Unoccupied house insurance

miket1964

Hi

My dad recently had to move into a care home, so his house is unoccupied at the moment.
We are waiting to see if he recovers enough to be able to go home, which is probably unlikely.
So I am looking for recommendations for insuring his house, which is due for renewal in a couple of weeks.
I have done a search and a couple of quotes on the interweb, and found unoccupied insurance to be very expensive compared to normal house insurance.
Anyone have any recommedations?
Regards
Mike

Mrs_Money

'Fraid not - we are in a similar situation - FIL died, can't sell the property (due to the slow-down in the housing market) and when we went to a broker to save time getting a quote for insurance - the answer was "No-one will insure the property".
So at the moment we've given up - albeit not very happily. So many things can go wrong in winter - especially in a flat!
So if anyone has ANY details of an insurer willing to insure an empty property I'd like to know!

Mikeyorks

There are lots of insurers who will cover such properties. But they will be considerably more expensive than occupied / heated properties and they will cover less.

If you're an executor it's pretty essential to get cover! Otherwise you're needlessly putting an expensive asset at greater risk. The existing insurer will normally cover (with a codicil) up to the point of Probate. Thereafter quite a few opt out and you need to shop around.

Look at unoccupied property / holiday home specialists. One here just as an example after a 10 sec search :-

http://www.adrianflux.co.uk/household/

Mikeyorks

miket1964 wrote: »

So I am looking for recommendations for insuring his house, which is due for renewal in a couple of weeks.

In your case you will probably be best with the existing insurer. I've found in Probate cases they tend to be cheapest up to the point the property is vested in the Executor.

But be prepared for double the cost - allied to visiting at least weekly and heating to 15 degrees or draining all water systems. And they will probably exempt damage by storm ..... for reasons that's always bemused me.

Catherine12

Its likely you will be able to get a policy which just covers FLEE.
Fire, lightning, earthquake and explosion, if the insurance is to cover water leaks endorsements may be added e.g draing all water tanks ( no risk of leaks then)
Try calling for better quotes.

rpc

We have a house that is empty awaiting sale. Our old insurer (Lloyds) would only cover us for FLEE pretty much and at a 25% surcharge but there are some companies that offer 'proper' unoccupied home insurance.

Towergate (?) gave me a quote online and I rang Adrian Flux too. Adrian Flux seemed pretty knowledgable and were familiar with the restrictions of the various policies. The one we got requires regular inspections (monthly at least) and that over winter either the water is off and the system drained or the heating is on low 24/7. The cover is a little limited compared to standard home insurance (e.g. the theft peril only applied when there is forced entry) but it's pretty decent.

I'd give Adrian Flux ago (someone else posted the link).