Vacation Home Insurance

[Josh]

It has been a long time since I sold a home insurance policy, but what type of carriers insure vacation homes if they are vacant? About 15 years ago I was managing a small Allstate agency and we didn't want anything that went more than 30 days unoccupied? Are there different carriers and/or underwriting guidelines on it? With exotic cars there can be very different types of policies (stated value vs book value), but if someone leaves a home unoccupied for six months, is that business some carriers want?

 

[marindependent]

Secondary Home Insurance is a tough market. I find that many agents just lie about the form of occupancy and put their head in the sand. If its a vacation home or secondary home, one of the uw quesitions is often How Long Does the House go Unoccupied? 6 months is a long time and I would suggest that your clients make sure they shut the water off and hire a property mgmt company.

Who does it? Its often not the normal coterie of insurers. Its the secondary market and since I do not konw what market you are in - its hard to say.

Here in CA its a Lloyds of London or FAIR/DIC right off the bat.

The real complicated question for these things is "How Often to you Rent it Out?" because the Short Term Rental Occupied market is brutal too.

 

[adjusterjack]

Friends of mine used to have a home in AZ and a home in Idaho. They spent equal time in each. Both homes were written with State Farm.

That doesn't help independent agents, but it's a possibility.

 

[Policy Monkey]

We have a lot of snowbirds here in FL, so a lot of carriers will do that, even 6 mo here and 6 mo there. Although many require either monitored alarms or a gated community.

 

[Al3x Lee]

Friends of mine used to have a home in AZ and a home in Idaho. They spent equal time in each. Both homes were written with State Farm.

That doesn't help independent agents, but it's a possibility.

I find that many agents just lie about the form of occupancy and put their head in the sand.

State Farm agents would never lie about occupancy to get business

 

[marindependent]

State Farm agents would never lie about occupancy to get business

There is one group of insurance agents that i have found are untruthful about this the most [and its not SF].

I cannot tell you how many people that I have spoken to that have the wrong form of occuapncy listed on the declarations page [right in front of them] and do not seem to think it matters.

I am convinced that we should change the industry terms to something along these lines:
Primary Owner Occupied Insurance
Tenant Occupied Landlord Insurance
Seasonal Occupied Insurance

 

[Markthebroker]

Secondary Home Insurance is a tough market. I find that many agents just lie about the form of occupancy and put their head in the sand.

 

[Markthebroker]

There is one group of insurance agents that i have found are untruthful about this the most [and its not SF].

Pray tell.

 

[Al3x Lee]

Pray tell.

I think he's referring to those NPALDSWTCMSICCG agents