Insuring a vacant house

[JimR]

I think your agent has either taken too hard a line or misunderstood the circumstances of the house status.

1. It's not empty -- you've already said you've left some appliances in it --
2. It's not unattended -- you have a real estate agent that is looking after it in preparation for sale and you're still maintaining it -- keeping the heat on and the utilities working, clearing the sidewalks, mowing the lawn, caring for the garden, etc.
3. You haven't abandoned it -- you'll have to be in the house for final clean-up, closing, etc. In fact, although you'll be travelling, you won't completely move out of the house until you close the sale.

In other words, you haven't left the house unoccupied, it's just that at some time in the future it will no longer be your primary residence -- it will remain your primary residence until you actually close on a new house in WA. Hopefully you will be able to sell this house quickly and move on.

In my case, I bought my new house before putting my old one up for sale. I insured the new house with USAA, and stated that the new house was going to be my primary residence. It took three months to sell the old house, and during that time USAA provided insurance for both locations.

There are variations -- for example, many people have a vacation home or a secondary home that may be unoccupied for months at a time.

If you're eligible you might check with USAA on how to handle this question. Since they primarily cover military officers they are regularly faced with questions of houses that will be vacant for extended periods of time. You might also call your state insurance commissioner's office in Columbus and ask them for advice. Regards --

[Steve Kraus]

Vacant homes is on their list.

[markansas859]

this was back around 1991, but may work for your situation.

neighbors moved from Louisiana to Georgia, and house was vacant

they paid my brother to "live there", and occupy the house

they kept utilities and phone on, we just changed the phone number to his name

real estate agent loved the idea, he just rolled up his sleeping bag and stashed it in the utility room for open house.

and it was convenient for real estate lady to have access to a phone when she was doing open houses.

house was right next door to us, and was nice to have extra room when we had out of town company..... call furniture rental place, and had them a nice bedroom setup for 2 weeks, saving hotel expenses.

lady that bought the house is still there... her hubby got sent packing sooon after they moved in

[Joshua Putnam]

Again, that depends on the carrier.

Rules will be different in different states, but if you insure a vacant home with Foremost here in WA, you don't have special restrictions on billing or cancellations, you can put it on two pay or four pay and you do get a refund for unearned premium if you cancel.

I'd start by checking the details of the existing policy, there's a good chance the house will remain insured until the current term expires, with a temporary reduction in coverage while vacant.

[jtnospam]

There are lots of impoverished but responsible graduate students with and without families that need a cheap place to live while they are writing their dissertation in linguistics or literature or the granulated peruvian treeleaf or whatever research project. Maybe contact a nearby university for a list of candidates and have them apply, these are scholars, not frat party animals in undergraduate schools. You will safekeep your house and help the knowledge base of mankind too. Ask for and check references.-Jitney

[Joshua Putnam]

Unless the policy contains an exclusion for vacancy, the company would have a hard time refusing to pay a claim if the policy was in force on the date of the loss.

Again, rules vary by policy, by company, and by state, but as an example, the policy I have handy has, in its Conditions, "The residence premises may be vacant or unoccupied without limit of time, except where this policy states otherwise."

Now, the company won't normally accept a currently-vacant house for that policy, and they might decline to renew a policy if they know the house is going to be vacant, but if they've already issued the policy, and the policy is in force at the time of a loss, the policy is still valid and they will still pay.

[louie]

I got exactly what I expected, a sold house and no problems from either the insurance or the mortgage company. The agent I mentioned was my INSURANCE agent - the local representative of the insurance company who held my policy. She knew about it and advised me not to make any official notice about it to the main office. I took her advice and things turned out just fine.