The responsibilities that a homeowner has can be quite daunting. From ensuring your property is well maintained to dealing with pesky homeowners association drama, there is simply a lot that can burden you. Given how overwhelming the experience can sometimes be, it is easy to forget certain important aspects.
Homeowners are familiar with mortgages and other fees, but something that they don’t think of that often is the importance of getting insurance for their property if it is going to remain vacant.
Of course, most people aren’t leaving their homes unoccupied for extended periods. However, if this is something that you might be doing, getting insurance for your home can be a worthy investment. Let’s find out why.
What is Vacant Property Insurance
Vacant Property insurance is a type of instance that specifically prevents property owners from facing financial loss due to damage or any other unexpected events when their property is vacant and unused.
This sort of damage can come from vandalism, break-ins, and theft, as well as from any natural or man-made issues such as water leakage and outbreaks of fire.
Vacant property insurance is usually needed when a piece of property is left unoccupied for more than thirty days. It might also be sixty days, but after this point, insurance companies will view the house as vacant, and you will need to get vacant property insurance.
Also, by this time, it is not uncommon for people to start noticing that your property is being left unused and vacant.
Seneca insurance can be an option worth looking at if you have plans of leaving your home unattended for some time. They have a presence in all 50 states and a lot of experience in not just vacant property insurance but a wide range of other policies that are interesting as well.
Though they sound similar, vacant property insurance shouldn’t be confused with regular homeowner’s insurance or landlord insurance. With regular homeowner insurance, the policy typically covers damage to the structure of the home, personal belongings as well as liabilities from injuries that may occur on your property.
This is different from vacant property insurance, which is specifically focused on covering risks of vandalism, theft, fire, and other liabilities in the context of a home that is unoccupied for an extended period of time.
The Risks of Leaving Your Property Uninsured
There are a lot of unsavory elements that are more than happy to take advantage of a vacant home. Perhaps the most troublesome situation to deal with is squatters, people who believe that if no one lives in a home, then there’s no harm in staying in it.
To make matters worse for homeowners, squatters often have legal rights in some jurisdictions if they have been squatting on your home or property for an extended period of time.
Theft is another common problem that comes with a vacant home. It is easy to spot homes that are unoccupied, and thieves are experienced in knowing which homes to target and which to avoid. Thieves commonly target homes in isolated areas and in neighborhoods with high crime rates.
Once they break in, they tend to target small but valuable items like electronics, jewelry, and small antiques that can be sold easily. Setting up cameras and obvious security measures to make it known that the house is being monitored can be a great way to prevent break-ins.
Many modern security systems will automatically alert you when motion is detected or when the sound of glass breaking is detected. You can set some of these systems even automatically to call the police. While all of this sounds good, the easier way would be to try and visit (or hire someone) your home occasionally and in a manner that people can see and notice.
This greatly prevents break-ins and theft from happening in the first place.
The camera systems you might install are also a great way of keeping an eye on your house for the possibility of fires and water damage in case of electric failures or burst pipes, which tend to occur during periods of not being used or low maintenance.
Conclusion
Ideally, you should be able to leave your property unattended and have nothing terrible happen to it in the form of squatters and thieves. But unfortunately, this is the world we live in, so it is a good idea to take preventative measures and avoid risks.
Vacant property insurance can be a great addition to any other measures you take to reduce risks and liabilities on your property.
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