Unoccupied Property Should Be Insured Too
By Saima Sultana
Insurance for unoccupied property in the UK is definitely very different from the standard home or building insurance policy. It is a non-standard type of insurance as the UK companies that make such insurances take into an account various circumstances. Often people might get surprised when they find that their ordinary home insurance policy does not cover the situation when the property has no occupant.
One of the first questions that arise in the process of getting an insurance policy for such type of property is for how long the property is supposed to be unoccupied. This depends mostly on the reason why the property is considered unoccupied.
Such reasons might be: the building might be empty because it is in a probate, the owner renovates it in order to sell it, there might be some construction works that expand the house, the house is prepared for tenants or the property is bought as a vacation or holiday home.
The majority of these reasons require a cover for a short period (no more than 30 days) and this is the most wanted type of unoccupied home insurances in UK. After that period the insurance usually could be transformed into a normal building insurance if the house gets occupied.
The cover for unoccupied properties in the UK also differs from company to company and depends on the conditions of the property, its intended purpose and period of vacancy. For a shorter period some of the policies require the house to be heated, for longer periods the policies might impose various actions to be done by the owner of the property for the cover to be active. Such actions might include finding a way to observe the property every one or two weeks (like asking a neighbour to take a look at the house), stopping electricity in the house, making regular drainages of the water, etc.
Insuring the unoccupied property is vital if the landlord or the owner wants to be sure any accidents that might happen during the period of vacancy will be covered. The usual insurance might not cover the period in which the house is unoccupied or the covered risks might be drastically lower in amount than the owner expects. These types of insurances are often tailored to the specified building and involve on site inspection .
If the property is in a stage of building or developing the policy usually does not has the content covered as such properties does not have any content inside. There are also two types of cover - the basic and the extended cover and the later might include risks like accidental or malicious damage.
If the property is being renovated for one to qualify for the extended cover, the extension or renovation works usually have to be done by a qualified contractor and not by the owner alone.
All these are things one has to have in mind when obtaining unoccupied property in the UK or the occupied property suddenly becomes vacant due to any reason. The most important is that the policy for an occupied property most probably won't cover the period when the building is empty. For such times a separate insurance for an unoccupied property should be purchased. And when the vacant period ends what is important is if there are any taxes or fees to convert the policy to one of occupied property insurance.
Active Insurance are the leaders in providing low cost unoccupied property insurance solutions. Short term and annual policies available.