Take over the insurance from the developer after handover of keys?

Is that a law or contractually regulated? With our developer, I did not have to (and could not) take out any insurance.

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Is that a law, or contractually regulated?

I assume it is contractually regulated, but who knows ...

The normal case with a property developer is as follows: - Property developer takes out building insurance including fire during shell construction. - From acceptance onwards, the buyer owes the insurance premium (see property developer contract; typically the property developer issues an invoice, the buyer pays the property developer, not the insurer) - Upon transfer of ownership (not to be confused with acceptance or moving in!) the insurance automatically transfers to the buyer. The buyer then has 1 month (no more!) to cancel the insurance. If he doesn’t cancel, it continues and can typically be cancelled annually thereafter. From the transfer of ownership onwards, the buyer owes the insurance premiums unless he cancels.

Typically, a house is financed by a loan. Usually, the bank requires insurance. Therefore, usually no one receives a loan for a property developer purchase without insurance (exceptions prove the rule).

Also, in a private purchase or any other house purchase, the building insurance, if existing, transfers to the buyer who then has a one-month notice period. After that, the usual notice period of the respective insurance contract applies.

Here, with us, it went like this: - Acceptance on day X - About 14 months later transfer of ownership (which is an official act) - About 4 weeks later cancellation confirmation from the old insurer (our cancellation obviously preceded this) - Another 3 months later invoice from the property developer for about 14 months’ premium. Oh yes, from transfer of ownership we had of course taken out a new insurance. The financing bank also wanted proof of that (a purchase in cash is always easier).

In my experience, only the owner(!) can insure a house.

If a building (fire) insurance exists, it is always transferred to the buyer. This does not only apply to the developer.

Imagine you buy the cabin, pay the purchase price, the cabin burns down, and the seller collects the insurance benefit (in addition to the purchase price). The practice is more complex, but it should not work that way.

The note regarding the cancellation period is of course correct.

For existing buildings, this also makes sense for the buyer, as old contracts can sometimes be significantly cheaper. Taking over these is therefore interesting.

Strange, I need to check our contract again. Of course, I took out my own insurance immediately after handover. Why is the acceptance not the transfer of ownership? In the contract, it is stated for us as the date of acceptance/payment of the final installment. Land register sheets do not exist yet and we only expect them in 2019. Nevertheless, we already have a property tax assessment, etc., where the date of acceptance is always listed.