Home Vacant home insurance after fire

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IrishGunner

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We have been out of our house 4 months due to fire and its getting renovated

We are due to move back in around Easter.

Insurance told us we need to get vacant insurance and then when we move in cancel that get refund and then get new policy. So it's insurance just for over a month

However the policy price is €2100

Going to ring around see if we can get other quotes

Any tips or suggestions as large price just to pay for the month
 
A broker will be the best option.

If the alarm is working and there are works going on then I'd question it being regarded as vacant.
 
peemac said:
A broker will be the best option.

If the alarm is working and there are works going on then I'd question it being regarded as vacant.
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There is currently no electricity in the house as getting re wired and once re wired then cert can be issued and then power can be turned on. Also new alarm getting installed

So is it a case of its not categorized as 'vacant'
 
If shopping around, check that you can cancel at any time.

As an executor I got unoccupied house insurance, the €850 annual premium had to be paid up front, and there was a minimum term of 6 months, thereafter it could be cancelled and a refund sought.

€2,100 is very high, is that because of the recent fire claim ?
 
IrishGunner said:
There is currently no electricity in the house as getting re wired and once re wired then cert can be issued and then power can be turned on. Also new alarm getting installed

So is it a case of its not categorized as 'vacant'
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Most likely is correctly classified as no alarm working, no-one there and therefore a sitting duck should some dodgy people find out. Still expensive though and a broker will be best.
 
Are you mixing up 'vacant' insurance (and to be honest, I don't know what that means), with a rebuilding insurance policy, which covers all your liabilities as 'client' and probably covers the building in the course of renovation?
 
Ravima said:
Are you mixing up 'vacant' insurance (and to be honest, I don't know what that means), with a rebuilding insurance policy, which covers all your liabilities as 'client' and probably covers the building in the course of renovation?
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At the moment there is no power or gas in the house and its currently getting fully renovated. The only possessions in the house are fridge, washing machine, dishwasher and dryer. The Alarm is not connected but the house is well sealed up and locks on all windows and doors.

Insurance expired at the end of Feb and not sure if Builder had an accident in the house what would be the outcome

At this rate we are planning to be back in the house by Easter so dont know how this works ?
 
IrishGunner said:
Insurance expired at the end of Feb and not sure if Builder had an accident in the house what would be the outcome
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Probably a bit late now but you should ensure the builder has employer and public liability insurance.
 
You as 'client' have duties and should insure against them. You need to have a proper policy covering all your liabilities, which at €2100 is (very) reasonable in my opinion, if indeed that is the policy you have been quoted.
 
I also had a lot of trouble getting instance for an occupied property I was renovating. This insurance underwriter in Ringsend managed to sort me out with a policy: https://aikenco.ie/ I was also able to cancel as soon as the renovation was complete and I moved in and I received a refund of the money I had paid for the rest of the year.
 
We were selling our old house and only found out that if you are out of the house more than two months i think, your original house insurance is invalid. We took a chance and left it as it is without the special insurance you need. Thankfully it sold without hicup.
 
Unfortunately I have some experience on this topic... After our house fire, we had a similar experience:
  • Nobody is "sleeping" there (even if activity during the day), so considered "vacant".
  • This "vacant" insurance is separate to the builders insurance - it's for the scenario where the local no-good teenagers break into it at night, have a party & burn down the house again...
  • If memory serves me correct, when I went to other insurance companies, we had to flag we had an open claim & then they refused to quote us - so we were stuck with our current provider. We also had to have our rental insurance with our original provider.
  • Insurance while house was "vacant" while renovations were on-going were significantly higher than standard house insurance. Couldn't figure out why unless it's a way of the insurance company to recover some of their losses on the rebuild
Is the fault of the fire know? Who is at fault? Depending on response, you could be able to claim this additional insurance.

In my circumstances, insurance company were a disaster to deal with... Didn't help that they had a conflict of interest & fought us on everything. :mad: While one of my neighbors had a similar house fire 2 years before us & a different insurance company - they were sorted quickly & painlessly.
 

Thanks yes in the same situation

The Vacant is until we move back in which is 2-3 weeks and the balance of the insurance claim due to be paid soon and then we can work with insurance to see if we can get insurance. We know it will go up but we just want to know for how many years will we be for want of a better word punished.

The fault was a electric blanket and insurance tried to get manufactures name but we did not have any details on it

As claim was over €100k no broker or insurance seem to want to go near us so how long before they will ?

If anyone has suggestions of brokers, companies or anyone whom possible deals with these scenarios let us know

We are using Chill and they said only Plum will quote us the €2k vacant insurance and this is for 3 weeks so not sure what next step to take
 
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