One of the types of real estate individuals sometimes have are vacation homes. Vacation homes can raise some unique insurance issues as compared to primary residences.
One of the things that is behind many of these special issues is the fact that, oftentimes, a vacation home’s owner isn’t at the home regularly, but rather is only present at the home during certain parts of the year.
A property owner being away from a property for long stretches regularly can create some special risks related to the property. For one, a home being unattended for long stretches of time could potentially leave it more vulnerable to certain harms, like thefts. Also, when a negative event happens to a vacation home when the owner is in one of their stretches of being away from the home, the event could have much more time to cause damage to the property and chances to mitigate the harm could be lost.
Now, there are certain things that could help mitigate these risks that can arise in connection to vacation properties, including a vacation property having a caretaker who either lives at the property or checks in on it regularly and the installation of internal sprinkler systems, security systems and alarm systems at a vacation property.
Among the insurance issues the special risks related to vacation homes trigger are issues regarding insurance rates. Property insurance policies for vacation homes can be more expensive than those for primary residences due to these risks. The fact though that there can be ways to mitigate such risks makes it so a wide range of different things can have impacts on what insurance rate a vacation home has.
Vacation properties can also present some unique issues when property insurance claims are filed in relation to them. The special issues and risks related to vacation homes and the fact that many different things can impact what sorts of risks such properties are exposed to affect what sorts of things could end up being battlegrounds in disputes over claims related to such properties. Insurance defense attorneys can assist insurers with navigating claims disputes regarding property insurance policies for vacation homes and the complex issues that can come up in relation to such disputes.
Source: Nasdaq, “High Net Worth Individuals Often Face Complicated Homeowners Insurance,” April 28, 2016