Your current home insurance
When was the last time you looked in any detail at terms and conditions of your current home insurance? If you are planning an extended trip away and need to leave it empty and unoccupied for more than a month or so, you are likely to discover that the cover which usually protects your home becomes severely impaired – it might even lapse altogether.
The change might catch many homeowners unawares and leave the home seriously unprotected whilst they are away.
Insurers typically make the change because of the additional vulnerability of your property when there is no one living there. The weaknesses may be exposed in a number of ways, but here are just two examples:
- An unoccupied home attracts all manner of unwanted attention from the likes of intruders, squatters, arsonists and burglars – London’s Camden Council, for instance, says that almost a half of all burglaries in their borough occur when a home is empty
- Problems that might otherwise take just a moment or two to repair might develop into a major disaster is there is no one at home to spot the fault – a poor electrical connection, for example, might cause the spark that leads to a fire
If you are looking to insure a residential property (as an owner-occupier or one you have bought to let) and it is going to be left empty and unoccupied for some period of time, there are a few questions it might be helpful to address.
If you are an executor of probate property, again, you will need to ensure you have appropriate empty property insurance in place. This is because any existing home insurance cover taken out previously by the deceased will lapse after a number of consecutive days.
Why do you need unoccupied home insurance?
If you take a closer look at the home buildings and contents insurance you are likely to have arranged as a homeowner – or landlord insurance on your buy to let property – you are almost certain to find that once it has been left unoccupied for a given length of time the level of cover becomes severely restricted or even lapses altogether. The period after which such restrictions come into effect varies from insurer to insurer, but is typically between 30 and 45 days.
One of the reasons for such wariness on the part of insurers is because thieves, vandals and squatters are known to target empty and unoccupied buildings, say property managers Orbis. Furthermore, when there is no one present at the property, even relatively routine repair and maintenance problems may develop into major, destructive incidents if they are not spotted in time.
In order to restore and maintain the protection which the empty property continues to need, purpose designed, specialist unoccupied property insurance is required – and may be arranged by providers such as ourselves here at UKinsuranceNET and others.
Why compare different lenders?
Although you might recognise the need for unoccupied property insurance, the problem is that there are so many competing products on the market. To the untrained eye, each one might seem similar, but in fact, differ in certain crucial aspects – not least of which is the price you pay in premiums.
Just as with any other goods or services you are about to buy, when it comes to unoccupied property insurance, you should compare different lenders and policies in order to make an informed choice.
Deciding just what unoccupied property cover you may need to meet your particular individual circumstances and requirements, however, might prove more difficult than it first appears. By omitting certain key elements, you might be leaving your home exposed to some potentially very costly risks; yet buying elements of cover you may not need is likely to result in your paying more for your insurance than is necessary.
Similarly, when it comes to matching your needs and requirements to the products available on the market, you might be overwhelmed by the choice, overlooking some providers which might be offering just what you need at an especially competitive price.
Your solution to this kind of dilemma is to let us here at UKinsuranceNET make the comparisons on your behalf. Thanks to our expertise and experience, we are able to identify just where your unoccupied property may be vulnerable and tailor any particular insurance package to meet your precise needs.
By scouring the market and consulting all of the insurers with whom we do business, we are then able to provide you quotes, not only for those packages which meet your needs and requirements, but which are also competitively priced.
Unoccupied property insurance
Unoccupied property insurance is a specialist, standalone insurance product that restores the protection your home continues to need whilst you are away on that extended holiday or business trip.
Even this specialist product, however, may take a variety of different forms, with some policies restoring only very limited cover to your property. The cover might be limited to what are commonly known as FLEA risks (Fire, Lightning, Explosions and Earthquakes, and Aircraft only). This is unlikely to provide sufficient protection for your home and its contents whilst you are away.
Unoccupied property insurance is also typically sufficiently flexible to allow for extensions of cover in the event that your business trip or overseas holiday needs to be extended for longer than originally planned.
At UKinsuranceNET we do not believe in jargon and we don’t accept that insurance needs to be hugely complicated. Give one of our experienced advisors a call today and find out how they can help you on 01325 346 328.
