Vacant Home Insurance for Resort Communities

Your author just returned from a resort community in Flordia, where there were over 200 homes on a remote island accessible only by boat. There was a tremendous amount of confusion regarding vacant home insurance and landlord tenant insurance on the island, and most homes were not permanently occupied. Here are the most common problems we discovered for these "second homes."

1. Not knowing vacant home insurance was needed for many of the homes that were empty more than 3 months a year.


2. At times, the homes were covered as second homes or vacation homes by the insurance company of the primary dwelling, but at times the homes were rented out thus violating the policy.


3. Some of the homes that did carry vacant lot insurance, were also rented out from time to time and most vacant home insurance policies do not also act as landlord policies.


4. Vacant home insurance was needed because the owner lived in a State (or country) where the insurance company carrying the primary homeowners insurance was not licensed in Florida and thus could not pick up the second home as an extension.


5. Having vacant homeowners insurance in place that did not provide the proper wind protection needed in Florida. Flood protection does not need to be provided in a vacant home insurance policy and can purchased through the federal government program.

Anyone that maintains a second home in Florida, or any other resort community outside of their home state should make sure they do their research to see what type of policy will be needed, and if the home will be rented for income, making sure the vacant home insurance policy will allow for renters when not empty.

Expatriates Don't See the Vacant Home Insurance Risk

After working with expatriates for over 15 years, we have released the results of what can be called an informal survey on vacant home insurance for expatriates living outside of the U.S. for 1 to 5 years. Here is what was found.

1. About 92% of expatriates believe they can remain with their existing homeowners insurance company while they are living overseas, even if the home is empty, and don't see the need for a vacant home insurance policy. (The facts: these 92% are exposed)


2. 60% believe, if they had a claim on a vacant home in the U.S. while they were on overseas work assignment, and there was an uncovered claim, their employer would pay for at least some of the claim. (The facts, this is a false assumption and employers can't pay personal claims).


3. About 60% do find out they need vacant home insurance at renewal time when they inform their homeowners insurance company they are abroad. (The facts: Most of these people realize they have been uncovered for many months and need a vacant homeowners insurance policy).


4. 80% believe if they, or a family member lives in the house for over a few weeks a year, or comes back to the U.S. from time to time, they don't have a problem with the existing insurance company (The facts: this is a false assumption)


5. 95% believe they can have a friend or "other relative" live in the house and they don't have to make changes to their homeowners insurance policy. (The facts: even if you have a cousin living in the house or house-sitting, you need to make a change to the existing insurance policy. A cousin is not in the nuclear family.


6. 98% of expatriates say their employer does not bring the vacant home insurance risk to their attention before the expat assignment.

Instant Vacant Home Insurance Quote Estimates

Vacant Home Insurance Now (.com) a website that is used to put those in need of vacant home insurance together with an agent and insurance company that specializes in providing vacant home insurance, announced today that they will be able to provide a quick quote estimate if visitors to the website will complete the new contact form.

The new contact form takes about 3 minutes to fill out, and asks a lot more questions, but if visitors complete the full contact form, they will be able to get a price estimate that should be accurate to within 5% to 10%. To get an exact quote depends on their State, the exact situation, and the results of a 12 to 15 minute phone interview where details on the vacant home are collected (including an assessment of the vacant home value) and put into a computer program.

However, getting a quote estimate that will be 90% or greater in accuracy on the vacant home, by just spending 3 minutes inputting information into an online form is probably unmatched in the industry. It will give people an idea of what is covered and how much it will cost because they will need to budget properly. Vacant building insurance is more expensive than regular homeowners insurance, there is just no way around it. People should be prepared to spend 3 times to 5 times as much on vacant home insurance as they did on "regular insurance" when they were living in the house.

Even providers in the market that offer very limited policies with limited coverage are still at least 3 times as expensive and the coverage these plans offer is extremely reduced. We suggest spending a bit more to secure full coverage. Anything less is self insuring your vacant home.

The estimates do not mean that underwriters will eventually approve and offer coverage. Of course, the home needs to qualify for insurance and that is why this is called an estimate and not a quote.