Home insurance - unoccupied family homes

bargainhunter888

Hi All,
Wondering if people on here can give me advice on how to approach this.
My parents were away visiting relatives in their native country when my dad suffered a massive stroke, as a result, he is now severely disabled and unable to return for the time being and my mum is there caring for him.

I'm trying to manage the day to day stuff and have a dilemma about home insurance.
The home is there's but I'm aware it's now at greater risk, the plan would still be to buy insurance in their names as it's their home, however most insurance companies make sure that it's not unoccupied for more than 30 or 60 days.

I go home every 2-3 weeks to sort letters and general upkeep so how should the home be insured? as I seem to be getting different answers
1) Said it needs to be classed as unoccupied as staying there every 2-3 weeks doesn't count as regular occupancy
2) said that it's OK as long as a family member is staying over night, I queried how do I prove this and they said you can take pictures to prove you have been there?

my question is why wouldn't scenario 1 be acceptable? the house isn't empty, it's fully furnished and its regularly visited weekly, but just isn't slept in?

My main concern is should something happen such as theft, or burst pipes etc., there's nothing of value in the house.

How should I go about this?
1) Am I OK to still insure in their name - ensuring occupants are themselves or family members
2) Do I need to insure it as unoccupied?
3) If I insure it as just a normal permanent home, how does that affect things when it comes to claiming? where's the evidence it's not been lived in every week?

Thanks for your help.

tacpot12

These are really questions for the insurers. I think they will be okay with you arranging the insurance if the policy holder is one of the owners of the house (so your Mum or your Dad). 

If they are happy to insure it as a long as a family member stays one night every week, then someone will need to stay
there. The alternative is to insure it as unoccupied. The higher cost of insurance might be offset but the saving in travel costs. You should perhaps consult an insurance broker to see if you can get a better price for unoccupied insurance. 

If you just insure it as a normal home, and your parents needed to claim, the insurers would ask questions about how the home was occupied, and who discovered the problem that led to the claim and it would be very likely to come out that your parents were out of the country and not occupying the home. This could lead to a very big and expensive problem, so I don't think anyone would recommend this.

If the insurers are happy with someone staying overnight one day a week, then that person needs to take photo with a SmartPhone that adds meta-data to the images in the evening and in the morning. I think it would be best if the images were of a slept-in bed and any dirty pans or takeaway containers from cooking an evening meal or having a takeaway. The meta-data needs to include the GPS location of the photo and the date and time it was taken. 

You should turn the water off at the stopcock to prevent leaks in the house while your parents are away. You will leave to need the heating on, but it can be turned down low. Consult a heating engineer if you are not sure how your parent's heating system works. 

If your parent's don't already have a "SureStop" stopcock fitted on their water supply, I would get them one fitted while they are away. It makes turning the water on and off just like operating a light switch especially if you get them the remote version. This is easier and more certain than using the stopcock to turn the water off if someone is going to be doing this on a weekly basis.

Taking a photo of the stopcock turned off when you arrive at the property and also when you leave will provide further evidence that the property was being visited and that the water was being turned off when it was unoccupied. You could also take a photo of the heating controls when you arrive to show that the heating was being left on enough to avoid any leaks from the central heating system (assuming there is a central heating system and that it uses water).  

bargainhunter888

Thanks for your help.
One of the insurers did suggests photos, but it seemed trivial to me but also a bit of a hassle.
we do have the heating and hot water on.

sorry this sounds very amateur however, if we turned the stop !!!!!! off but had the hot water on, is this possible? I'm conscious that if the water drains for whatever reason and the hot water is turned on, then it could over heat and blow.

we have central heating, but it's not a combi system as far as I'm aware.

one of the insurers was HomeProtect, however they stipulated that cover is not available for escape of water between Oct > Apr which also is a bit weird.

I guess I'll have to find out more.