The insurance claims must be filed and pending, but the insurance company, at least in those instances, still honored the claim. 

in the instance that money was drawn during phase 2 and less than a month later the contractor has a stroke and cannot talk (and maybe not think too clearly) ?

@Wayne Brooks - I'll leave that for the appropriate attorney to decide....and I'll disagree with your comment.http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/who-can-cla......a relevant example of what I'm potentially looking at (I am "Jill" in this instance)...."

In the future, this will be a question I add to my diligence checklist, but in this instance, is it reasonable to ask the seller to make a purchase price concession to account for the missing security deposits?

@Theresa Amouzou There is a huge difference from country to country in Europe, so I would try to get in touch with investors in UK spesifically.One major difference between the US and Norway for instance is the fact that offers are binding.

For instance, if an investor has non-retirement funds to invest as well as self-directed IRA or 401k funds to invest and likes direct ownership of real estate as well as funding loans, they might choose to invest into real estate notes with the tax exempt structure and invest into actual real estate outside of the tax-favored vehicle.

The listing agent is not the broker in this instance thankfully.

Also, it seems to me that the commentators to my thread are thinking I'm throwing out low offers to see what sticks.This isn't the case at all.I'm an Investor that buys for FUTURE appreciation of both Cash Flow and Appreciation. 6 of the 8 Investment Properties I bought were from retail advertising from Brokers on the MLS.I am already wealthy and believe in setting up a win-win scenario for everyone, including the Seller, the Broker, and myself.I don't believe getting a 5% discount now on a price is worth it in my scenario.For instance, I bought a property 2000 for $140k purchase price.

So I just bought a few books that I kept hearing people repeat in the famous four of the podcast.  

For instance, I can go in a certain area and just search houses with lis pendens on it or say non-owner occupied houses with lis pendens on it.