Second homes are damaged in ordinary ways: a leak no one notices, a break-in during a long absence, a storm the policy did not mention. The wording often notices the absence before it notices the storm. Use is the first disclosure, not a detail for the renewal.
Use, vacancy and letting
Ask how long the property may be empty, what you must do while it is empty, and whether guests or tenants change the contract. A long let and a short let are often different. An owner-occupier policy from your home country may not respond at all to a house abroad, or may respond only while you are in it. Get that in writing.
Buildings, contents, liability, hazards
Insure the structure for what it might cost to reinstate, not for what you paid, unless a professional has told you those numbers match. Contents and valuables often have smaller caps. Liability to a guest is a separate section. Flood, earthquake, storm and wildfire are questions about this address. None is automatically included. In an apartment, read the community policy before you buy a second one that duplicates it or leaves your contents out.
Claims from another country
Ask who you call, what to photograph, and whether a local adjuster is used. Keep contractor invoices. A mortgage lender may require the buildings cover and may want to be noted on it. That requirement does not mean the contents are insured.
Tell the insurer how the building is actually used
A second home is empty more often, let more often, or occupied by friends more often than a main home. Those are the facts insurers ask about, because they change the risk. Ask for a policy that describes holiday use, long empty periods, or letting, whichever is true. A home policy from the country where you live may not cover a building in another country at all. Ask. A local policy may assume you live there. Ask that too.
Ask what is covered: the building, your contents, your liability to other people, and any loss of rent if letting is part of the plan. Ask about the excess and about security conditions, such as how long the property may be left unoccupied. This guide states no sum and no permitted empty period. The schedule will. If a mortgage lender requires insurance, ask them what evidence they want, and ask the insurer for that evidence before completion rather than after a chase.
Name a person who can deal with a leak while you are elsewhere
A policy does not find a plumber. Agree who holds keys, who the insurer may speak to, and how a claim is started from another country. Put that person’s name in the same folder as the schedule and the policy number. Review the cover when the use changes — you start letting, you stay for longer, you renovate — because the change is the moment the old answers stop being true.
If the property is owned by a company, ask whether the policy should be in the company’s name. If it is owned jointly, ask whether both owners are named. Small mismatches become large ones when a claim is refused for a reason that would have been a form.
Before you act
Read the unoccupancy condition with your real calendar, not with the calendar you hope to keep. If the longest gap between visits is longer than the policy allows, the cover may not respond when you most need it, and the remedy is to ask for a term you can live with or to arrange inspections the policy accepts. Ask who may stay in the house: family, friends, a paying guest. Those can be different risks in the wording. If you renovate, ask before the work starts. A building that is open to contractors is not always the building that was insured. Put the answers in the folder with the policy number so the person who holds the keys does not have to guess which document is current.
A practical checklist
- Use described, including empty weeks and any letting.
- Buildings sum discussed as rebuild, not sale price.
- Contents and valuables checked for sub-limits.
- Hazards asked of this address.
- Community policy read, if there is one.
- Someone local who can deal with a leak.
Questions to ask
- Do you insure a holiday home in this country?
- How long can it be unoccupied?
- Is rental use included?
- Which natural hazards are covered here?
- What does the building’s own policy already cover?
- Who handles a claim?
Common mistakes
- A home policy stretched over a house you do not live in.
- Market value used as the sum insured without a rebuild conversation.
- Short lets not disclosed.
- Assuming catastrophe cover.
- No one who can enter the house when you are called.
WiT Access provides general information and comparison resources. Nothing on this website constitutes financial, tax, legal or investment advice. Always consider obtaining advice from an appropriately qualified professional.
