Insurance Tips for Vacant Homes

A homeowner must maintain insurance under an average mortgage, where the homeowner is liable for damages incurred even when the home is vacant. However, the right insurance coverage can pay for incidents like robbery or vandalism for vacant homes. Here are the things that you must note if you want to maximize your vacant home’s insurance.

As defined by the court, a home is “vacant” if it does not have enough furniture for a resident living there. If there are no kitchen appliances, table, chairs, and at least one bed for sleeping, your insurer might have to apply for vacancy exclusions to the loss. In this case, you might need to spend thousands of dollars on attorney fees to contest your insurer’s decision.

Don’t wait for your vacant home to get vandalized before checking your insurance policy, as most homeowner’s insurance policies on vacant homes only last for 30 to 60 days. If you moved out more than a month ago, your house might have been already uninsured even if you have paid the premium for your policy, where you have to deal with these problems:

• Insurance policies will not cover vandalism and glass breakage.
• Insurers will not continue to insure a vacant home, nor are they willing to accept insurance for houses with canceled or non renewed policies due to vacancy reasons. Otherwise, the premium cost will be four to five times higher than before.

If you had no way to prevent your home from being vacant, you need to obtain an insurance policy for your unoccupied, higher risk, empty house. However, only two insurer types are willing to insure this circumstance: specialty companies and surplus line carriers.

If your home does not have insurance during its vacancy, you will be liable to fix the damages in the event of vandalism, which can imperil the short sale. As the short sale does not benefit the insurer, they can foreclose any time they want.



Having vacant home insurance can avoid anything that could impose risks on the short sale. It is better to deal with sales the fall short than a foreclosure as it has a lesser effect on your credit reports.

At Brad Spurgeon Insurance Agency Inc., we put our clients first by offering them policies that they can afford. Having insurance is a necessity nowadays, and we're here to help you out. Learn more about our products and services by calling our agency at (409) 945-4746. You can also request a free quote by CLICKING HERE.