Empty House Insurance
When your House is left empty for any reason – it’s important that you have the correct building insurance in place.
Conventional Buildings Insurance will not cover an empty house – so you must cancel your ordinary policy and replace it with Vacant Property Insurance/Unoccupied Property Insurance.
There are various levels of cover that you can choose for your empty house, and the most common is FLEEA.
This policy would include:
• Fire
• Lightening
• Explosion
• Earthquake
• Aircraft Collision
Of course, your property owner’s Legal Liabilities would also be included as standard.
You will notice that Flood and Subsidence are missing from this basic insurance as many believe that if your property is not at risk from flooding generally, then there is no need to pay for it, and it is also unlikely that your empty house will subside suddenly during this short term of insurance – and therefor an unnecessary cost too.
The middle level of cover would include the Flood cover, and the Comprehensive level of cover would include Subsidence too.
For peace of mind – some people may choose comprehensive levels of cover – particularly if the property will be empty for some time. These policies would typically be 9 or 12-month policies.
FLEEA Cover would be recommended for short-term empty houses Insurance – perhaps while a property is completing a sale, or being decorated/updated. Short-term Insurance would be 3 or 6-month policies.
Empty House Insurance has tiered costing to match the level of cover you choose, and the term of the insurance. FLEEA with the very short-term of 3 months, will have the lowest premiums. Comprehensive cover at 12 months term will have the highest premiums – but this will sometimes be necessary, it depends on the circumstances of the individual empty house.
You may need empty house insurance due to:
- Waiting for a sale to complete
- Renovation works
- Re-decoration and updating
- Probate
- While you decide what to do with an unoccupied/empty property you have become responsible for it.
During Renovation works, the empty house insurance would be more bespoke, and individually written depending on the works being carried out. Any demolition works for example will carry certain criteria set down by the insurer which will be applied on an individual basis – once a full schedule of works has been reviewed by the underwriter (if a schedule of works is available – it is best to submit it with a quote request as this could reduce your premium by showing the insurer exactly what will be happening at the property).
If the renovation is low risk – this will be reflected in the premium you are required to pay.
