Home Buyers Protection Insurance – Is it something I should consider?

Buying a home is stressful enough without the financial worry of your purchase falling through. Home Buyers Protection Insurance also known as Gazumping Insurance helps cover legal, survey and mortgage lending costs should your purchase fall through.

Katherine Binns Director, Research

What is Home Buyers Protection Insurance?

Home Buyers Protection Insurance can enable you to claim back some of your conveyancing fees, survey costs/mortgage valuation fees and mortgage/lender fees in the event of the purchase falling through. Our Home Buyer Protection costs just £69.

Home Buyers Protection Insurance, also called Home Buyers Insurance or Gazumping Insurance can protect you in the event of being gazumped, or if the seller changes their mind. It’s proving to be a popular product during an uncertain market with the increased risk of chains falling through.

With Gazumping Insurance protection, you are covered by the insurance if a higher offer undercuts your previously accepted offer on a property by £1000 or more. 

What is the risk of a purchase falling through?

1 in 3 property purchases fall through

You find a house, make an offer that is accepted by the seller and then it’s yours, right? Buying sounds straightforward but approximately 1 in 3 property purchases fall through (source: Property agents Quick Move Now put the annual fall through rate in 2023 at 35%).

Common reasons for a purchase falling through include:

• The seller changes their mind and withdraws the property from sale
• Gazumping (2024 data from Market Financial Solution suggests 37% of UK homeowners have lost out on a property due to this)
• The mortgage lender valuation is lower than the accepted offer
• The mortgage lender insists on rectification work
• The survey identifies necessary repair work
• The buyer withdraws due to a change in circumstance (such as job relocation or redundancy)

Key Benefits of HomeOwners Alliance Home Buyers Protection Insurance

Home buyer’s protection insurance needs to be bought prior to or within 14 days of notifying your solicitor/ mortgage lender of your purchase and before carrying out a survey. We have three home buyer protection insurance packages with different levels of cover to suit your needs:

Protect yourself with Home Buyers Protection Insurance for just £69

Home Buyers Protection Insurance cover applies in these circumstances:

• The property owner withdraws the house from the market
• The property owner receives and accepts an offer which is at least £1,000 greater than the offer they have accepted from you
• Local authority search indicates the property is subject to a compulsory purchase order
• The vendor is not legally entitled to sell the property
• The mortgage property valuation is less than 90% of the accepted offer
• The mortgage lender applies a retention on the loan which is more than 10% of your accepted offer
• Rectification work is required to the property by the mortgage lender and the cost exceeds 10% of the accepted offer amount
• The property is damaged during the period of cover and it costs more than 10% of the property value to repair
• Redundancy or relocation of full employment (unless redundancy is voluntary)

Restrictions to cover:

• Property in England, Wales or Northern Ireland and be a permanent construction; policy holder must be over 18 years of age
• The purchase of the property must not be subject to a contract race or sealed bids
• You must use a solicitor or licensed conveyancer to conduct the conveyancing of the property
• You cannot be reimbursed for costs incurred before the policy start date
• You knew that the house purchase would not complete before you bought Home Buyer’s Protection
• You deliberately caused a delay which caused the house purchase not to complete
• You withdraw from the house purchase for reasons not covered by the policy (you can’t just change your mind for instance)
• You must not have had a survey carried out on the property before the policy start date
• You are aware of a previous survey having been carried out in respect of the property up to 90 days prior to the start date, that may give cause for the house purchase to fail
• Where you are able to obtain a refund on your fees
• In the case of redundancy, you took voluntary redundancy, are self-employed or a company director or partner of the company giving notice of redundancy

Get Home Buyers Protection Insurance with HomeOwners Alliance

Our Home Buyers Protection Insurance provides cover for conveyancing, mortgage and survey fees incurred by an insured purchaser when their purchase of a property falls through. The average claim amount in 2024 is just over £975 for home buyers who took out Home Buyers Protection Insurance with Homeowners Alliance and needed to make a claim.

With many reasons causing a property purchase to fall through, no one likes being left to foot the bill for the wasted costs. By reimbursing these fees, a purchaser who has Home Buyers Protection Insurance is provided with peace of mind should the purchase not go ahead.

Protect yourself with Home Buyers Protection Insurance for just £69

Protect yourself with Home Buyer Protection Insurance from just £69

Frequently Asked Questions