It’s such a busy time when you are selling a home. There is so much paperwork and so many action items. One that people often jump the gun on, is canceling insurance.
We are regularly called by customers asking us to cancel their homeowner’s insurance policy on a particular day in the future as they have been notified that the home is scheduled to close on that day. Unfortunately, more often than you’d expect, the home doesn’t actually close as they planned on that exact date. The date often can get pushed out further, which means that if the insurance was canceled on that initial date, the home wouldn’t have any insurance coverage. It’s very difficult to undo a cancellation request or change the date.
To make things worse, like life sometimes does, we have seen a few instances where the closing happened but the transaction paperwork didn’t process until a few days later due to extenuating circumstances. In this instance, the client thought everything was all set, so they called and canceled the insurance immediately following the closing. The result? The home was uninsured for several days during a storm, leaving them at major risk.
So what do you do to prevent this?
You may wait a day or few days to contact your insurance agent. When you tell them the date your closing was completed, they can post-date your cancellation request. In most cases, the insurance carrier will reimburse you for any unused premium back to that date. You typically don’t pay for any insurance that you don’t use.
If you are interested in learning more about this reasoning, feel free to visit our website, keslarinsurance.com, or give us a call at (603) 273-0953. We are always available to give you a free quote, or just to be a resource!
