What Is Unoccupied Home Insurance

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Unoccupied Home Insurance Ireland

Unoccupied home insurance protects your property when it is left vacant beyond the limits of a standard policy.

Unoccupied Home Insurance Ireland

Standard insurance often limits cover after 30 to 60 days, leaving you unprotected if something happens to your property such as vandalism or damage.

Whether you’re travelling, waiting for a sale, or renovating, you may need to arrange specific unoccupied home insurance in Ireland to be fully covered.

What Is Unoccupied Home Insurance?

Standard home insurance may not offer sufficient protection if your home is unoccupied for between 30 to 60 days, depending on the policy.

This means that you may need special cover, which you can take out for 6 months, 12 months, or longer, depending on the insurer.

You may need this cover if you’re:

  • Travelling for work or study: Extended absences if you’re travelling abroad or within Ireland for work or study may leave your home unoccupied for long periods, which insurers treat as higher risk.

  • Waiting for a property sale: If you’ve recently moved into a new property, your old home may be left vacant for months.

  • In a nursing home or care: If you are not at home for months at a time, whether in care or in hospital, you may need unoccupied home insurance.

  • Carrying out renovation works: This can mean that you have to leave your property for a period. Renovation works can also increase the risk of damage or theft.

What Does Unoccupied Home Insurance Cover?

Specialist unoccupied home insurance will typically cover you for the structural risks found in a standard buildings insurance policy, including fire, storm damage, and public liability.

Standard policies usually only cover fire and fire brigade charges after the 30 or 60 day cut-off, but this can vary between providers.

Specialist unoccupied home insurance, on the other hand, will typically cover you for:

  • Fire
  • Storm damage
  • Theft
  • Vandalism
  • Flood
  • Public liability

Contents are typically not included as standard, so you should ensure that your belongings are in storage or included in your policy.

Is Theft and Vandalism Covered by Unoccupied Home Insurance in Ireland?

Unoccupied home insurance may offer some cover for theft and vandalism also as well as some public liability cover. Public liability cover may include damage to another person or their property caused by your property e.g. falling roof tiles.

It will typically not offer any cover for contents you have in the property, so it may be worth arranging storage of any contents that you wish to keep or that are valuable.

Some circumstances of your home or property being unoccupied may overlap with other specific types of insurance such as holiday home cover.

Who Offers Unoccupied Home Insurance?

Most home insurance providers do not explicitly advertise unoccupied home insurance, and it can be difficult to find cover. But specialist brokers in Ireland may offer special unoccupied property cover. 

While specialist brokers like Arachas and OBF offer vacant property cover, it is always worth checking if a standard provider can meet your needs at a lower cost. You can compare home insurance providers in Ireland to see which companies offer the most flexible terms for short-term absences.”

Standard home insurers may offer cover for unoccupied homes for existing customers, at a reduced level of cover.

How to Reduce Your Unoccupied Home Insurance Premium

Unoccupied home insurance will generally be more expensive than standard home insurance due to the higher level of risk involved in the property being unoccupied. 

For example, the house may fall into disrepair, increasing the risk to the home insurer. Added to this is the fact that disrepair eg. leaks may go unnoticed for a longer time than in an occupied home.

Insurers view vacant homes as high-risk. However, you can lower your costs by demonstrating proactive maintenance:

Unoccupied properties are more likely to experience leaks or roof damage, vandalism or even squatters moving in. 

These risks are reduced when the property is regularly inspected and maintained, which will be taken into consideration by insurers when calculating your premium.

Your insurer may require you to drain all water from the system for water to be turned off at the mains to minimise the risk of damage from leaks.

You may be required to cut off electricity or gas supply. You may also need to drain any oil in an oil fired heating system to ensure the safety of the property. Exemptions may be included if electricity is required for an alarm to function.

It is important that any security measures are in good working order in the vacant property. You would not be covered by unoccupied home insurance if doors or windows left unlocked proved to be an entry point for squatters or burglars.

An alarm may be a condition of insurance and it might be a good idea to install a motion sensor or CCTV in the property.

It may be a requirement of unoccupied home insurance that heating is run intermittently in the property. This will vary by insurer, it is important to check what our insurer requires.

Unoccupied Home Insurance FAQ

No, you would need to be away from your home for longer than at least 30 days for your home to be considered unoccupied. The number of days varies between insurer and policies.

You can purchase special insurance for holiday homes that your family only uses occasionally or rents out.

If you are away from your home for more than 30 days (or the time period specified in your policy), you may need to arrange specific unoccupied home insurance. A good rule of thumb is to not automatically assume that your standard home insurance offers protection for longer than 30 days.

If you do not tell your insurer that you are away for longer than the time limit specified in your home insurance policy, you may invalidate your cover. In this case, you run the risk of any claim not being paid out by your insurer and you may also struggle to get home insurance in the future.

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