Home Insurance while away for more than 60 days in a year

[SueEllen]

Just found this necro thread today. I am having a spot of bother getting house insurance because I stay away 4 nights a week during which time my house is unoccupied.

Privilege insurance stipulate the house must not be unoccupied more than 60 days in a row. However I phoned to check and they say they can't offer insurance because they deem my house to be not my main residence if I stay away 4 nights a week.

The AXA application form/page says the house must be occupied "Most days for at least a few hours".

Any ideas?

Privilege is UK insurance which is the same as Directline.

Personally I've noticed that some of the people on the phones have limited understanding of things like "main residence."

So your best bet is to go through a broker if you are worried.

What will happen is that someone like Axa etc will insure you on basically the same policy but it will be understood that your house is your main residence. It will cost you more because the broker got involved.

However if you calculate that you could be at home for over 50% of the year - weekends, some holidays and the fact your contract is only 3 months in length - then just get normal insurance.

[psychocandy]

House insurance is a joke. Notice a lot these days have issues if you live within 400 meters of a water course (i.e. river). Assuming this is due to flood risk.

400m point to point in the south wales valleys probably puts you half way up the side of the mountain (and 100-200m higher!). If these flooded then Cardiff, Swansea, Newport would be in big trouble.

[yasockie]

How about you just start saving up the insurance premium and maybe sell the most expensive items that you don't need anyway? (Since you're not staying there that much)
In the very unlikely scenario that the house gets broken into, what are the maximum losses that you expect? Would you be able to afford them from your warchest or whatever?
As a rule I only insure against critical things that I can't afford to cover myself (loss of life etc) and that I am legally obligated to - car insurance etc.
You could also consider installing motion sensors and an alarm that calls private security.
Please bear in mind that we are talking about an unlikely scenario, so assuming that you would have paid 500GBP for the insurance per annum and your expected maximum losses are 10000GBP, you will statistically be better of not getting an insurance, if the cumulated odds of losses are lower than 5%.
There's also a ton of other things that the insurance company will try and question to avoid paying out (basically they will try everything they're legally allowed and sometimes try more).
On the other hand if you did get an insurance how are they going to check how long have you been away?

[psychocandy]

How about you just start saving up the insurance premium and maybe sell the most expensive items that you don't need anyway? (Since you're not staying there that much)
In the very unlikely scenario that the house gets broken into, what are the maximum losses that you expect? Would you be able to afford them from your warchest or whatever?
As a rule I only insure against critical things that I can't afford to cover myself (loss of life etc) and that I am legally obligated to - car insurance etc.
You could also consider installing motion sensors and an alarm that calls private security.
Please bear in mind that we are talking about an unlikely scenario, so assuming that you would have paid 500GBP for the insurance per annum and your expected maximum losses are 10000GBP, you will statistically be better of not getting an insurance, if the cumulated odds of losses are lower than 5%.
There's also a ton of other things that the insurance company will try and question to avoid paying out (basically they will try everything they're legally allowed and sometimes try more).
On the other hand if you did get an insurance how are they going to check how long have you been away?

What if your house burns down to the ground? All posessions plus house gone.

Quite a lot of wonga.

[unixman]

For the benefit of anyone who comes searching here: I took out a policy through Towergate brokers. Cost £154, no more than "normal" insurance.

Specialist Personal & Business Insurance | Towergate Insurance