What if we've just bought a home?
Financial Checklist After Buying a Home
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- 2 min read
This guide provides general information only. It is not financial advice or a personal recommendation and does not take account of your individual circumstances.
Quick answer
After buying a home, the main financial tasks are making sure buildings and contents insurance are in place, updating your address and council tax, understanding your mortgage deal and its end date, checking how your home is owned if you bought with someone else, updating wills, building an emergency fund, and reviewing whether life and income cover match your new commitments.
Key figures
- when lenders usually need buildings insurance to start
- Exchange
- a common yearly overpayment allowance before charges
- Around 10%
In the first few weeks
- Buildings insurance. Mortgage lenders usually require it from exchange of contracts, not just from moving day. Check the start date on your policy.
- Contents insurance. This covers your belongings and is separate from buildings insurance, although they are often combined.
- Council tax. Tell your local council you've moved in and check your council tax band.
- Change of address. Update your bank, employer, HMRC, the DVLA, your GP, pension providers and insurers. Register to vote at the new address, which can also help with credit checks.
- Meter readings. Take readings on the day you move in, and check who supplies gas and electricity.
Understand your mortgage
- Know your deal end date. Fixed and tracker deals usually move to the lender's standard variable rate when they end, which is often higher. Lenders typically let you look at a new deal a few months beforehand.
- Early repayment charges. Many deals charge a fee if you leave or overpay too much during the deal period.
- Overpayments. Many lenders allow overpayments up to a limit each year, commonly around 10% of the balance, without a charge. Check your own terms.
- Keep your documents somewhere safe, including the mortgage offer and completion statement.
How you own the home
If you bought with someone else, check how the property is owned:
- Joint tenants own the whole property together. If one dies, the other automatically inherits their share.
- Tenants in common each own a share, which can be unequal. Each share passes under that person's will, or under intestacy rules if there is no will.
This affects what happens if one owner dies, and whether a will is needed to leave a share to someone else. Unmarried couples don't automatically inherit from each other.
Protection
A mortgage is often the largest commitment a household has. It is common to review:
- Life insurance: would the mortgage be repaid if one of you died? Decreasing term cover is designed to track a repayment mortgage.
- Income protection: how would mortgage payments be met if you couldn't work for a long time?
- Critical illness cover: would a lump sum on a serious diagnosis help in your situation?
- Workplace benefits: any death-in-service or sick pay benefits usually end if you change jobs.
Wills
A new home is one of the most common reasons to make or update a will, especially for unmarried couples, for tenants in common, or where there are children.
Emergency fund and upkeep
Homeowners pay for repairs that a landlord would have covered. Many people build an emergency fund for essential costs and unexpected repairs, such as a boiler failure or a roof leak, and put aside something regularly for maintenance.
A simple checklist
- Confirm buildings insurance started on time, and arrange contents cover.
- Register for council tax and check the band.
- Update your address everywhere, including the electoral register.
- Note your mortgage deal end date and early repayment charges.
- Check how you own the property if you bought jointly.
- Make or update wills.
- Review life and income cover against the new mortgage.
- Start or top up an emergency and maintenance fund.
Frequently asked questions
Mortgage lenders usually require buildings insurance from exchange of contracts, because you become responsible for the property from that point.
Joint tenants own the whole property together, and it passes automatically to the survivor. Tenants in common each own a share, which passes under their will or intestacy rules.
Lenders don't usually require life insurance, although they do usually require buildings insurance. Whether life cover is relevant depends on who else relies on the home and your income.