A property can become unoccupied or empty for several valid reasons:
- you are taking an extended holiday;
- as the landlord of let property, you may face a void between former tenants moving out and new ones being found;
- your job might have called you to work away from home – perhaps overseas – for several months at a time;
- the property might be in the throes of extensive renovation or other building works;
- if you are moving home, you might have moved into the new house whilst the old one remains empty pending its sale; or
- you may have an interest in a property that is subject to probate – which is currently unoccupied pending completion of that process.
Implications for your insurance
Whatever the reason for your house or let property standing empty, there is almost certain to be some impact on the home or landlord insurance which usually protects it.
If the property has been empty for more than 30-45 consecutive days, your current insurers typically reduce the scope of the cover on the property to just the basics of protection (the precise interval varies from one insurer to another), and some may even consider the cover to have lapsed altogether after this time.
Why is this?
There’s no doubt about it, vacant property attracts more than its fair share of risks and perils. In a special briefing for members of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), several principal areas of vulnerability were identified.
Those concerns can be summarised along the following lines:
- with no one on the premises, otherwise routine maintenance issues may go unnoticed and create a major crisis;
- there is a greater risk of a fire taking hold and potentially gutting the whole building;
- security is a bigger issue as the threat of theft puts at risk not only the contents of the property, but even valuable materials used in its construction;
- an empty property tends to become a magnet for vandals, arsonists, and all manner of other unwanted intruders; and
- the absence of any other occupant may attract the unwelcome attention of squatters.
As these and other risks assume greater and greater proportions the longer the premises remain unoccupied, so the property insurance cover normally in place becomes insufficient.
What does unoccupied property insurance cover?
To restore the cover needed to safeguard your property, therefore, specialist unoccupied property insurance is required.
This may take several forms.
Unoccupied property insurance sold by some providers, for example, may only restore still very limited cover – sometimes known as FLEA (protecting the building and its contents against the risks identified by their initials – fire, lightning, explosions and earthquakes, and aircraft).
Other options may include full protection against loss or damage to the structure and fabric of the building or its contents from such potentially severe risks as flooding, fire, storm damage, escape of water, impacts, vandalism and theft.
Also restored is the all-important property owner’s or landlord’s public liability insurance which grants you indemnity against claims from visitors to the property, neighbours or members of the public who may be injured through some contact with it or have their own property damaged.
You may even require short term empty property cover for shorter periods of time, such as if you have a probate policy or your property is undergoing renovations. Flexible options are available such as cover for 3, 6 or 9 months.
Which empty property insurance is the most suitable for me?
Getting the most suitable type of this standalone form of insurance to meet your needs and circumstances might call for specialist knowledge of the market in what is essentially something of a niche product. You might, therefore, want to consult experts in this field – such as those of us here at Cover4LetProperty.
Whatever the reasons – and there are many – for your having to leave the property empty, the vacancy frequently has a habit of overrunning your original estimate. Finding a policy that may be flexibly extended, therefore, may be an important feature.
If you are a landlord, one of the reasons for the property becoming vacant is the termination of one tenancy and the inevitable delay until new tenants are found.
There is also the rather special case of tenants who have simply abandoned the let property. Not only does this leave you an empty property on your hands but also the potentially fraught and complicated business of determining whether the tenant has surrendered or abandoned the property.
In an article updated on the 10th of November 2021, online agents Letting a Property described the problems you run if tenants have simply upped and left your property – leaving the premises vulnerable and vacant, yet still with lawfully recognised tenants.
If you have bought an empty property with the specific intention of renovating it for you to live in or to let to tenants, you may find that some insurers are reluctant to offer cover on premises such as this from inception. Once again, therefore, you might want to consult a specialist insurance provider.
Playing your part
Just as with other forms of insurance, protection for unoccupied property also anticipates you playing your part to mitigate the risks of loss or damage.
The extent to which you may be expected to take reasonable precautions may depend of course on the nature of the building and whether it is normally in commercial or residential use. Amongst some of the most common conditions, however, are likely to be the following:
- ensuring that routine maintenance is done to keep the structure and fabric of the building in a good state of repair;
- locks, deadbolts, alarms and other security devices on doors and windows to a standard relevant to the type and size of building in question;
- regular inspections of the premises, with a written record of each visit;
- for residential property many of the precautions any insurer is likely to expect you to take are largely matters of good common sense;
- ensuring that deliveries are promptly taken inside and out of sight by a neighbour, for example;
- asking the same neighbour to park their car on your drive – to give the impression that there is someone at home;
- making sure that your garden continues to be tended and any litter cleared away;
- the use of time switches to turn on a light or two in the evenings; and
- making sure of course that all doors and windows remain firmly locked.
Precautions such as these – and any other conditions your insurer might impose – are important if you want to avoid the possibility of your own contributory negligence being cited by the insurer as the reason for a reduced settlement of any claim.
For further reading on this subject, you might want to review our Guide to Unoccupied Property.
