Not home...
Your Coverage May Not be Either
A growing trend in homeowners losses is the number of claims that occur when the home is vacant or unoccupied. That also means an increasing amount of claim denials.
Vacancy vs. Unoccupied - what's the difference? Vacancy is completely empty. Unoccupied means there is furnishings in the home, but no one is living there. The homeowner has no "intent to return".
What happens? Coverages like vandalism, fire, lightning, freezing of pipes and glass breakage start to fall off the policy after 30 or 60 days.
Consider a loss under each scenario....
The homeowner passes away and the children are preparing to sell the home. The home is vacant for 90 days. A pipe bursts on the second floor and runs for two weeks causing over $100,000 in damage. The vacancy provision would kick in and the loss would be denied.
An elderly homeowner moves to a nursing home leaving the home unoccupied for 120 days. An electrical fire in the basement causes the home to burn to the ground. Since the homeowner was living outside of the home with "no intention to return", the claim would be denied.
If un-occupancy or vacancy is an issue with your home or a relatives' home, please give us a call so we can review the options available to you with a vacant dwelling policy.
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