Home insurance when you are away (1 Viewer)

[Loujess]

I believe you have to notify the insurance company if the house is to be unoccupied for a certain length of time. Do they impose a surcharge or something. Also, for dog owners, do you have to notify the pet insurance company?

 

[violet]

Hi Loujess,
Our house insurer is usually happy as long as someone reliable is going in to the property. Our daughter sleeps over now and then, but a visit might be enough.
You'll need to check as you might not be covered after a few weeks.
Don't know about the dog.
violet

 

[Braunston]

Hi,

Nationwide Building society has/had an unlimited time away from home but you need to get someone to check every 14 days,

The Camping & Caravan Club has/had a 180 day away from home policy with no conditions regarding set visiting times (You need to be a member to get the 180 days)

I'm sure there are others, and double check before buying as these things can change

Hope that helps

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[Kon tiki]

We are also with Nationwide, when we looked into house insurance they were the only ones we found that gave you virtually unlimited cover as long as the house is visited at least once a fortnight & it states this in the policy terms & conditions. Some would do 90 days but only once in the year, others would do longer but at a cost.
Others who believe that having somebody visit the house gives them the same cover might find that this isn't the case, I asked this question of all the ones I tried & was told that just having somebody visit the house wouldn't give me the cover.

 

[dellwood33]

Our cover is for 30 days & then cover is reduced:Sad:. We managed to get this raised to 60 days as long as someone spent at least 1 night in the property over the period.
We will be looking for better cover next year.

 

[Carol]

We get our household covered with Comfort who specialise in Motorhome Insurance, for the house we get 90 or 120 days away, with doing both we get a good deal and always find them very helpful.

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[Minxy]

It varies from company to company so you need to ask the question for each one you're considering. For our insurer we have to have it checked every 30 days but that someone has to stay overnight in it. When the overnight stay has happened, the 30 days is 'reset', so we get another 30 days ... etc etc.

We have to tell them when we're going away as we have to inform them of who's the 'nominated' person to do the checking and is also authorised to act on our behalf in case they need to contact the insurance company for anything.

As for dog insurance, it might or might not cover you outside the UK, depending on your policy, some do, some don't. We don't have dog insurance normally but on our holiday insurance we take out when we go abroad we usually go with a particular company that includes pet cover up to £250 with no excess which we had to make use of last year when one of our dogs broke her dew claw (vet bill was about 56 euros or so) - once the insurance company realised that dog cover WAS included in our policy (apparently on most policies it is not), they paid out without a quibble. The cost of this travel insurance including pet cover only cost us an extra £1 over and above an almost identical policy for a 3 week trip, so the £1 was well spent!

 

[solitaire woman]

When I went abroad for two months I phoned Tesco pet insurance to see if I would be covered and they said no, not sure if it was the length of time I was away that was the problem so perhaps if its just a quick trip you would be ok. Phoning the insurance company is the easiest thing.

 

[Braunston]

Hi, I have always been a great advocate of Nationwide and nearly always put there name forward when this question has been asked, so much so that we didn't even bother to look around or compare prices at renewal time which is not normal for me. we have now changed this year from Nationwide to the C&CC for 2 reasons

Reason 1:- It was difficult to keep a record of when someone visited and became quiet a problem, as we couldn't find any definitions of what would be acceptable to prove someone had visited every 14 days

Reason 2:- The C&CC which we were already members offered us similar cover for £120 less, and it provides 180 day away from home in any one period with from what i can read and have discussed with them over the phone no need for anyone to visit.

So while I have no problems with Nationwide, It really is worth ringing around as there are some very good deals out there that may suit your needs just as well, as we are never likely to be away from home for more than 180day in any one period.

Hope that helps

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[gillr49]

Rias were quite happy for 6 months absence as long as the property was secured and water turned off and drained out (in summer only). We also had regular visits from neighbours. I think you should discuss it with your company as they are getting a little more flexible.

 

[mikeange]

I believe you have to notify the insurance company if the house is to be unoccupied for a certain length of time. Do they impose a surcharge or something. Also, for dog owners, do you have to notify the pet insurance company?

Hi
Caravan and camping club home and contents insurance allows you 180 days away from home,and you do not have to tell them.
Pet insurance ...just check your small print..as they do differ.
regards
mike

 

[Kon tiki]

An easy way to prove somebody has visited the house is for them to make a phone call or log on to the internet. Something our daughters do when they visit to check the house & mail.

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[dellwood33]

We are kind of stuffed as we have no family & the insurance company require a stopover of at least one night. Neighbours checking is not enough
How they will know is beyond me though as there is no stipulation to tell them that you are away from the premises

 

[Braunston]

Try the C&CC even if you aren't members it only costs around £35 to join, in my case that would have still been a saving of £85 against Nationwide.

As for getting someone to make a phone call or log on to the internet etc. that was just more things that were possible to go wrong, the C&CC don't require any things of that nature and unless you are away for more than 180 days at a time, its got to be worth investigating.

We are kind of stuffed as we have no family & the insurance company require a stopover of at least one night. Neighbours checking is not enough
How they will know is beyond me though as there is no stipulation to tell them that you are away from the premises