If you have to leave your home temporarily unoccupied for a month or more, it becomes not only more vulnerable to the risks of loss or damage but might also pose a hazard to neighbours and passersby. These and other issues need to be addressed to comply with the legal and other aspects of your temporarily vacant property.
Hazardous structures
As the owner of the building, you may be held legally responsible for any injury or damage it causes to others – your neighbours or passersby. In other words, your unoccupied property must not pose a health and safety hazard to others.
Broken glass on doors and windows for example, could cause complaints.
To prevent your home becoming a nuisance or hazard to neighbours and the public, you are obliged to keep it in a reasonable condition and good state of repair.
Legal requirements may include keeping the property in reasonable condition to avoid it becoming a nuisance or hazard to neighbours and the public.
Fire safety
A closely related health and safety aspect is the fire safety of an unoccupied home.
You must make sure that your unoccupied home continues to comply with all the relevant fire safety regulations – and that you remove any flammable materials and maintain your smoke detectors, fire alarms, and extinguishers where necessary.
Further useful advice and guidance is available on the government website.
Council tax
Don’t forget that even when your home has been empty for any length of time, you are still responsible for paying the Council Tax when it falls due.
This is discussed further in our blog: The hidden things you need to know when you have an empty property.
Do note that since your liability for Council Tax may vary from one authority to another, you will do best to contact the particular council concerned.
Regulatory compliance
Owners must comply with local regulations regarding property standards, even if the property is unoccupied. For example, some councils require vacant properties to meet specific external appearance standards to avoid impacting neighbourhood aesthetics.
The need for unoccupied property insurance
In addition to any legislative and regulatory obligations for your temporarily vacant home, there are also conditions your unoccupied property insurance provider is almost certain to impose.
Unoccupied property insurance is necessary since your regular home insurance is likely to become severely restricted – or may even lapse altogether – once your home has been unoccupied for longer than 30 to 60 consecutive days (the precise limit varying from one insurer to another).
Beware that even though unoccupied property insurance may restore the safeguards and protection your home continues to need, there are still several conditions with which you’ll almost always need to comply:
- to mitigate the risk of loss or damage, you must take all reasonable security measures for your home – locks, alarms, and perhaps even security cameras to ward off vandals and prevent break-ins;
- depending on your insurer, you may be required to keep the policy at an ambient temperature to avoid frozen pipes etc;
- some insurers and local authorities advise turning off water and gas supplies in unoccupied properties to prevent potential hazards like water damage or gas leaks. So it is important to check with your unoccupied property insurance provider to understand what your obligations are;
- although your unoccupied property insurance may provide public liability cover for anyone injured in your empty home – even those who have entered it illegally – your insurer still needs you to take every precaution against such unauthorised access; and
- to ensure that your home never gives any impression of having been abandoned and to check on the need for any emergency repairs or maintenance, your insurer will also likely insist on regular visits and inspections – when every inspection visit must be appropriately recorded and logged.
Throughout the time your home is temporarily unoccupied, therefore, there are a number of legal and other requirements with which you must comply.
Further reading:
Technological solutions for monitoring unoccupied properties
