Is my home insured while vacant?
Wondering if your home is insured while vacant or unoccupied? A lot of companies have a distinction between them. Here’s an easy way to distinguish:
An unoccupied home primarily means that there’s stuff in the home. It has everything to make it look like anyone could come home at any moment. Couches, beds, silverware, all that. While a vacant home has no furniture, appliances, no dishes. It’s pretty much completely empty.
Here are some common reasons why a home is vacant:
- A recently purchased home and you’re not ready to move into it yet because you have to wait to sell your current home first.
- An inherited home that is now in probate so nothing can happen to it until it’s finished. This might take anywhere from 90 days to 5+ years to go through the probate process!
- A landlord property that is not currently inhabited and may not be for over 30 days while a new tenant is found.
- A Rental property that is undergoing renovations – minor cosmetic or structural changes.
Each insurance carrier has different guidelines on how they handle vacant homes. Many companies will change coverage after 30 days of it being uninhabited, which means lots of perils are not covered like freezing, theft, and vandalism, just to name a few. Other insurance companies will offer coverage for closer to 60 days, which is awesome but is less common. Some carriers just won’t insure theft or vandalism for a vacant home, period.
That’s where we step in!
You don’t need to do any of the work because we’ll do it for you. That’s why it’s important that you let us know if your home is now empty or vacant, and as of what date, so that we can make sure we find coverage for your home in the event of a loss, or let you know if there won’t be any coverage at all, regardless of what carrier we’ll put you with. We can make sure we set your expectations and be informed of what you should be looking at with insurance once your home becomes vacant or unoccupied and make sure that you are properly taken care of.
So, if you have a home in Texas that is unoccupied or vacant and need coverage, we’re happy to be your agent.
Please feel free to give us a call at our office in Denton, in the DFW area, at 940-268-5112.
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