Most people assume their home insurance simply “carries on” through a house move without needing a second thought. In practice, moving day is exactly when two separate insurance gaps most commonly appear – one around who insures the building itself during exchange and completion, and a second around whether your belongings are actually covered while they’re in a van rather than in either house.
The buildings insurance gap: exchange, not completion, is the trigger
The Homeowners Alliance is direct about the point that catches people out: once contracts are exchanged, you become legally responsible for the property, and its own guidance instructs buyers to “make sure you have buildings insurance in place between exchange and completion” – not from completion, when you actually get the keys. Standard mortgage lenders typically require insurance to be in place from exchange as a condition of the mortgage itself, which means arranging cover has to happen earlier in the process than many buyers instinctively expect, particularly if there’s a gap of days or weeks between exchange and completion.
The contents gap: your policy may stop at the front door
The second, less obvious gap concerns your belongings during the physical move itself. A standard contents policy is written around protecting possessions inside a fixed address, and cover doesn’t automatically extend to items once they’ve left the property and are sitting in a removal van. The Homeowners Alliance’s guidance points buyers toward checking their policy specifically for wording like “contents cover when you’re moving home” or “goods in transit cover” – language that, if absent, generally means the move itself falls into a genuine gap between your old-home cover ending and new-home cover starting.
Why the removal company’s own insurance isn’t a substitute
It’s reasonable to assume a professional removal company’s own insurance fills that gap, and in principle it should – a properly run removal firm should carry goods-in-transit cover for exactly this purpose. But relying on it entirely, without checking your own policy, misses two practical problems: removal companies’ cover typically comes with value caps per item and exclusions for particularly high-value items such as jewellery, and their liability is generally limited to what’s set out in their own terms and conditions rather than full new-for-old replacement value. Treating the mover’s insurance as the only line of defence, rather than confirming what your own contents policy separately covers, is a common and avoidable gap.
Running two policies at once, deliberately
Because buildings cover needs to start at exchange but you may not physically move for days or weeks afterward, and because a house sale can be delayed after exchange, it’s genuinely common – and sensible – to have two home insurance policies briefly overlapping: the outgoing policy on the property you’re leaving, and the new policy already active on the property you’re buying, running concurrently for a short period. That overlap costs a small amount of extra premium but closes the gap that a strict “cancel one, start the other on completion day” approach can otherwise leave open if completion slips.
The other trigger insurers actually watch for
A separate but related risk sits with unoccupied properties either side of a move. Standard home insurance policies commonly move to “restricted cover” once a property has been empty for a set period – often 30 or 60 days, as specified in the individual policy – and insurers generally expect to be told proactively if a property will sit empty for any meaningful stretch either side of a move, rather than finding out only when a claim is made.
What to actually ask your insurer before moving day
Rather than assuming either gap has been handled, it’s worth putting three specific questions to your insurer directly ahead of a move: whether the current policy already includes cover for belongings while in transit with a professional remover, what the per-item value limit is under that cover, and whether buildings insurance needs to be separately confirmed as starting from the exchange date rather than completion. Getting clear, specific answers in writing (an email confirmation is enough) is more useful than a general assurance that “you should be covered,” which is exactly the kind of vague reassurance that tends to fall apart at claim stage.
Why higher-value items deserve a separate conversation
Standard contents and goods-in-transit cover is generally built around typical household contents values, and items like jewellery, art, antiques or specialist equipment often sit outside what a standard policy – yours or the remover’s – will actually pay out for without being specifically declared in advance. Where a household has genuinely higher-value items moving house, a short conversation with the insurer about scheduling those items separately, or confirming the remover’s own per-item liability cap, is worth having well before moving day rather than discovering the limit only after something goes wrong.
The bottom line
A house move creates two separate insurance questions, not one: whether buildings cover is genuinely in place from exchange (not completion), and whether your belongings are actually covered while in transit rather than relying entirely on the removal company. Checking both, and telling your insurer about any period the property will stand empty, closes the gaps that most commonly turn a routine move into an uninsured one.
Sources
- Homeowners Alliance, “Insurance When Moving House” – hoa.org.uk/advice/guides-for-homeowners/i-am-buying/insurance-when-moving-house
- Association of British Insurers, “Home Insurance – What You Need To Know” – abi.org.uk (Home Insurance guide PDF)