Gulf and Atlantic Coast Rated Higher for Vacant Home Insurance

The rates for vacant homeowners insurance have been relatively stable for years but the cost to insure an empty or vacant house in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia is now about 15% higher than providing vacant home insurance in Ohio, Arkansas, or Oklahoma for example.

It appears the "hurricane underwriting" that hit those regions several years ago has now affected the vacant homeowners insurance market as well.

When insuring an empty home with vacant home insurance, other States where the cost is above average (and this can depend on the insurer) is lead by California and can include Maine, Oregon and Washington State.

Insurance agents are advised to let clients know that if they are in these States, they may be paying more for vacant home insurance. This is somewhat of a problem because vacant homeowners insurance and vacant building insurance is at least 3 times as expensive a regular home insurance anyway.

Lloyd's of London for Vacant Home Insurance and Vacant Building Insurance

Getting a Lloyd's of London quote for vacant home insurance. The fact is, most Americans think that Lloyd's of London is an insurance company. This is untrue. Lloyd's of London is an insurance market made up of over 60 "syndicates." For our purposes, these syndicates can be thought of as it's own insurance company each taking all or part of various risks presented to the market.

Lloyd's of London syndicates do provide vacant home insurance and vacant building insurance in the United States. Local P&C agents have to access a surplus lines wholesaler in order to get vacant home insurance quotes from the Lloyd's market.

Vacant building insurance is also a specialty of several syndicates in the Lloyd's market. The most common vacant building insurance is carried on old or abandoned wherehouses where the liabiliy component of the vacant building insurance is more essential than the property or dwelling protection.

Finally, if you get two Lloyd's quotes on vacant building insurance, do not assume they are the same thing, just because they both came from Lloyd's of London. Chances are they are completley different vacant building insurance quotes.

Note to Estate Executors, Do Not Forget the Vacant Home Insurance

Vacant Home Insurance Now is reporting that a much larger portion of inquiries and recent requests have to do with insuring the home of a deceased relative. This is very important information for anyone that could be in that position someday.

Family members acting as executors of an estate need to understand the responsibilities they have with a vacant home, and most do not understand if the house sits empty for over 30 to 60 days, the "existing" homeowners insurance policy may begin to reduce or totally eliminate coverage. One of the first thing executors should do is investigate vacant homeowners insurance, and communicate the fact that the home is empty or vacant to the existing homeowners insurance company.

They will soon get a termination notice from the insurance company, but that is actually a good thing! How can this be? An estate executor that is holding a termination notice that says the insurance will be cancelled in 30 days due to a vacant building, at least knows coverage is in place for 30 days on the vacant property and has time to secure vacant homeowners insurance.

People that let months go buy or simply "hide the fact" from the insurance company are probably in for a rude awakening if there is a claim on the vacant home. Being an executor is a difficult and stressful time. What a catastrophe when the executor has to report to other family members that there has been a homeowners claim, and they failed to properly protect the interests of the family through vacant home insurance

Vacant Home; Don't Trust Your Agent to Get It Right

Too many people have been burned by trusting their insurance agent when they have a vacant home or vacant property. Sometimes the insurance agent does not even know the terms of the vacant homeowners insurance policy he or she recommends and just get's it wrong, telling the client that they do not need to secure special vacant home insurance coverage.

However there are times, and we hope this is the rare exception, where an insurance agent will tell a client that it's OK to leave the home empty or vacant with the existing policy because the agent knows the insurance company he or she represents does not offer a vacant homeowers insurance policy and they would lose the business and thus their renewal commission.

Whether mistakes are legitimate or on purpose does not matter. We always recommend that the insured get something in writing from the agent stateing that they understand the house will be vacant for a period of time and the insurance will continue without lapse. When asked to put it in writing, the chance for error goes down by a factor of 10.

Vacant Homeowners Insurace Refund

Hi, one of the big things you want to look at when you go out and purchase a special vacant home insurance policy or vacant dwelling policy, is to make sure you understand the refund provision. For example, if you have moved out of your home and buy coverage for 90 days, and then unexpectedly, the home sells in 20 days, how much will the carrier refund back to you? This can vary among carriers.

One carrier advertises you only need to buy 1 day of coverage, but all will have minimum premium amounts that cannot be refunded.

Most companies do a nice job returning "unearned premium" but this is a provision you should understand before you do business with a specialty insurance company that provides insurance for vacant homes and vacant buildings.

Mark