Unoccupied Building Insurance

Whether normally used for residential or for commercial purposes, when they are left empty and unoccupied, properties generally attract their own special forms of risks and perils.

Those risks might manifest themselves in different ways, but two examples may help to highlight the particular problems:

if a building is unoccupied, there is no one there to report what starts out as a relatively minor repair or maintenance problem, but which may soon turn into a major crisis if it goes undetected and unattended;

empty buildings are also a great attraction for arsonists, vandals, and other unwelcome intruders, who may cause considerable damage to the property.

Why do you need unoccupied building insurance?

When a building is unoccupied it needs insurance which takes into account the particular and distinct risks and perils faced by an empty building. Just as the name suggests, this is the principal aim of unoccupied building insurance.

But there is a further reason why you may need purpose designed unoccupied building insurance and this relates to the attitudes likely to be taken by insurers providing cover for the premises whilst they are occupied and in use.

Providers of home insurance and of landlord insurance – whether for residential or commercial property – certainly take into serious consideration the additional risks and perils faced by an unoccupied building. So much so, in fact, that they typically curtail, restrict or allow to lapse altogether the cover that normally protects a property once the building has become vacant and unoccupied for longer than a certain period of time.

The precise interval may vary from one insurer to another but is generally in the range of 30 to 45 consecutive days, or exceptionally as long as 60 days.

After this period, insurance protection for the property is likely to be seriously compromised and, so, purpose designed unoccupied building insurance is required in order to maintain the appropriate safeguards.

What you need to know when buying cover

What you need to know, therefore, is just what safeguards are to be provided by your unoccupied building insurance – is it designed to provide only a basic level of protection, for example, or does it extend to wide and comprehensive cover?

Although your principal interest might be building insurance it is also possible to insure the contents of your empty property. Do you want a separate contents policy, or do you prefer to save money by combining both building and contents cover under the same policy?

How long is the unoccupied building insurance to last? Although empty for longer than a month or so, many unoccupied properties are empty only temporarily and you might not want the expense of cover that lasts the whole year through if your premises are going to be vacant for, say, only six months.

Why choose us?

At UKinsuranceNET we understand the intricacies of unoccupied building insurance and bring our expertise and experience to bear in identifying your particular, individual needs and requirements in order to identify the appropriate form of cover, upon which we aim to provide the most competitive price.