Unoccupied house insurance: is there an insurer that doesn't require weekly inspections?

SouthLondonUser

I need insurance for an unoccupied house. Every single insurer and broker I have contacted requires the property be inspected every 7 days, by me or by an authorised representative.

Do you know of any insurer that requires less frequent inspections?

I understand they don't want the property to remain uninspected for months, but every week seems excessive; after all, a typical policy for a property you live in allows you to leave the property unoccupied for about a month, without requiring inspections in that period - and that would be a property with lots of appliances left on, so would arguably present a much greater risk than an empty property with just a boiler and maybe an alarm.

Thanks!

PS another unreasonable term demanded by some insurers (luckily, not all) is that the electricity be switched off. I find that idiotic; leaving aside alarms, boilers need electricity to function. With the boiler off, pipes can freeze, and too cold a house can create other problems: indeed some insurers require you to keep the house at a minimum temperature during winter.

Linton

When I had the same problem I arranged for the EA to check the house for a small fee as he was often in the area, with the cost being included in his bill. Our insurer may have been weekly or fortnightly, I dont remember but I dont think you can get away with anything less frequent. The insurers were OK with electricity being left on for the burglar alarm though gas wasnt an issue as the house was sold before the winter. I would expect them to be reasonable if you talk to them.

SouthLondonUser

Linton wrote: »

I would expect them to be reasonable if you talk to them.

The first ones weren't. When I pointed out that boilers need electricity to function and that pipes can freeze, their response was I can drain the pipes! Luckily there are other insurers which are more reasonable on this front.

The property isn't being put up for sale - we are waiting to finalise some details before a refurbishment starts, so there is no estate agent that can inspect the property weekly.

I guess we'll have to swallow the weekly inspection part... Maybe a keyholding company can do that, but that will end up being very expensive

PasturesNew

A neighbour might be prepared to do it weekly, for, say, £10-20. "Just pop round, pick up mail and put it in this box, take 2-3 photos of the rooms to prove you were there/everything's OK (in case/to prove to insurance)"?

If it were a next door neighbour they'd also have eyes/ears out 24/7.

Give them a camera phone registered in your name, to your address..... and it's your camera, being present....

p00hsticks

First google search produced this advertised link so I presume you;ve already tried it ?

https://www.ukinsurancenet.com/unoccupied-insurance/


I'm surprised by what you say - we have holiday home insurance that only requires us to visit monthly. We are required to maintain a minimum temperature but there's no requirement to turn water or electricity off.

SouthLondonUser

PS I do wonder if the weekly inspection thing is something they add as a get-out-of-jail card: should I ever need to claim, they'll probably challenge me saying I didn't inspect, I didn't document the inspections properly, etc...

MovingForwards

If a property is empty for a long period of time, especially over winter with probate sales, one of the terms of the insurance was to drain the water pipes to avoid them freezing and bursting.

With the probate properties the solicitor, one of us or the EA would pop in each week to give it a once over, grab any post and lock up again.

SouthLondonUser

p00hsticks wrote: »

First google search produced this advertised link so I presume you;ve already tried it ?

https://www.ukinsurancenet.com/unoccupied-insurance/
.

These guys hadn't actually shown up on my searches. I guess search results are customised based on location history and whatever else Big Tech knows about us...

One of the insurers on their panel, UK General, requires inspections every 14 days - everyone else I found requires it every 7. But these guys are also much more expensive: about £700 vs the £300 of HomeProtect.

Anyway, thanks for the link!

p00hsticks

Just double checked and out holiday home insurance is arranged via these people
http://www.myinsurancequotes.co.uk/documents/975/

It allows for a 60 consecutive days unoccupancy period.

The restrictions on utilities is as follows;

Between 1st November and 31st March both days inclusive, if the home is left without anoccupant for more than 48 hours you must ensure that the main water supply is turned off by means of a stopcock at the first available point of entry of the water supply to the home. Where the home is left without an occupant for 14 consecutive days IN ADDITION all water tanks must be emptied by leaving both hot and cold kitchen taps fully open.
or:

: IF YOU WISH TO LEAVE THE WATER SUPPLY TURNED ON BETWEEN 1ST NOVEMBER AND 31ST MARCH BOTH DAYS INCLUSIVE, YOU MUST ENSURE:
• the entire home benefits from a heating system being gas or oil fired central heating or a geothermal or full electric heating system (not night storage heaters), fitted with automatic controls and a separate thermostat. The system must be set to operate continuously for 24 hours of each day (not controlled by any timing device) and the thermostat set at not less than 10 degrees Celsius and, where fitted, the loft hatch door left open.
or:
• If the heating system as described above is installed and is additionally fitted with a "frost stat" that is designed and installed to override all other heating controls, irrespective of their functional
status, then this may be set to operate at not less than 4 degrees Celsius.

Not sure if this is suitable for you, but hope this helps

Zorillo

Try a broker to explore the commercial market. Vasek are a well-regarded unoccupied property insurer.

But you may find it 'expensive'. That's the cost of choosing not to comply with cheaper insurance companies requirements.

Nebulous2

We have a holiday house, which requires 7 day checks. However we don't need to switch off the electricity. There's an option of draining the water / heating system from 1/10 to 31/3 or heating it to 5 degrees. Draining it isn't sensible, as we are there most weekends, so we have Hive installed and heat it to 7 to be safe.