Vacant Home Insurance Seattle Washington

                                                                                                                                                  Vacant Home Insurance. Are homeowners protecting their asset properly when they leave their home vacant?

    With so many homeowners having difficulty with their home mortgages, falling values and declining neighborhoods, there is a need for agents to know about Vacant Home Insurance and what happens when the house is left vacant.   We have seen homeowners moving out of their primary residence to move to a new home,  while they are trying to negotiate short sales, or leaving the home vacant and unprotected when they turn it over to the bank before a foreclosure.   With these very stressful situations, home owners may not be aware of  potential coverage limitations, or cancelations if something happens and the insurance company finds out the home was vacant at the time of the incident. 

      Recently, a home owner, brand new to our program at Vacant Home Caretakers called to let us know their home insurance was to be cancelled the following week because the home had been vacant for some time.  The owner called me, quite distraught since we had discussed that one of the benefits in using our service was that their home will no longer be vacant and they can get a much less expensive policy on their home owners insurance.   Her insurance company told her it would only insure her vacant home if they had a 12 month lease in place with a renter.  Since this did not make sense while they are trying to sell the home, I gave the insurance company a call to let them know of our services and how we are providing a live-in home manager that would care for the home while it was for sale.  The insurance representative immediately said "great, have the owner call us and we will set up a tenant policy on her account".  This seems so simple I am wondering why they told the owner she needed a renter with a year lease in the home to begin with!  Sounds like there are mixed messages when dealing with vacant home insurance issues.

        It is so important to let these home owners know about potential insurance requirements and limitations on these vacant home policies. Some Vacant Home policies will not protect the house against such things as vandalism, glass breakage or water damage."  Many policy riders for Vacant Homes  are limited in time to 30, 60 or 90 days after it is left vacant.  With such a large asset at stake, we feel good that a bi-product of our service is enabling the homeowner to adequately protect their investment.

       There are so many issues home owners need to deal with when selling a vacant home and an experienced  real estate agent who is aware of the vacant home insurance issues while selling a vacant home will provide a tremendous service to their client by simply mentioning that their client should consult their home insurance agent.

 

Please View the recent news interview about Vacant Home Caretakers