Your holiday home is a major investment - getting the right Insurance protection is important.
Holiday Home Insurance policies are specifically designed to protect your holiday home – recognising in particular that there are significant periods of unoccupancy. There are a few notable differences between standard home insurance policies and policies specifically designed for holiday homes.
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A Holiday Home policy can allow the home to be left unoccupied for longer than the standard 30 days without an automatic reduction in cover. So your holiday home would continue to be covered for malicious damage, escape or leakage of oil, stealing or damage to your home from attempted stealing.
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Holiday Home Insurance Policies also cover your public and employer’s liability – very important if an action is taken against you following an injury sustained on your property. The insurance company will defend the case, but crucially will pay out should you be found negligent. And as it’s a holiday home, you’re not expected to be permanently residing there.
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There are also plenty of extensions to your holiday home policy such as fire brigade charges, lock replacement, damage to underground pipes and cables and breakage of glass and sanitary wear.
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Another important feature is that your rent is covered in the event that you agree a short term rental and the holiday home is uninhabitable due to an insured event.
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Because holiday homes are unoccupied for varying periods of time, many insurers have specific conditions to prevent water and frost damage being sustained during the winter months. By way of example, some will require that the water is turned off from October to March and some will want the heating system drained. A once a month premises check is often required. This is designed to ensure that your holiday home does not suffer prolonged damage from the like of burst pipes. In the worst case this can create very serious and ongoing water damage everywhere - unbeknownst to you.
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Finally, it’s worth noting that holiday home insurance policies will automatically cover short term lets as well as family use.