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In: Home Insurance
17 May 2010Does it differ between county and city municipalities? If it does have to meet and pass a building inspection, do they typically go by the International Building Code?
This is about reference of insurance questions information.
4 Responses to Does a house have to pass a building inspection in order to get home insurance?
Patricia C
May 17th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
Not in the US.
mbrcatz
May 17th, 2010 at 8:46 pm
Your municipality doesn’t care if your house is inusred or not. They won’t inspect the building.
Your insurance company will usually do a casual inspection of the house, though, within 30 days of insuring it.
Insurancetips
May 17th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Normally the inspection is done for commercial property or for property which is insured for a high limit of liability. The insurance company will accept the declaration given by the insured without inspection for home and ins case of a claim at that time if they find anything which was misrepresented and which is material to the claim they can deny the claim. For eg. if you declare that the home is of first class construction – of brick when it is actually a wooden house which caught fire – the insurance company can deny the claim on grounds that the information given was not correct.
Gail
May 17th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
It is not necessarily the municipality that will require you to have an inspection. This will vary with insurance companies. Some will require an inspection prior to insuring and others may require one after insurance is put in place. If they inspect after the insurance has been put in place and find what they call “deficiencies”, they will make recommendations, and if you do not correct them, they have the right to cancel.
Also, as previously stated, they can deny a claim and/or cancel a policy if “misrepresentation” is found at the time of a claim.
So, to answer your question, no, the inspection is not necessary to get homeowners insurance, but there may be consequences to not getting one prior to insuring.