Those moving overseas should consider a vacant home insurance policy

Many Americans and Canadians that take jobs overseas, and the overseas assignment will not last longer than 3 years, most likely will not sell their home meaning they may need vacant homeowners insurance. The first instinct will be to try to rent the home. Many traditional insurance companies that provide landlord policies to those that rent their home will not extend this coverage to anyone that will not be living in the country. Quotes for vacant home insurance or a landlord policy will be limited if you are leaving the country.

XN Financial has a vacant home insurance policy that can be offered to those living abroad that keep a home empty or vacant in the U.S. or Canada. However, if the home is going to be rented and the person about to live abroad is having difficulty finding an insurance company to provide a typical landlord policy, a vacant home insurance policy (or vacant homeowners insurance program) can be offered with a discount for these individuals. A vacant home insurance policy therefor works in both situations.

XN Financial Vacant Home Insurance Policy, a Perfect Hybrid

One of the unique features of the vacant home insurance product offered by XN Financial Service, Inc is their vacant home insurance product is a true hybrid. What does that mean for the purchasers of vacant homeowners insurance and more importantly for people living out of State or even abroad?

If a home is empty of vacant, the ONLY way to cover it is through a vacant home insurance policy. If a home is going to be rented, a homeowner would need to put in place a landlord tenant policy. In the past, homeowners had to flip policies back and forth as they got a renter, lost a renter, and so forth. A real hassle, especially for someone living overseas.

If someone purchases our vacant home insurance policy and then they get a renter in the house, there is very little they need to do. The policy can remain in force. On the other hand, if the house is being rented and the renter leaves, there is no need to cancel the policy and find a new policy which is very labor intensive. The insured can stay with this policy. They would simply have to inform us that the house is now empty. The main advantage; the policy would not have to be re-written.

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.

Don't let your kid's neighbor housesit without the proper insurance

Two years ago, my husband's job took him on a temporary assignment of 5 months to Prague to finish up a large computer project for the Czech government. Of course it was the opportunity of a lifetime to go with him and I figured a way to take leave from my job (...no loss if they fired me anyway) to join him in this amazing city, which was untouched by the destruction left behind in WWII.

Siteseeing aside, we asked the 20 year old son of a neighbor to "housesit" while we were away. What's the worst that can happen, spilled beer? We felt better withsome living in the house and we could avoid that expensive vacant home insurance, or so we thought. Because we had someone to stay in the house we had no idea we would not rely on our current homeowners insurance policy which was paid up until the end of the year.

While we were away (in the 4th month) a large tulip poplar tree fell on the house during a windstorm. Jason acted quickly to get the hole repaired using the credit card we had left him, but I had to fly home to see to the contractor arrangments etc. The claim we submitted to the insurance company for over $40,000 was totally denied because they told us we did not have the right insurance on the house. We had needed to write a special policy why we were away called a landlord tenant policy (also called a tenant boarder policy).

As you can guess, we had no idea we needed to do this and didn't even think to call our agent. It was a total disater and all the extra money my husband made by taking the overseas assignment quickly was eaten up in this massive repair.