GardenArtist Asked May 2018
Any recommendations for insurance for vacant houses?
Follow
Share
Does anyone have any recommendations for insurers which insure houses which hav become vacant through death of the owner?
This question has been closed for answers. Ask a New Question.
10 Answers
This question has been closed for answers. Ask a New Question.
Popular Questions
Related Questions
Ask a Question
For my sister's house, I spent some time living there and commuting back and forth to my house, so the house was occupied. That's not the situation now.
Quotes from a carrier specializing in vacant house insurance is about 40% more than the premium for the house when occupied. I'm wondering and assume that there probably are carriers that specialize in coverage for unoccupied homes.
Anyone have any recommdations? If you want to name specific companies w/o violation of the no advertising policy here, perhaps you could just PM me.
It's not necessarily just the cost that concerns me, but also the limited liability - there just isn't as much coverage on a vacant house as there would be if it was occupied, which I understand. But I still want to get the best deal and coverage that I can.
Thanks for any suggestions.
AND they threaten not to pay if not notified of occupancy status in advance.
Wish I knew of such a company myself.
My only other idea, is to contact the escrow companies, maybe they will know. Because they work with transferring titles to homes when sold, maybe just an interim coverage.
I hope, in today's spring market, that it will sell fast GA.
Mom, I do understand the higher risk of an empty house, and I understand the company's position, as well as why many companies don't want to deal with the issue. I wish there were an alternative, but haven't discovered one.
Send, renting wouldn't be possible w/o major work and would also make it difficult for tradespeople and me to get that work accomplished. I will try escrow companies; thanks for that suggestion.
Barb, I've dealing with 3 different realtors, determining which one I want for the longer term issues. One already is much too aggressive; I think she'll be the first to go.
I've also gotten some good suggestions from the local Chamber of Commerce.
FF, I wish I could get the house ready that quickly, but it's going to be at least several months, and that's assuming that I can get professional help. That's probably more necessary than my own work - too much lifting and sorting and moving.
I will try Chubb, and probably will call a few more that are well known. AAA does not offer that type of insurance.
Thanks for taking the time to help me along the way to eventually settling up the estate issues.
But I was still so exhausted physically and mentally with helping my folks for so many years, I just didn't want to pursue companies that did this work. Heck , my own house was falling apart around me from so much neglect :(
First I brought in a licensed Appraiser to give me a ballpark price on the house as it stood. So I added $20k to that amount to give for bickering room. It worked. A flipper came in $20k below asking price, right at Appraised price, yeah \o/ It was a win-win for both of us :))
What drained me was emptying the house. Came across a lot of memories. And decisions, like what piece of furniture can I swap out for what my parents had. And then finding charities that would take the furniture. Goodwill was booked 2 months ahead. So I called Salvation Army which came out, but they weren't allowed to go upstairs because the U shape stairs. Then I called some of the trash haulers.
I tried to get someone to do an estate sale. But none were interested because my parents didn't have very old antique furniture in pristine condition or a lot of expensive art work.
This is the approach I used for my mom’s property... Her homeowners as they had accepted payment for annual renewal continued old policy (i would refuse cancellation payment) but would not renew. This got me a few months to find vacant policy AND open probate. The property was never not insured. This apparently is mucho importante as cause if its uninsured it places it into a different risk category. Continuous coverage.
At least for TX, none of the traditional homeowners Ins companies- Allstate, USAA, SF, etc - do vacant ever. Vacant are done by independent insurance agents and are speciality underwriting. Got like 4 quotes and all were way way more than double from what her homeowners was & for what is basically just fire coverage. The highest quotes were from the guys the probate atty suggested..... fun! No theft coverage. If there’s going to be work done, you may need a rider for this with some sort of documentation from contractor as to their insurance. If it’s being shown and under Realtor listing agreement, you may need a rider for this too. All quotes had waivers added on too. Crazy confusing.
Property will need in someway to be considered of a certain value..... so last tax assessor statement or appraisal may be needed, whichever is higher. Most vacant is to have insurance in place while under new construction and skews to 500k & over for a limited time. It’s expensive but the costs gets folded into build. But that’s not the situation we’re in...... it was my hubs who figured out how to do, by finding indep agents who do vacation / 2nd home insurance coverage in the zip code where house is. The agent was great, did a drive by and sent pics plus last tax assessor and house got placed by him (took about 10 days) as TX licensed Indp agent with a Texas insurance group (Diamond) who in turn gets policy underwritten by J H Ferguson. Ferguson owns VacantExpress.com which is the market leader in vacant dwelling of all types. Initially there was a raft of paperwork but after 1st year went to on line renewals. You’ll need I imagine a MI indep insurance agent to place it, I don’t think you can DIY as you need licensing. I’d bet Ferguson has a list of MI agents. Hope this helps.
Good luck with selling! I am headed in that direction but at this point I have only taken a bottle of conditioner and my daddys tractor from their place, it is still the way it was 8/10 months ago when they passed away.