How so?

Unoccupied properties are riskier

Insurance companies typically worry a lot when a property is unoccupied. That’s not unreasonable because a property that’s unoccupied is typically at higher risk of running into problems.

Those problems may come in many different shapes and sizes such as:

• that tiny leak that becomes a major torrent over time because nobody is there to spot it;
• the burglar that has made unoccupied properties their speciality (in fact, burglars typically prefer unoccupied properties).

For these reasons plus others, a property with nobody living in it is something that insurance companies like to know about.

In fact, if your property is not occupied then having explicit unoccupied property insurance protection is typically necessary. Ordinary buy to let landlord insurance and traditional buildings and contents insurance may specifically exclude unoccupied buildings.

Unoccupied properties can ambush you

Sound absurd?

Well, it may happen to you if you change use of the property without thinking about the insurance implications.

For example, if you are a landlord and have an extended gap between lettings you may find that under the terms of the policy your property is now classed as unoccupied and the insurance invalidated. The period without tenants after which it may require explicit unoccupied property insurance is typically 30 days, depending on the insurer.

It may also be easy to overlook this if your property is empty for more than 30 days for re-decoration etc.

This isn’t just an issue for landlords. If you’re an owner-occupier, some owner-occupier buildings policies will also exclude properties that stand empty for more than 30 days.

So, some thoughts about unoccupied property insurance may be required if you come into one of the following categories:

• have extended gaps sometimes between tenants;
• plan to have the building empty for renovation or repairs;
• have a property empty whilst under probate;
• are planning an extended holiday, business trip or sabbatical;
• have an unoccupied property pending the outcome of a divorce; etc.

Buildings and contents

It may be worth keeping in mind that, in the same circumstances, there may be some issues relating to buildings versus contents.

Some unoccupied property cover may ask that certain possessions are removed from the home in the event you plan to leave it unoccupied for any period of time.

It may also be the case that some policies many have special conditions relating to the shutting off of water supplies and draining down of systems – particularly during the winter months.

Some forms of property and contents insurance may offer discounts and incentives if you take additional security precautions. Fitting alarms, deadlocks and bolts may be well received by the insurance company and reflected in lower premiums.

Discussion in advance

Speaking in advance to an insurance company about unoccupied property protection may save you trauma downstream.

If you have a problem while your property is unoccupied then you’ll want it resolved as fast as possible with the help of your insurance company. What you may not want at that stage is to hear that as you don’t have unoccupied property insurance, then there’s nothing they can do for you!

What difference does empty property make?

As a landlord, the last thing you presumably wish to see is your property standing empty. While it’s empty, you’re not earning income from it.

However, although it may not be any consolation, insurance companies are typically almost as unhappy as landlords when a property stands empty!

The trouble is, empty properties are typically at higher risk of certain types of problem than those that are occupied. Those problems may include forced entry, burglary and so on.

There are also typically higher risks that a small problem may arise, which is unnoticed and which subsequently causes a major catastrophe. That may include leaks and heating or electrical problems etc.

As a general principle, when risks increase then insurance providers typically charge a little more for protection and need to cover it explicitly in their policies.

That’s why unoccupied property insurance may be important to you if you are a landlord.

And even if you are not a landlord, if your property is standing empty (say due to you working or travelling away from home for a period of time, or maybe where the property is awaiting probate), then vacant property insurance may be worth considering.

When is a property empty?

That’s not always very easy to define. Typically buildings and contents insurance and buy to let house insurance, will use a definition along the lines that if a property stands empty for 30 days or more then it is classed as being unoccupied.

As a landlord, this may easily happen if you’re holding on for a new tenant or have the property empty for repair and redecoration etc. If you have a buy to let property that you’re upgrading, the same thing may apply.

As an aside, this isn’t just an issue for landlords – similar conditions may exist in owner-occupier insurance policies.

If your property has a problem while empty and your policy does not provide protection for unoccupied properties, then your claim may be rejected.

What can be done about it?

It isn’t always easy to grasp the insurance complications around empty properties.

Through our service we can help you understand your requirements in this area and help you find a solution that may be suitable for your needs. Unoccupied property insurance is available online via our easy to use quotation system. Or why not give our professional and friendly staff a call? They will aim to help you find suitable vacant property insurance, quickly and effectively..

A number of situations can lead to a property becoming vacant for 30 days including:

• a void period between tenants where the property needs to be renovated or redecorated;
• a newly purchased buy to let property that takes longer than the owner expected to let;
• a property whose owner has been sent abroad to work for a long period;
• a property whose owner has died and is taking a while to sell or for a sale to complete; or
• an uninhabitable property that is being renovated by its owners before they move in.

