Vacant Home Insurance for Expatriates

Expatriates that sell their home in the U.S. in order to relocate abroad for a corporate expatriate assignment may keep their homes if the expatriate assignment is going to be 3 years or less.  If the expatriate assignment is expected to be more than 3 years, 90% of expatriates will sell their home.  For those that keep their home, expatriate vacant home insurance is essential.  Other essential insurance includes international medical insurance and international workers compensation insurance .

What is expatriate vacant home insurance?  It is a special type of homeowners insurance that is designed to cover a house that is considered empty, vacant, or unoccupied.  In the eyes of vacant homeowners insurance carriers, these words do not represent the same definition.

A rule of thumb that we have never seen broken, if you recognize the name of the homeowners insurance company (as a big name insurer) they do NOT have a vacant home insurance product they can offer customers.  Only in the secondary or speciality market can expatriates find vacant home insurance policies that meet their needs.

Vacant Home Insurance Winter Checklist

As a final reminder to clients for the winter season, please make sure you are aware of all of the following regarding your vacant homeowners insurance or vacant condo insurance for the winter season.

1. Make sure the heat is on and set to at least 60 degrees or warmer.
2. Make sure the home is visited inside, at least once a week. Although the heat in the vacant condo or house could be on, boilers may not fire and heaters can break. Pipes can freeze in as little as 48 hours.
3. Make sure the water (at the main valve) is shut off. A water leak where the water could have easily been turned off, and where the underwriters have not approved that the water could remain on in the vacant home, can become a denied vacant homeowner's insurance claim.
4. Make sure snow and ice is cleared. You can be sued if someone is hurt and you did not keep up on the house with basic care and maintenance like snow removal.
5. Make sure pools and hot tubs are fenced and covered.
6. In lieu of keeping the heat on, the water pipes should be professionally drained of all water.

This is our winter 2010 - 2011 checklist for vacant home insurance and vacant condo insurance.