Home Insurance: "Unoccupied" House

zurichbound

Hello All,

Totally new to this, so apologise if this has been asked before.

I am shortly leaving the country to start a new job abroad, but as it may only be for a year I'm keeping my house in the UK. My insurance covers the house for 60 days of being "unoccupied".

I don't necessarily plan on being in the UK more than 3-5 times during the year (so probably won't be "occupying" the house at least every 60 days, but I will be getting people to visit at least every 2 weeks. I have read information with the Financial Ombudsman service which says that because of the ambiguous nature of "unfurnished" that they have successfully argued that somebody visiting the property (even if not the home owner) counts as occupied. Has anyone got any experience of this? Any advice on whether I should get a separate, specialist insurance policy?

If I should get another policy - does anyone know a broker who would cover an empty house? I am imagining that these will be extremely expensive!

Also, for council tax purposes I will be asking for "empty house" allowance - does anyone know if this would compromise any claim to be occupying the property?

I apologise for the complexity of the question, but I am extremely tight with my finances and don't want to be ripped off on the off chance my house is burgled! But I can't afford for it to burn to the ground and not get paid out!

Oh, one important detail. I will not be renting the property out, and have a mortgage with a decent fix rate which will no doubt prevent me from renting anyway (without financial meltdown).

GoldyR

Hi there, I can try & answer the bit about the insurance on the unoccupied property, but not the council tax i'm afraid. The best thing to do will be to ring your insurers & tell them that you intend to be out of the country for 12 months leaving your property unoccupied. Your insurers will probably impose stipulations which say the property will need to be checked weekly & all the water etc... turned off. They will usually continue to insure you on this basis as long as the terms they set out are complied with, & in the event of a claim it will need to be evident to them that these conditions were complied with.

The easiest solution would be to have a friend or relative live at the property whilst you are away, although i'm sure you've already thought of that. Things like leaving your contents in the property whilst you are away will increase the risk, so it may be worth putting valuables into storage if you can afford to do so. Once your insurer has been made aware of the unoccupancy, ask for their confirmation in writing that cover will remain in place for the duration along with the stipulated terms.

Good luck

zurichbound

Thanks - this seems much more sensible than I thought insurers would be! I will probably give mine a ring under the hypothetical scenario that I may be leaving the UK - just so I don't give anything away!

brazilianwax

I had a nightmare with this. I work away and would return to that property every other weekend (on average). My parents could also pop over and check the property.

I rang every insurer known to man, and found that they all interpreted the issue differently. Some asked if the house would be unoccupied for 'more than 60 days in any year' and others 'for more than 60 days in a row'. Obviously my answer to the 2 questions was different.

Having finally found an insurer that seemed to be compatible, I took out cover.

I then needed to add some items to the cover, and again re-iterated that the property was unoccupied for 10 out of every 14. They raised no issue.

2 weeks later (next return to the house) I got a letter from them cancelling my cover on that date - so my house was uninsured without me even knowing. They had my phone number, and my other address, but no, they left me high and dry. They said their underwriting criteria had changed and they had no choice.

So tread carefully on this one! My current insurer is okay with my current arrangements - I go home every Thursday night and back on Sunday nights - as long as the heating is on a certain temperature overnight in the winter and the water is shut off. :beer:

zurichbound

Hmmm, this is what I feared!

I suspect that I will leave the central heating on (for the frost guard) but turn the water off - but as for whether my insurer will allow it I will have to check!

Hopefully they will, as they did mention 60 consecutive days (current insurer is Zurich). I will have to check their small print very carefully I suspect.

brazilianwax

I forgot to say that the company that cancelled the insurance had covered me happily for about 2 and a half years when that happened!

FlameCloud

Even if you called 'hypothetically' it would be a poor/stupid claims handler that didnt optain you policy number and note it on your policy.

Then, come claims time you should be asked for council tax bills, which, if you do get 'unoccupied' status could land you in trouble.