As you can see from the examples above, unoccupied property insurance is not just for landlords. Any type of property owner may find themselves with a vacant property.

Why is the cover different from regular building commercial contents insurance?

The fact that your property is empty means that it may ring alarm bells for some insurers. As such it may stand a higher risk of being broken into, vandalised and of course being damaged by natural “wet” risks like floods and storms. This is simply because no tenant or owner is typically on site to deal with any of those issues.

Accordingly, you may find that unoccupied property insurance is a little more expensive than a normal landlord building and contents insurance or owner-occupier home insurance quote.

As you can see from the list above, it is easy for a let or owner occupied property to cross over into the “vacant” category quite suddenly. If this does happen to you, it is important to inform your insurer if you believe that the property has been or will become empty for 30 days or more, because standard cover is typically excluded if the property stands unoccupied for this length of time.

Is there anything that you can do to reduce the risk?

There are a number of ways that you can demonstrate to an insurer that you have managed the risk of an empty property, which may result in a reduced premium or at least the availability of unoccupied property insurance where none was previously offered. For instance, you could:

• arrange for a regular inspection of the property;
• fit alarms;
• seal windows and doors; and
• turn off or drain heating systems to reduce the risk of pipes bursting.

You may also find that some of these pointers mentioned above may well be obligatory on your part in order to get empty property insurance, so do check what you need to do in order to keep your insurance valid.

How can our service help?

We offer a professional and efficient service to help you find the unoccupied property insurance that suits your property and your budget. You can either use our quote and buy online service; telephone; or contact us online for more information about a selection of policies from a variety of providers. We are always happy to help ensure that you get the most suitable empty property cover you need, and at a competitive price.

Certainly, the vulnerability of an empty house may attract the attention of not only the innocent passerby, but thieves, squatters, vandals and others up to no good. Most of us have seen a stereotypical example of an unoccupied property – the homes that practically advertise the fact that no one is living there because the garden is overgrown, cobwebs have grown across the windows, and there are never any lights on at night.

With empty property insurance, you can have the peace of mind that your property is protected against the unexpected. However, under the terms and conditions of your unoccupied property insurance, you will usually have to fulfil some obligations to your insurer in order to keep your vacant property insurance valid.

These may include things like regular visits to the property (say weekly or bi-monthly); draining down the heating systems; and ensuring you have adequate security measures in place etc.

You should also note that your insurer will generally also expect you to make sure that its being empty is not advertised too obviously!

What might you do?

The measures that might be taken to disguise the fact that the property is empty are largely a matter of common sense, but nevertheless still worth rehearsing:

• The unkempt garden is quite a giveaway, of course, so you might want to consider keeping the grass mowed and the garden generally tidy. If you are unable to do so, it might even be worth employing contractors to do the job for you;
• General maintenance of the property has the twin-fold benefit not only of helping to give the impression that someone is at home, but also preventing small repairs developing into much bigger ones. A slipped roof-tile, for example, might stay hanging over the gutter’s edge for years – or it might equally come crashing down through the conservatory roof;
• A trusted neighbour might be asked to look after a key to the property for you (always handy in the event of an emergency) and asked to enter it in from time to time to open / close the curtains and switch on a light or two. In areas of the house where curtains might not normally be drawn, a simple timer might be set up to switch an interior light on and off again;
• The same trusted neighbour (or even a different one!) might also be asked to park their car in the driveway of your unoccupied property from time to time and especially overnight – if the parking arrangements at their own property are already congested, they’re certainly likely to thank you for the opportunity.

In other words, there are a number of ways in which you might avoid advertising the fact that your property is currently lying idle and empty – your unoccupied insurance provider is likely to expect you to take these and other reasonable steps to do so.

• There could be a number of reasons why your property is empty and may benefit from vacant property insurance:
• you might have moved on to a new home, whilst leaving your former residence unoccupied pending its sale;
• perhaps you have inherited the property and it remains empty whilst you and other members of the family decide its future;
• it might be under repair or refurbishment that is extensive enough to warrant your moving out for the duration of the works;
• the previous reason might also apply to buy to let property of course, which is also likely to remain unoccupied for indefinite periods of time following the departure of one set of tenants until new ones move in.

With unoccupied property insurance, of course, you know where you stand with respect to not only to the “normal” risks faced by any property, but those additional risks likely to occur when the premises are standing empty.

