Why You Need Unoccupied Home Insurance


by R Quade - Date: 2010-05-09 - Word Count: 393 Share This!

Here's a scenario to consider: You have a family emergency halfway across the country, so you take a leave of absence from your job, pick up your family, and leave. You're gone for about five weeks, and when you get home, you discover that your home has been broken into and that all of your electronics and jewelry are nowhere to be found. Obviously you call your insurance company, calmly explaining what the problem is and where you were when it happened. And then your insurance agent asks the fateful question: How long were you away from home?

Now, you could always fib, but if you don't want to get caught in a lie, you'll just say that you were gone for five weeks. Then, your insurance agent will say that they will not cover the damages to your home or the loss of your property. Why is this? Well, you didn't have unoccupied home insurance.

Here's how this works. When you buy a home and take out insurance on it, your insurance company makes the logical assumption that you are going to live in it most of the time. If you are gone for more than thirty days, there's a very, very good chance that thieves will pick up on the fact and start planning to raid your home while you're away. In fact, the theft rate skyrockets for homes whose owners are gone without house sitters or someone to check on the house during the day for even a couple of weeks at a time.

If your insurance company finds out that you aren't going to be home for a long stretch of time, it may cancel your insurance. In fact, there may be a clause stating something like that fact in your insurance policy's contract. This is just one tool that insurance companies have to mitigate their risk, which is what they're all about.

So , in order to keep from losing your insurance, you need to either have someone stay at your home or shop around for unoccupied home insurance. These policies will probably be more expensive than your normal homeowners policy because, of course, you're asking the insurance company to take on more risk. However, paying the extra premium is nothing compared to having to replace all of your jewelry, electronics, and other valuable items out of pocket when you get home.

Related Tags: rental insurance, tenant insurance, apartment insurance

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