Slee Blackwell Solicitors is an award-winning law firm offering a full range of legal services to individuals and businesses throughout England and Wales. Recommended by The Legal 500, the firm is recognised as an independent and influential presence within the legal profession. Slee Blackwell also holds Lexcel accreditation from The Law Society for excellence in legal client care.
In 2025, legal technology group Estatesearch launched a new subsidiary company, Estatesure. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, Estatesure now provides an innovative range of insurance services, offering indemnity cover for a variety of situations that may arise during estate administration and distribution. This includes a robust solution for insuring unoccupied property without the requirement for regular inspections.
Jasmine Tucker, a paralegal at Slee Blackwell Solicitors in Barnstaple, works within the firm’s 24-strong probate team, which has used Estatesure for unoccupied property insurance for the past 18 months.
Jasmine explains: “The challenge with trying to insure unoccupied properties through standard insurance providers is usually the requirement to visit and inspect them every fortnight. This is incredibly time-consuming and the costs quickly mount up for the client. It becomes even more difficult when properties are located out of the area. For example, we currently manage properties in Dover and London as part of estate administration cases, so visiting them regularly would be impossible and the responsibility would otherwise fall to the family.
“Estatesure’s unoccupied property insurance, which does not require fortnightly inspections, has made a huge difference for both us and our clients.
“It is also far quicker to arrange than traditional on the market options. Previously, I would need to contact multiple insurance companies and provide detailed information, ranging from the type of door and window locks to the number of rooms in the property and whether the roof was flat or pitched. Often, we simply do not have the insurance history for a property, and obtaining the required level of detail without previous paperwork can be extremely time-consuming, even if we are able to visit the site. I would estimate it used to take between 45 minutes and an hour to obtain insurance quotes for each property.
“Now, with Estatesure, the process takes seconds, and we only need to provide minimal information, such as the number of bedrooms and the location of the water tank.
“We now use Estatesure for unoccupied property insurance in every estate administration case where we act as executors. Where we work with lay executors, we can also provide a suitable insurance quote quickly for them to consider.
“The team at Estatesure have been great. Jack Percival, our account manager, is always available at the end of the phone and visits our offices from time-to-time, to provide updates for the team. He is also extremely helpful in getting new starters up and running with logins for system as we use Estatesearch for asset and Will searches too.
“We have also used Estatesure for missing beneficiary insurance. This can be particularly useful where we have an address for a beneficiary but they do not respond to our correspondence. If a tracing agent is unable to locate them, we can then rely on the missing beneficiary insurance policy.
“Overall, Estatesure provides an excellent service that saves us many hours of administrative time, allowing us to focus on delivering better client care.
“If I had been paid £1 for every hour I spent on the phone in the past trying to arrange insurance for a property I had never visited, I would be a millionaire! Estatesearch already made obtaining insurance straightforward, but Estatesure has now made the process even easier. I will never again need to answer questions about flat roofs or lock types. The platform is extremely user-friendly, and quotes are issued within seconds, helping to streamline our work. I would highly recommend Estatesure.”
As an appointed representative of Estatesure, Estatesearch enables policies to be ordered through the company’s free and secure online portal, alongside Estatesearch’s range of other reports. Offline policies can also be arranged through Estatesure’s dedicated helpdesk.
In addition to unoccupied property insurance, Estatesure also offers policies covering early distribution and no Section 27 matters, as well as insurance for missing Wills, missing beneficiaries, and missing share certificates.
For further information about Estatesure’s insurance solutions, visit Estatesure
For further information about Slee Blackwell Solicitors, visit Slee Blackwell Solicitors