These sorts of risks may include things like:

• burglars – when there’s no one at home to deter them, unoccupied houses may attract the unwelcome attention of would-be thieves;
• domestic emergencies – things that you may normally notice and can attend to before it grows in to something bigger – such as a leak – may go unnoticed in a property that is unoccupied.

This increased vulnerability is something that the insurer might be counted upon to have taken into account, meaning that getting an unoccupied property insurance policy in place could give your asset all-round protection against the unexpected.

The limitations of home insurance and insurance for buy to let property

The level of standard insurance cover on your home or the landlord insurance on property that you normally let is liable to become markedly more restricted if the dwelling is left empty for any appreciable period of time. That period varies from one insurer to another, but periods extending beyond 30 to 90 days are typical. After that time, purpose-designed unoccupied property insurance is likely to become necessary.

In the general scheme of things, insurers consider an empty property to be in a higher risk category – and not without good reason. The absence of anyone at home stands a greater chance of attracting the unwanted attentions of those out to cause vandalism or malicious damage, for example.

Property owners are expected to take reasonable steps not to advertise the fact that the building is obviously empty. Nevertheless, with no one there to prevent otherwise minor problems from getting out of hand, a small fire might turn into a blaze that razes the property to the ground, or the steady drip of a leaking tap becomes a major flood.

Residential and commercial properties

When insurance for unoccupied or empty property is being considered, it is important that the insurer knows the use to which it is normally put. One of the principal distinctions, for example is between properties for residential or commercial use. Unoccupied property insurance designed for a residential property is unlikely to provide suitable cover for a commercial building, and vice versa.

Although this specifically written form of insurance then continues to provide protection for the empty property, there are a number of areas in which insurers typically expect the owner to play their part in minimising the risks.

• Letting them know – it might seem like a statement of the obvious, but insurers have the right to know of any material changes affecting the property and it is the owner’s responsibility to inform them. If your property is unoccupied, therefore, you must inform your insurer or risk the cover becoming invalidated;
• Secure it – even with unoccupied property insurance in place, you are still responsible for ensuring that the building is properly secured, with doors and windows firmly closed and locked and any intruder alarms switched on;
• Inspect it – “a stitch in time”, as the saying goes, saves potentially far more work further down the line. Attention to that dripping tap or loose electrical connection might help to avert future calamity, but only if it is spotted in time. If you are able to satisfy your insurer that you or your agent is inspecting the unoccupied property on a regular basis, this might help you secure unoccupied property insurance more easily – and probably more cheaply;
• Don’t advertise it – the property might not be lived in, but that doesn’t mean you have to advertise the fact. Far from it. You might enlist a neighbour’s help, for example, by parking their car in the driveway from time to time, opening or closing the curtains, collecting unopened mail – anything to give the impression that there’s actually someone at home.

In other words, there are these and a number of other ways in which you might play your part by minimising the risk to your vacant property. Like any other form of insurance, there are two parties to the contract of unoccupied property insurance – you and the insurer.

Our website might help you to trawl through the options offered by different insurance providers and, at the click of a button, suggest some of those that are most suitable to the type of property you own and the reasons for its being empty for any period of time.

The reasons

There are a number of reasons why the property might be empty and each is likely to have a bearing on just how long it is going to be unoccupied. Whether it is your own home and principal place of residence or whether it is property you have bought as a buy to let investment, the dwelling might be kept empty whilst it is undergoing refurbishment or extension. Perhaps it is a property you have inherited and are waiting to sell. You might have already moved into a new home, yet need to wait a further period of time until the former home has been sold.

For all the possible reasons, however, there is likely to be an unoccupied property insurance policy that suits the particular building and the level of cover that is needed to protect it. Using our website to help identify the policy that best suits your needs and takes into account the reasons for the property’s temporary vacancy might result in your saving a considerable sum in the premiums you pay.

The types

Unoccupied properties come in all shapes and sizes. They might be large or small; in upmarket or less salubrious locations. Some are new, some are old. Some are normally owner-occupied, whilst others represent a let to buy investment as rented property.

The insurance

Whatever the reasons for the vacancy and whatever the normal use of the property, however, standard home insurance or buy to let landlord insurance is unlikely to continue to provide the full protection you need once the property has been unoccupied for a certain period of time (typically in excess of 30 or 90 days, depending on the policy.

This is when specialist unoccupied property insurance is needed in order to maintain the full range of safeguards for the property. Our simple and straight forward website, backed up by a specialist team of insurance advisors – who are also available to telephone for free – might come into its own by helping you choose the right policy for you.