good point. I don't know the owner, he lives in London, the house is in West Yorkshire, it has been let out in the past to a company that provided a half way house for young men who had left prison or YOI to give them a start. They left, but perhaps came back to check that the plants were being watered.

This is in a neighbourhood watch area, I found out this morning that the registration numbers of cars that have been to the house have been taken by someone. I doubt that this will qualify for the occupancy rules by an insurer, much less the use of the house for illegal purposes.

The house has been gutted inside by the fire and will need to be demolished.