Holiday Home Insurance and Second Home Insurance
Protecting your holiday home either overseas or in the UK is a vital way to protect your investment. Choosing a UK insurance product means that you will have peace of mind, when it comes to having to make a claim.Selecting the "get a quote" button will direct you to Intasure.
Posts Tagged ‘holiday home insurance for Europe’
French holiday home insurance benefits
Having a holiday home in France is a dream for many people. However, great as the lifestyle in France typically is, it will still make sense to think carefully about French holiday home insurance.
No country in the world is immune from bad weather and other forms of natural disaster. It is equally true to say that all countries suffer from crime.
Both of these things may affect your second home in France and if they do, you may wish to turn to insurance to help you deal with the financial consequences.
French holiday home insurance is typically distinct from that required by an owner-occupier.
For example, typical household insurance for an owner-occupier may not provide cover for a property that is left unoccupied for more than 30 consecutive days. In the case of holiday homes, there may be extended periods during which the property is unoccupied and that is why specific insurance is typically required.
Some people may find the thought of discussing insurance and its associated documentation to be a little intimidating if the conversation is going to be conducted in French.
There is a way around this though.
There are UK providers of overseas holiday home insurance that will provide cover for properties abroad, including France.
Having the ability to read all your French holiday home insurance documentation in English may help you find suitable cover at a cost-effective price and without fear that you may have misunderstood something, somewhere!
Understanding holiday home insurance
If you have a holiday home and wish to protect it, then you may need specific holiday home insurance – whether your property is in the UK or abroad.
The reason for that is that insurers in any country may differentiate between a property that is your normal place of permanent residence and one that is occupied occasionally for holiday purposes.
These two situations are commonly referred to as either owner-occupied or second/holiday homes.
Typically, the risk profiles for these two types of property are very different. For example, a holiday home may stand empty for lengthy periods of time each year – a circumstance that typically will not be covered by a standard owner-occupier property insurance policy.
Making sure that you have the appropriate cover in place is critically important but it may also be made a little more complicated if you are trying to discuss second home insurance in a foreign language.
Today there are providers of holiday home insurance that will be happy to cover properties in a wide range of overseas countries.
That may not only make it easier to obtain holiday home insurance due to the absence of language complexities, it may also allow you to be sure that you are getting the cover you need.
A place in the sun: Spanish property insurance
In buying a holiday home in Spain you are likely to be more or less guaranteed your place in the sun. Since protecting that investment may be high on your list of priorities, Spanish property insurance is not something you’d wish to gloss over. A little homework and the choice of an experienced and knowledgeable specialist insurer in this area might help you avoid some of the common pitfalls:
• second home buildings insurance: just as at home, buildings insurance is designed to cover the cost of completely rebuilding your property in Spain if it is reduced to rubble in a major catastrophe. Exactly what risks will your home be insured against? Does the buildings insurance take full account of the particular materials used in the construction of your Spanish home and does it reflect all the requirements of local building regulations?
• contents insurance: are there restrictions on the extent of cover provided? Theft, loss and damage might seem to convey more or less universal meanings, but are there specific definitions of these risks which limit the amount of cover afforded the contents of your home in Spain?
• unoccupied property: what about those times of the year when your holiday home remains empty? Is an adequate level of Spanish property insurance cover maintained during these times? Are there any special measures or additional security precautions that the insurer will require you take in order to safeguard the property and mitigate risks when it is left unoccupied?
• lettings: if you are planning to let your holiday home, you are almost certainly obliged to inform your insurers of that fact. To what extent, if any, does the level or extent of your holiday home insurance alter during those let periods?
• owner’s liability: many holiday home owners employ at least one person to come to the house to clean it, make repairs or do general caretaking. Have you made provision for your liabilities as their employer? What provision does your Spanish property insurance include for loss, breakages or damage caused to your home or its contents by such employees?
One for the experts: holiday property insurance
Holiday property insurance is important cover for anyone fortunate enough to own a second home, whether at home or abroad. As such an owner, you’re likely to be spoilt for choice when it comes to arranging that insurance, whether the provider is based in the UK or wherever the property is located. Insurance for your holiday home, however, is often something you might prefer to put in the hands of experts in this type of cover.
Why choose a specialist provider?
The core elements of the insurance needed are very much the same as those protecting your regular home – the building itself, the contents and the principal use of the home. In the case of a second home, however, there are typically particular considerations with which a specialist insurer is more likely to be familiar:
• buildings: cover for the physical fabric of the property is clearly an important defence against such potentially disastrous risks as fire, flooding, vandalism and storm damage. The actual risks, of course, very much depend on the location of the property and, if it is abroad, the country or region in which the home is situated. Specialist insurance providers are likely to have a keener sense of those risks, a knowledge of local building regulations and codes, and contacts within the local community to assist with urgent repairs if something should go wrong;
• contents: even though it’s a holiday home, the contents are nevertheless likely to be costly to replace in the event of theft, loss or damage. It can be difficult enough making an accurate and reliable valuation of home contents – how much more difficult might that be if you’re dealing with a foreign insurer. Specialist holiday property insurance providers are better placed to help you prepare the valuation appropriate to your needs and ensure that the risks you want to be covered are actually covered;
• use: almost by definition, a holiday home is unlikely to be occupied throughout the year, but to stand empty for longish period of time. Vacant property is notoriously fraught with difficulties when it comes to insurance. Specialist holiday property insurance providers, however, tend to be thoroughly familiar with the problem of temporarily unoccupied homes and have wide experience in ensuring that the building and its contents remain fully protected whether the home is in use or unoccupied.
Buying Spanish property insurance
If you own your own property in sunny Spain you have the luxury of being able to take a holiday whenever you want in your own home-from- home environment. However there is no getting away from the fact that a holiday home is potentially a substantial financial (and emotional) investment, and this investment may be worth protecting by purchasing Spanish property insurance.
