Home Insurance for a mainly unoccupied house

S

Shoegirl

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Hi

Sadly my parents' house is unoccupied and the insurance is up in May, just wondering what the story is for reinsuring the house
My father is in a nursing home but comes out regularly to the house he just doesn't stay overnight in the property
we could move in for part of the week and summer if that makes a difference
all advice appreciated
 
Try Kidd insurance, mentioned in an earlier thread, they cover vacant and holiday homes. [broken link removed]
 
Talk to the current insurers. They might be prepared to offer renewal terms.
 
The most important issue from an insurance point is the house is heated during winter months to prevent water pipes from freezing/leaking.

Make sure you have a monitored alarm and costs should remain roughly the same.
 
Okay
just had alarm serviced + currently putting heating on for a few hours every second day
 
Sadly, alarm, heating, esb, etc make no difference. OCCUPANCY is the overriding concern to any underwriter. An unoccupied house is very difficult to insure. If you manage to get insurance, there will be conditions. At best, you will probably only get FIRE and PUBLIC LIABILITY cover. There is no possibility of you getting burst pipe cover, malicious damage, burglary etc. If you are dealing with a direct insurer, then call in and talk to them. If you are through a broker, talk to him/her. If you are dealing with an online only provider - forget it!
 
I have my parents house in the midlands which is now my holiday home.Costs 285 p.a. with full cover provided its heated and alarmed to a central station.
 
Coming back to this. One insurer told me we needed to have the heating system drained in the winter months. And the water switched off at the mains. And the house has to be kept above 5 degrees. And have a responsible person check the house. Or they can choose not to pay out. If you visit your unoccupied house regularly the only conclusion I can draw is that most people get normal insurance and then lie about when they last stayed there. Heating on a timer is not allowed it has to be 24hr heating whatever that is.
'Occupancy' seems to vary between someone having to live there 4 days per week or 30 or 35 days consecutive days unoccupied
You can't heat a house over the winter if you have told to drain the heating system. I don't get it...
 
Sadie, what you are referring to is a holiday home product. An insurer that is giving unoccupied cover would only give fire cover andtherefore wouldnt care about leaking water and burst pipes.
 
sadie said:
You can't heat a house over the winter if you have told to drain the heating system. I don't get it...
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You can get electrical heating with frost stats that will only kick-in of the heating falls dangerously low. If the house is well insulated and well maintained, should rarely if ever be an issue.
 
Leo said:
You can get electrical heating with frost stats that will only kick-in of the heating falls dangerously low. If the house is well insulated and well maintained, should rarely if ever be an issue.
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I have vacant/ occassionally used holiday home for past seven years. Water has to be turned off at mains over winter months for insurance purposes. It is well insulated/ ventilated so no issues around dampness.
 
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So how would you get cover for a house that is occupied summer, and at frequent weekends, Easter, halloween etc.
Therefore it looks like it is possible to get insurance where heating system is not drained but water turned off at mains - that's doable.
There is an attic heater that kicks in below 5 degrees I think.
We have the elderly owner in a nursing home, however they are fit enough to come back to the house when someone is free to take them for a weekend or weeks in the holidays.
 
You would go to a broker and and ask them for a quote for the property on a holiday home basis. They would then tell you the warranties regarding heating or draining. And you can either comply or you cant.
 
Some insurance companies seem to deal with the occupancy issue by specifying a set number of days beyond which certain benefits will be inoperative or limited.

For example, I am reading a HomeCare policy from Aviva and it specifies 60 days. Curiously enough it specifies 60 days in a row.
Link http://www.aviva.ie/online/media-library/Aviva%20HomeCare%20Policy%20Document.pdf

Generally, in this type of situation, there might be a temptation to engage in random occupancy to defeat the limitation. e.g. getting an adult child to sleep there for a few nights every so often. That might be likened to the old practice of people operating certain periods of residence in a country for taxation purposes !

I would be very careful about this as if there is substantial sustained unoccupancy underwriters might argue that there has been a change in the risk and that is a material fact which is to be disclosed at renewal.

Socially, this seems to be an increasing problem as more people cannot stay at home and go in to residential care but do not wish to sell the home.
 
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