There are many reasons that you may find yourself with an unoccupied residential or commercial property. Unfortunately, many insurance companies do not offer unoccupied home insurance. Some don’t insure them at all (except possibly for a short period of time).
This is because empty properties are inclined to have higher and more frequent claims than occupied ones. When you live in a property, you tend to look after it and take precautions to protect it. However, if the property is unoccupied and a pipe were to burst, there would be no one around to take action and prevent further damage.
Many properties have been devastated by water damage where the burst pipe was left running for days on end. Some properties may also be prone to vandalism. They are broken into and damage is caused or fixtures such as cookers, fridges or even piping are stolen. Then there is the matter of squatters. This is a challenging and long-winded issue to deal with.
For the above reasons, insurance companies are hesitant to provide unoccupied home insurance and if they do, they are inclined to charge more. They also tend to impose stricter conditions. These include:
- Weekly visits to the property to make sure it’s safe and secure as well as to take any preventative action to avert damage.
- Switching off all utilities such as gas, electricity or water, the latter being to avoid the bursting of pipes (in extremely cold weather).
- Insurers may also ask for the heating to be left on so the temperature in the house does not fall below 5C (thus preventing pipes from freezing).
Over and above this, they may also reduce the insurance cover to Fire, Lightning, Aircraft, Explosion and Property Owners Liability only. This is limited in comparison to the full cover (full perils) they would give to an occupied property.
You can buy further vacant home insurance cover at an extra cost. For example, to include up to £5,000 for water damage claims.
At Titan Insurance, we offer full cover for unoccupied commercial and residential properties. Our policies can cover short or long term unoccupancy. We also provide cover for properties undergoing conversions or refurbishment and we can reduce the price of your insurance in minutes. Here are 5 things you need to know when buying unoccupied property insurance.
Get in touch with our property team today. With over 30 years’ experience in unoccupied property insurance we have extensive knowledge of the insurance market and its specialisations. Contact us on 0207 731 3700 or drop us an email. We’re here to assist with any inquiry, no matter how difficult it is.
