Home holiday home insurance

Does anyone know of any company which does NOT insist, between the beginning of November and the end of March, that if a holiday home is unoccupied:

EITHER

the electricity and water are turned off and all the water in the house, including the central heating, is drained

OR

i) the heating is left on permanently at between 10c and 15c
or ii) the heating is permanently ready to come on under the control of a frost stat set at 4c or 5c?

every company insists on it for holiday homes. Due to the unoccupancy and risk of freezing etc. You won't find one who doesnt.

Last year, via a UK broker, it was possible to find companies which did not insist on the unoccupancy clauses. This year one company has withdrawn from insuring holiday homes in Ireland and another has gone over to the standard unoccupancy clauses.

We have used our holiday home on the west coast on and off during the winter period for the past 12 years and have never claimed. A relative puts the heating on when frost is forecast (not as often as with places further inland) and this has been fine even last winter and this winter. It seems sad that we might have to close our holiday home down whenever we leave in the winter as we don't want to have to go through the hassle of draining down and refilling the central heating more than once a year.

I still suspect that there may be companies or a company which will have less restrictive unoccupancy conditions but, perhaps after all the claims last year and this year, I'll be proved wrong.

I'm hoping someone might know of a company which will insure our holiday home with less restrictive conditions!

Any UK broker offering you a household product is going to be using various syndicates at Lloyds to insure your property. Those type of underwriters cover even less. I know of one who excludes damage by extreme temperatures.

No matter what policy you take out you need to read the full policy. One of the things I find annoying is that some brokers, both in Ireland and the UK, and some of the companies (on their websites) only offer a summary before you actually take out the policy. This is not good enough especially now that you can't assume that anything is covered without checking that there are no unexpected conditions attached.

Last year, from an Irish broker, I found that frost damage was covered i n the policy they recommended (provided via Lloyds) but with 500 euro extra excess. The summary cover, provided by the broker, did not mention the extra excess.

Easily the the most comprehensive cover I was offered last year with the fewest conditions was via a UK broker but it was by far the most expensive - sometimes you get what you pay for! This year they no longer provide cover in Ireland - probably because they had too many claims! I would have used them this year as they did not have the standard unoccupancy clause.

when you buy a policy it is subject to distance selling agreements. So you have 28 days to cancel the policy from inception should it not suit your needs. But its up to you to read the policy wording.