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Does anyone have any recommendations for insurers which insure houses which hav become vacant through death of the owner?

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As many of you know, my father passed away in April. As I did after my sister's death, I needed to address the issue of continued homeowner's insurance coverage during the period in which the house is fixed up for sale.

For my sister's house, I spent some time living there and commuting back and forth to my house, so the house was occupied. That's not the situation now.

Quotes from a carrier specializing in vacant house insurance is about 40% more than the premium for the house when occupied. I'm wondering and assume that there probably are carriers that specialize in coverage for unoccupied homes.

Anyone have any recommdations? If you want to name specific companies w/o violation of the no advertising policy here, perhaps you could just PM me.

It's not necessarily just the cost that concerns me, but also the limited liability - there just isn't as much coverage on a vacant house as there would be if it was occupied, which I understand. But I still want to get the best deal and coverage that I can.

Thanks for any suggestions.
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Insurers charge more because there is much more liability. Broken pipes, vandalism, squatters, pests. Houses aren’t happy when vacant. Wish there was a discount but it’s quiet the opposite.
AND they threaten not to pay if not notified of occupancy status in advance.
Wish I knew of such a company myself.
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Tell them you will be renting it out while on the market, try renter's insurance???

My only other idea, is to contact the escrow companies, maybe they will know.  Because they work with transferring titles to homes when sold, maybe just an interim coverage.

I hope, in today's spring market, that it will sell fast GA.
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Call the real estate agent you are thinking about using.
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GardenArtist, when my Dad moved from his house into senior living, I quickly asked his insurance carrier what do I need to do. The carrier asked if the house is on the market For Sale, and I said in a couple of weeks as soon as the furniture is moved out. That was good enough for him, so I was able to keep Dad's insurance going.  Otherwise I was going to try Chubb.  I heard about this company back when I was selling historic residences but I don't know how they deal with vacant houses. 
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Thanks for the responses.

Mom, I do understand the higher risk of an empty house, and I understand the company's position, as well as why many companies don't want to deal with the issue. I wish there were an alternative, but haven't discovered one.

Send, renting wouldn't be possible w/o major work and would also make it difficult for tradespeople and me to get that work accomplished. I will try escrow companies; thanks for that suggestion.

Barb, I've dealing with 3 different realtors, determining which one I want for the longer term issues. One already is much too aggressive; I think she'll be the first to go.

I've also gotten some good suggestions from the local Chamber of Commerce.

FF, I wish I could get the house ready that quickly, but it's going to be at least several months, and that's assuming that I can get professional help. That's probably more necessary than my own work - too much lifting and sorting and moving.

I will try Chubb, and probably will call a few more that are well known. AAA does not offer that type of insurance.

Thanks for taking the time to help me along the way to eventually settling up the estate issues.
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GardenArtist, ever think of selling your Dad's house "as is"? I did that with my own parent's house as it did need updating, mainly new kitchen, new bathrooms, new carpet, new flooring, new windows. Lot of logistics to deal with. Then there is payment, like who has that much liquid funds laying around.

But I was still so exhausted physically and mentally with helping my folks for so many years, I just didn't want to pursue companies that did this work. Heck , my own house was falling apart around me from so much neglect :(

First I brought in a licensed Appraiser to give me a ballpark price on the house as it stood. So I added $20k to that amount to give for bickering room. It worked. A flipper came in $20k below asking price, right at Appraised price, yeah \o/ It was a win-win for both of us :))

What drained me was emptying the house. Came across a lot of memories. And decisions, like what piece of furniture can I swap out for what my parents had. And then finding charities that would take the furniture. Goodwill was booked 2 months ahead. So I called Salvation Army which came out, but they weren't allowed to go upstairs because the U shape stairs. Then I called some of the trash haulers.

I tried to get someone to do an estate sale. But none were interested because my parents didn't have very old antique furniture in pristine condition or a lot of expensive art work.
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Garden - J H Ferguson & Assoc. 100k per 1k, fire only.
This is the approach I used for my mom’s property... Her homeowners as they had accepted payment for annual renewal continued old policy (i would refuse cancellation payment) but would not renew. This got me a few months to find vacant policy AND open probate. The property was never not insured. This apparently is mucho importante as cause if its uninsured it places it into a different risk category. Continuous coverage.

At least for TX, none of the traditional homeowners Ins companies- Allstate, USAA, SF, etc - do vacant ever. Vacant are done by independent insurance agents and are speciality underwriting. Got like 4 quotes and all were way way more than double from what her homeowners was & for what is basically just fire coverage. The highest quotes were from the guys the probate atty suggested..... fun! No theft coverage. If there’s going to be work done, you may need a rider for this with some sort of documentation from contractor as to their insurance. If it’s being shown and under Realtor listing agreement, you may need a rider for this too. All quotes had waivers added on too. Crazy confusing.

Property will need in someway to be considered of a certain value..... so last tax assessor statement or appraisal may be needed, whichever is higher. Most vacant is to have insurance in place while under new construction and skews to 500k & over for a limited time. It’s expensive but the costs gets folded into build. But that’s not the situation we’re in...... it was my hubs who figured out how to do, by finding indep agents who do vacation / 2nd home insurance coverage in the zip code where house is. The agent was great, did a drive by and sent pics plus last tax assessor and house got placed by him (took about 10 days) as TX licensed Indp agent with a Texas insurance group (Diamond) who in turn gets policy underwritten by J H Ferguson. Ferguson owns VacantExpress.com which is the market leader in vacant dwelling of all types. Initially there was a raft of paperwork but after 1st year went to on line renewals. You’ll need I imagine a MI indep insurance agent to place it, I don’t think you can DIY as you need licensing. I’d bet Ferguson has a list of MI agents.  Hope this helps.
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I insured mom and daddys house, $2500 per year through Farmers. I could not get a policy renewal with their previous insurer or with the company that I use. Vacant dwellings are difficult to get insurance on and difficult on the wallet compared to the $1000 per year I spend for my own but their house is worth quite a bit so it was not worth it to let it go uninsured.

Good luck with selling! I am headed in that direction but at this point I have only taken a bottle of conditioner and my daddys tractor from their place, it is still the way it was 8/10 months ago when they passed away.
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Well, coming directly at the conclusion can you please send the photos of the vacant house. So from that it will get clear about how the things can work out. If you already had an agreement over the vacant house, then you can claim to the insurance company for assuring the money to cover the damage, or one can also take some helpful hints from the website of the Alliance public adjusters ( https://www.alliancepublicadjusters.com/ ).
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