Don’t Forget To Protect Yourself

24 January 2014

Great, you’ve found the perfect holiday home for sale, made it yours and popped the champagne cork. You’re looking forward to settling in, so what’s next?

You need to be sure that your holiday bolthole is going to safe and secure. Especially when you’re not about all the time or during the one month each year when the park closes down to visitors.

As well as considering security, maintenance and repairs, just like you do with your main house, you also need to think about how to protect yourself – insurance.

Holiday Home Insurance

Finding insurance for a second home can be tricky. You can’t just ring up the insurer of your main house and ask them to extend the cover you already have to your second property. Most will not cover you and you need to protect yourself.

You also can’t buy a standard household insurance policy without telling the insurer that you want to cover a holiday home. As the insurer is unlikely to settle any claims once it discovers the truth.

Insurers see holiday homes as more risky than traditional homes. This is because they are typically left empty for long periods of time, making them easy targets for burglars.

Another worry for companies is that you are not resident all the time to check up on any weather-related damage. The fear is that if roof slates are torn off in a storm or pipes freeze and burst in winter, the damage can worsen before you have time to visit to find out what has happened and to sort it out.

Holiday home insurance, like standard household cover, is split into two parts: buildings insurance and contents cover. Buildings insurance covers the structure against burst pipes, fire, flood, storm and subsidence. It should also cover any repairs or rebuilding work including gates and fences.

Rebuild Value

Also worth remembering is that you don’t insure the sale value of your property, but its rebuild value. You can calculate this via the website of the Association of British Insurers.

Meanwhile contents insurance will cover anything in your home that is removable, such as furniture and white goods.

Don’t forget to read the policy small print carefully. It will stipulate that you need specially fitted window and door locks or you may not be covered for break-ins. Don’t wait until you have a claim to make before checking exactly what you are covered for and what you are responsible for putting in place as the owner.

So once all the paperwork is done and dusted all you have to do is sit back and enjoy your holiday hideaway feeling safe and secure, and well insured – so don’t forget to  protect yourself!