Safety First: Keep the risks down on your holiday home

Posted February 11, 2009 – 11:14 am in: Landlord Insurance

When looking for your holiday home insurance, it is essential to make sure you use a specialist insurer. Many insurers are cautious about insuring a holiday home. Of course there are good reasons for this. There are obvious risks in leaving your property unoccupied on a regular basis. Any problem that arises could get a whole lot worse if there is no one there to deal with it straight away.

So how can you minimise these risks?

• Carry out regular checks on the wiring, sockets and electrical appliances. If there is the slightest cause for concern, get it seen to by a qualified electrician (trying to do it yourself could invalidate your holiday home insurance). If something starts smouldering while there is nobody there to take action, it is likely to become a full-blown fire that could destroy your holiday home.

• If you leave your holiday home unoccupied for long periods during the winter months, consider keeping your heating on (assuming it’s thermostatically controlled) to prevent freezing. (Some holiday home insurance policies insist on this.) It will mean bigger bills, but freezing could be disastrous. If the heating is oil-fired, look at it regularly to make sure there is no escape of oil.

• Check your TV aerial to make sure it isn’t about to fall down.

• Inspect your roof regularly. Even one tile missing for a lengthy period could cause severe water damage in your property.

• Some holiday home insurance companies insist that the water system is drained down during unoccupied periods. If you don’t want to do this, make sure you are clear about your insurer’s rules.

• You really need someone at hand who can keep a check on the property for you and get access in an emergency – either a paid agent, or a trusted neighbour.

Simple precautions prevent major disasters. Of course most of these things are unlikely to happen. But sometimes they do. And if they do, finding your holiday home insurance is invalid is the worst possible scenario.


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