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Vacant home insurance vent
Dh and I moved out of our house a few months ago and put it on the market with the help of a realtor on November 1st.
I got a letter from our mortgage company requesting that we provide proof of insurance a couple of weeks ago. I check with our insurance company and our policy was cancelled due to the home being vacant. I had no idea that we needed to change our insurance policy when the home became vacant. I feel like our realtor should have clued us in on that.
So, since November 21st (when our original policy was cancelled) basically our lender has been using their back-up insurance (that's how it was explained to me, but I don't know the name for sure). We are now almost a month out and I am just now getting a quote for new vacant home insurance. Apparently, it's tough to get and also very expensive.
It looks like we are going to have another $200/mo or about $2400/year insurance premium. It's so frustrating that we didn't know this ahead of time. We are currently renting a place where we live now and paying our mortgage so needless to say - money is really tight.
Dh and I both got great jobs in a location closer to our family which is why we are in this pickle...so eventually this is going to be so much better for us, but right now it just seems like one thing after another that just keeps knocking us down.
Thanks for listening to me vent if you made it this far. There really is no point to this post...unless someone has some advice on this whole vacant home insurance stuff.
Re: Vacant home insurance vent
While I can understand your frustration--it is misplaced. Your REA has nothing to do with your insurance choices. We have never been given insurance advice from a REA--nor would I ever expect it.
Did you change your address and pick up renter's insurance with your (now previous) home owner's insurance group? If so, then I am surprised that you did not receive notification from the HO insurance group that your policy was being cancelled.
Insurnace on vacant properties (as well as rentals) is often higher than for a primary residence.
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Ditto this. It is not your realtor's job to tell you about homeowner's insurance. I would also get quotes from other companies as well. We switched our insurance to vacant property when we moved out and it was only 20% higher a year than what we were previously paying so an increase that substantial seems wrong.
Why were you not notified about the cancellation? You should have received a notice from your insurance company. If you did not then I would push back to them and go up the chain until you get a solution. They are typically required to give you 30 days notice before cancellation.
I am in your exact situation (moved across the county to lower our expenses overall and get better jobs/closer to family etc.) The ONE huge drawback is that we can't sell our condo.
The upside is that we anticipate renters soon (after the holidays, as it is pretty rough right now.)
I am surprised that your current insurance agent did not bring this up. We cancelled our homeowners policy after moved out and started a new renter's policy on all of our belongings in our new state. Then we started a new policy in our old state to cover our condo with renters in it. (That might also be a way that you can not have such a tight budget.)
If I were you, I would look around for a cheaper policy. Ours is roughly $65/month to cover a 2 bedroom, 1 bath condo in a VHCOL area. It is with Travelers if that helps, but you really should have your agent look around for you.
GL! I feel your pain, but hopefully in a year or so we will realize we did it for long term results not short term ones!
I certainly would not blame this on your REA because it is not their responsibility. You are the ones who should have notified the insurance company that the home would be vacant while on the market and provided them with your new address of your rental In the future be sure you have a copy of your policy and read it thoroughly.
Your insurance company should have sent you a notice prior to cancellation and the reason. Insurance companies don't just cancel insurance without notification. We have run into this vacant property insurance issue numerous times for our investment properties and the insurance agent has just notified us and DH just changes the policy.
Vacant homes are such a target these days for vandals and some companies will not issue a policy if home is vacant.
It's not your REA's responsibility to ask you about it, but one who is really on top of their stuff would ask you as part of making sure everything is set up when you move out of the area. They are the experts in what needs to be done. They don't know your policy, but should know that a vacant house is an issue for most homeowner policies.
As far as the price difference, I don't know how much you're was originally, but make sure that the new policy isn't covering any contents, just the dwelling. If they wrote it based on what you used to have they may have carried the contents over.
We were lucky and our agent said as long as the house didn't look vacant (appearances kept up, etc) that we could keep the basic homeowner policy active. If it continued to be on the market for an extended period of time then we would have to revisit it.
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It was our lawyer who informed us of this, not our REA. It was also our lawyer who advised us as to how to avoid not paying this prem. , saved us ALOT of $$$$.
Things will turn around for you soon, try to stay positive!
We also left our home and moved across country. Our insurance agent took care of everything for us.
I'm sorry for your frustrations and I really understand how you feel right now.
Did the insurance company ever inform you that the policy was cancelled? Also, how did they find out that it was vacant? Neither matters much at this point except for giving your insurance co he!!. Still, the insurance company should have informed you of the cancellation, I might even consider filing a complaint with the dept of insurance. That is really bad form.
Good luck, hopefully you wont need the insurance for very long.
Lighthouse State Beach, Santa Cruz.
State Farm covered my house while it was vacant. I switched from regular coverage to vacant house coverage and there really was not much of a difference in price. Since insurance is state-regulated, I imagine there are differences between the states on this.
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The bank force placed insurance on your property, which is pretty much what you described. Since you're not going to be there for long, can you stay with the bank's insurance for now instead of getting a vacant policy?
Your insurance company is required to send notice that your policy will cancel, but I'm 99% certain that they are not required to make sure you received the notice. Kind of a bad loop hole.
Or, can you somehow work it so that one of you is "living" at your old home so that you can obtain a homeowner's policy? If all you need is a couple months you might be able to work the system. I see people do it all the time, if you have a good insurance agent they will help you out.