Property insurance

[Happylady]

Our property is a first floor apartment and our property insurance is for the whole building costs divided by 3 property owners.

Have spoken to the insurer about cover for our apartment to include holiday letting and have been sent cover details. One of the clauses is that all services be turned off if the property is unoccupied for more than 72 hours. Just wondered whether this is a common clause for these types of insurances.

[Jammy]

Hi Happylady,

just got through sorting out the insurance for our new venture (holiday rental property in France).

The devil is most certainly in the detail and after inviting four quotes and wading through the associated summaries and policies I can tell you that it is common to have a clause regarding switching off water at the mains during the winter months (Nov - Mar typically, although Intasure go for Dec to Feb).

OR they say you must have heating on continuously at a setting not less than 10 or 15 degrees.

Intasure want water off at mains during winter months if unoccupied for more than 48 hours.

Insurance For Holiday Homes ask for the same, and if unoccupied for more than 14 days they want tanks and pipes drained too.

AA just asked for water off if unoccupied at all during winter months.

Schofields policy wasn't clear - couldn't actually find anything.

I went for 'Insurance for Holiday Homes' in the end because they gave me the best cover for accidental damage and/or theft by tenants, whereas several companies do not offer cover for either.

Intasure were a close second but were beaten on price in the end.

None of the companies I contacted mentioned anything about any other services i.e. gas or electric.

Hope that helps.

[crosslandv1]

As a 'newbee' to French rentals, I came across your post and found the information really useful. It is great that people are happy to share their experiences and so helpful. We are just setting up our house for rental in Pyrenees Orientales and any advice is gratefully received.

[crosslandv1]

Oh just forgot btw does anyone else have any more advice on insurance. I have also heard that some insurers won't insure for pools with just alarms and covers, they insisit on fences. Am I up to date on this?

[lel]

I am not sure about the pool situation, I am struggling to get that far, my problem seems to be that having brought with a business partner we have an SCI which seems to be a problem for most Insurance companies. I will update on progress and report any useful info along the way.

[Unibond3]

Hi

I'd be interested to hear from other forum members which holiday property insurers they would recommend (and any to avoid!).

Thanks.

[Unibond3]

Thanks Mattdon

Interesting article - appreciate your bringing it to my attention.

[tchn]

I'm with Towergate who allow the property to be unoccupied up to 90 days. But house either needs draining of water or the temperature kept at 15 c if empty in the winter months. Policy not cheap but I had little option.

Once we are within 28 days of letting I plan to change to http://www.boshers.co.uk/ who were much more competitive for me and only require the property to be kept to 7 c or drained. They require someone to visit the property fortnightly.

[Happylady]

Think we're going to go with Schofields have less clauses to fulfill and seem to offer good cover

[kg1]

We are also with Towergate through a broker. Certainly wasn't the most expensive though.

[Val]

We are with Schofields and have found them to provide cover at a sensible price. We have to have the heating on at 13 degrees constantly during the winter months, but apart from that there seems to be nothing too onerous in our T&C.
Other insurers we went to for quotes insisted we have window locks fitted, for example, which we didn't want to bother with. After all many if not most guests wouldn't bother to ensure all the windows were locked every time they went out.