Taking out second home insurance is different to insuring your home in the UK. For instance there may be certain requirements and events you have to cover by law in foreign countries, so check that you know the requirements.
A typical holiday home insurance policy may provide protection for the contents of your second home along with the shell of the building. While the benefits of the policy may depend on many things, including the insurance provider, you may find that you may have protection against some of the following:
- damage to the shell of the property caused by fire, flood, storm or vandalism;
- protection for the contents of your holiday home due to the above;
- protection against objects falling on your home and damaging it, this may include trees and aerials for instance;
- third party liability insurance may be included in Spanish property insurance, this provides you with financial help towards legal costs in the event that someone renting your holiday home suffers an accident or death whilst on your property;
- employers’ liability insurance for any members of staff, such as cleaner or housekeeper, again the policy pays out towards any legal costs that may arise from injury or death whilst working on your property.
The above are just a few of the many events that may be covered in the typical Spanish property insurance, depending on the type of holiday home cover taken and the insurance provider. When looking for holiday home insurance always check out the terms of the policy to ensure you know what is covered and what is not.
A short guide to holiday property insurance
There is nothing like owing your own holiday home abroad in a spot that you love. Protecting your investment with suitable holiday property insurance then, is something you’ll need to consider.
Buildings holiday home insurance
One of the reasons why buildings insurance for second homes may be so valuable is that it protects the shell of your holiday home. Second home buildings insurance typically provides protection against your holiday home being damaged or even destroyed due to unexpected events such as flooding, fire, and storm damage. Any of these events might spell disaster and cause many thousands of pounds worth of damage to the shell of the property.
With some holiday home insurance policies you may also be protected against such things as vandalism, falling trees and other objects that might destroy a portion of your home.
Second home contents insurance
The contents of your holiday home may add up to quite a sum of money and the contents part of holiday property insurance covers these against numerous events. Typically holiday home insurance may protect against everything your standard home contents insurance covers.
Public liability insurance
Also, you may let out your second home to friends, family or paying guests – having holiday home public liability insurance to protect you against claims for personal injury or damages caused while on your property may be something you need to consider. Some policies will offer this as standard, but do check.
Choosing suitable insurance
As with any type of insurance it is important to choose suitable holiday property insurance. Bear in mind that while you do not want to take out more second home insurance than is needed, as this affects the cost of the premiums, you also do not want to under insure as in the event of a claim, you may have to stand to a large loss financially.
The benefits to overseas property insurance
Without overseas property insurance to fall back on you might suffer financial worry and even lose your property if the worst case scenario arises and something happens to your second home. When looking for an insurance policy for your overseas property it is important that you look specifically for holiday home insurance and not just traditional owner-occupier buildings and contents insurance, as with the latter, it is likely that your cover will be invalid.
Why is a second home insurance policy so important?
The reason why choosing specialist overseas property insurance may be so important is that your overseas property typically faces different risks than your own home. For example:
- for part of the year the holiday home usually stands empty, whereas your main property does not. This may make the former more susceptible to things such as theft. Or, something like minor leak, left unattended, could cause extensive damage;
- with a second home, you may have people renting out your holiday home as well as staff to clean the holiday home. With some holiday home insurance policies then you typically have public liability insurance protection and employers’ liability insurance if a third party were to make a claim against due to an injury while in your property.
Of course along with providing protection for events that you may not typically need with standard home and buildings insurance cover, the insurance policy for a holiday home also provides the same protection as a standard policy. This may include:
- protection for the shell of the building against damage or destruction caused by fire, flood and storm;
- damage to the outside of the property due to vandalism;
- damage or destruction caused by falling objects;
- protection for the contents of the building for damage or destruction caused by fire, flood and accidental damage;
- theft of the contents of the property.
Of course the above usually depends on what your insurance provider offers in their overseas property insurance – it can vary among providers – and it is important that you check what the cover entails before you buy holiday home insurance online.
Holiday home insurance for Europe
Prudent owners of holiday accommodation in Europe are likely to give serious consideration to protecting their investment with adequate and reliable holiday home insurance for Europe. Their home in the UK, after all, is almost certainly going to be covered by buildings and contents insurance, so similar protection of their second home away from home is also likely to be given a high priority.
When purchasing cover for property abroad, however, there are some important additional considerations which might not immediately spring to mind when arranging the insurance:
- Mind your language – it is probably a statement of the obvious, but in foreign parts, they tend to speak a foreign language. This might be part of the joy of owning a holiday home overseas, but it certainly has the capacity for making some negotiations rather tricky. If you need to prepare a claim on your holiday home insurance for Europe, for example, the language barrier might prove more than an inconvenience but actually prevent you from winning the compensation you deserve (and have paid for through your premiums);
- Anyone at home? – practically by definition, holiday homes are rarely occupied the whole year round and are likely to stand vacant for appreciable periods of time. Empty property, however, is vulnerable to a considerably wider range of risks than an occupied one and some insurers therefore impose restrictions on the cover that remains in place beyond a certain period of its vacancy. Choosing your insurer carefully – and being able to read the detailed terms and conditions of the cover in English – might help you gain a better understanding of the status of your holiday property cover whenever it is unoccupied;
- Location, location, location – different insurers, even those that are UK-based, seem to have different definitions of “Europe”. Some include only the major European nations, some include any that are members of the European Union, whilst others cast their net still further and include other popular holiday destinations, such as Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey;
- Solutions – fortunately, many of these pitfalls that are capable of catching out the unwary property owner might be avoided by consulting a specialist, UK-based insurance adviser. Many have websites that allow interested customers readily to search for the most suitable – and affordable – holiday home insurance in Europe.