Unoccupied Home Insurance

[Smithmas]

Hi All, planning to go on a 3 month trip to Australia / New Zealand, existing home insurance policy will not cover me for the time away.
Any advice, information or experience on who to use for unoccupied Home Insurance - I will have someone checking on the place along with trusted neighbours but want to ensure adequately insured.
Cheers.

 

[wessie]

I think you can go 30 days unoccupied. Don't you have a family member or friend that can stay there one weekend a month?

 

[littleade]

When my dad went into care he was with the Post Office and like you the existing underwriter woukdn't cover him for longer than was in the policy. Once this time was up they found him another underwriter who covered the house until we sold it about 5 months later and allowed us to pay monthly so we didn't have to pay for a full years cover. During that time I had to make a claim for a new sealed unit for the patio door after a stone got flung up by my strimmer when I was cutting the lawn but they settled it without any problems.

 

[wessie]

When my dad went into care he was with the Post Office and like you the existing underwriter woukdn't cover him for longer than was in the policy. Once this time was up they found him another underwriter who covered the house until we sold it about 5 months later and allowed us to pay monthly so we didn't have to pay for a full years cover. During that time I had to make a claim for a new sealed unit for the patio door after a stone got flung up by my strimmer when I was cutting the lawn but they settled it without any problems.

https://www.google.com/search?q=uno...MAiAYBkAYIkgcDNC40oAeQIQ&sclient=gws-wiz-serp suggests this is very much a thing

 

[SBD]

When my mum went into care, and subsequently died, I was able to keep her house insured - right through Covid - with John Lewis, who were great.

 

[stever1]

Hi All, planning to go on a 3 month trip to Australia / New Zealand, existing home insurance policy will not cover me for the time away.
Any advice, information or experience on who to use for unoccupied Home Insurance - I will have someone checking on the place along with trusted neighbours but want to ensure adequately insured.
Cheers.

Pay a bit more to get it extended.

 

[Pepsi]

A word of warning with insurance for an unoccupied residential property.
You can buy a cheap policy which will indeed cover the property but there will be some critical exclusions, one being malicious damage.
Long story short my Dad died back in 2020, the Mrs and I were executors and foolishly we took some bad advice and insured the vacant property with a company who we thought were offering appropriate cover.
Unfortunately someone then tried to break into the house by driving a stolen car through the double front doors. They missed and hit the corner of the house instead and frustrated at not being able to get into the house they then smashed the two front bay windows and also damaged the frames in the process.
I contacted the insurance company who announced that as the damage was malicious they couldn’t help as that was an exclusion of the policy. I checked and indeed it was. Obviously my fault entirely but I just assumed the policy would cover all forms of damage and as I was busy with dealing with other aspects of the estate it never occurred to me to check the exclusions.

I paid for the repairs myself which weren’t cheap but in the meanwhile I found, (with great difficulty) a company who would cover for malicious damage albeit the policy was about five times more expensive than the previous policy.

A valuable life lesson learned by me!

 

[Smithmas]

Pay a bit more to get it extended.

I definitely will, it's just who with - my existing underwriters and brokers won't cover it and will cancel the policy.

 

[Smithmas]

I paid for the repairs myself which weren’t cheap but in the meanwhile I found, (with great difficulty) a company who would cover for malicious damage albeit the policy was about five times more expensive than the previous policy.

A valuable life lesson learned by me!

Who were said company - agree it is proving difficult.

 

[JoolsB]

I had exactly the same issue in 2023. I have my insurance arranged via a broker and solved the problem by arranging in advance to finish the policy 30 days into my trip (also NZ by the way) having used the 30days unoccupied part of my policy and then starting a new policy which had a 60 unoccupied facility. There were conditions to it. It was over the winter so had to set the central heating to come on if the temp dropped below a certain level. Had to open the hatch to attic and had a pal call by every 2 weeks she signed her name with a date on bit of paper as a record of having checked the place over. Worked well but obviously it costs to cancel the existing policy early but the refund I did get the broker used to the new policy. I'd left them my card details and they just emailed me with the actual cost of the new insurance to check I still wanted to proceed when the time came. All worked well.

 

[Deleted account 251212001]

Privilege (Direct line?) covered a house i was selling fairly recently, which was unoccupied for a long period (9 months). They had really good customer service I thought, having called them to arrange and cancel again on the sale. Seem to recall a water damage exclusion in the policy though, eg dripping tap/burst pipe damage excluded.

 

[Pepsi]

Who were said company - agree it is proving difficult.

Okay so the company I switched to who did provide a very comprehensive degree of cover including malicious damage, i.e. someone trying to break into the property and causing damage was called A-Plan Insurance. They are based in Bromley, telephone number 02037-953813.
Twelve months cover back in 2020 cost me £1067.
I only needed the cover for about three months as we then sold the property and I was refunded £786, so I didn’t think that was too bad for peace of mind.

 

[Smithmas]

Cheers Pepsi

 

[crumbles]

A Plan insurance.....Is now part of Howdens....same staff different name...

 

[Smithmas]

Okay so the company I switched to who did provide a very comprehensive degree of cover including malicious damage, i.e. someone trying to break into the property and causing damage was called A-Plan Insurance. They are based in Bromley, telephone number 02037-953813.
Twelve months cover back in 2020 cost me £1067.
I only needed the cover for about three months as we then sold the property and I was refunded £786, so I didn’t think that was too bad for peace of mind.

A Plan insurance.....Is now part of Howdens....same staff different name...

Thanks again all - Howdens (formerly A Plan) really delivered on both the unoccupied house and travel insurance that includes motorbikes above 125cc.

• Unoccupied House Insurance - £476 for 12 months cover (includes the good stuff like floods, storms, malicious damage etc) (closest I could find myself was £656 just for the trip)
• Travel Insurance (Annual up to 93 days per trip) plus covers motorcycles above 125CC etc was £249.17 (Navigator who I usually used was £297 just for the single trip)

Appreciated

 

[gspod]

Check the small print.
Our policy said that someone had to check on the house every…. Can’t remember. But no one was allowed to stay overnight.

 

[mort77uk]

M&S insurance covers for 90 days unoccupied.

 

[JoolsB]

M&S insurance covers for 90 days unoccupied.

That's excellent to know. Any conditions while you're away? For example anyone needs to call in to check the place etc?

 

[Robbo1200ADV]

We were burgled while our house was being modernised and we had moved to a flat . Insurance paid nothing nada zilch . All my tools etc . Changed insurance Co . Lost a lot . 30 days is the maximum usually

 

[mort77uk]

That's excellent to know. Any conditions while you're away? For example anyone needs to call in to check the place etc?

No, no checks required. Our old insurer (Aviva) required someone to check every 30 days, but not M&S which is why we switched.