What inspections does an empty home need for insurance?

An empty house is the quietest thing you will ever insure, and that is exactly what worries insurers. Nobody hears the drip, notices the damp or spots the broken window until weeks later. So once a home has been empty for longer than your policy allows, most insurers change the deal: cover narrows, and conditions can appear. The one that catches most owners out is the inspection clause.

Does an unoccupied home need inspecting every seven days?

Only if your policy says so. There is no legal seven-day rule. Some policies ask for weekly visits, often inside and out, others ask for fortnightly visits, and some set no interval at all. The policy wording decides, so find the unoccupancy condition and note three things: how many days empty before it applies (often 30 or 60), how often someone must visit, and what each visit must include, such as turning the water off or keeping the heating on.

If your policy asks for weekly visits, a monthly check will not meet it. Livdin Concierge includes a monthly whole-house check as standard; where a policy needs more, we agree the extra visits with you in advance and quote them. Either way, keep a dated record of every visit, with photos, so you can show the condition was met.

What does “unoccupied” mean to an insurer?

It means whatever your policy says it means. Many policies switch to unoccupied terms once nobody has lived in the home for a set number of consecutive days, and the Financial Ombudsman says that period is usually 30 or 60 days. The Ombudsman also notes that policies often do not define “unoccupied” at all. Where that happens, it reads the word in the way most favourable to the customer, and a home visited on a reasonably frequent basis can still count as occupied.

So the answer turns on your wording. If your schedule defines unoccupied, for example by nights nobody sleeps there, a daytime visit may not reset the clock. Dig out the policy and read the unoccupancy section before assuming anything on this page applies to you.

What changes once a home counts as unoccupied?

Two things tend to happen. Some cover is restricted or excluded: the Financial Ombudsman names theft, attempted theft, malicious damage and escape of water as the usual ones. And some policies add conditions you must meet for the remaining cover to hold.

The most common condition is an inspection clause: a responsible adult inspects the home, inside and out, at a set interval. There is no standard interval. Some wordings ask for a visit every week, others every two weeks, and some add a written log. Other conditions often travel with it: heating kept at a minimum temperature through the winter or the water system drained down, doors and windows secured, post kept out of sight, and problems dealt with promptly. Break one and the insurer may reduce or refuse a claim.

A checklist for an empty or second home

Before the house sits empty

1. Read the unoccupancy section of your policy. Note four things: how many days count as unoccupied, how unoccupied is defined, which cover is restricted, and any conditions.
2. Tell your insurer how the home is used, honestly. The law expects you to take reasonable care not to misrepresent anything to your insurer, and a second home used at weekends is a different risk from a main residence.
3. If the wording is unclear, ask the insurer or broker in writing and keep the reply.
4. Find the stopcock and test that it turns. The ABI recommends this before a cold spell, and it is the first thing anyone needs in a leak.
5. Decide heating or drain-down and do it properly. The ABI suggests turning the water off at the stopcock, or leaving the heating on a timer, to cut the risk of burst pipes while you are away. Our guide to winterising a second home covers both routes.
6. Fix dripping taps and have the boiler serviced before winter.

While it is empty

1. Inspect at the interval your policy sets, or more often in hard frost and after storms.
2. Walk the outside: roof line, gutters, windows, doors, any sign of attempted entry, and anything that makes the house look empty from the street.
3. Walk every room inside: leaks, damp patches, ceilings, under sinks, unusual smells, pests, anything electrical that looks wrong.
4. Check the specific conditions in your policy: heating at the required level, or the system still drained, and the alarm set on the way out.
5. Clear post from the mat and out of view.
6. Take timestamped photographs and write the visit up in one running log: date, time, who visited, what was checked, what was found and what was done.
7. If a pipe freezes or bursts, turn the water off at the stopcock and contact your insurer straight away. The ABI notes many insurers run 24-hour helplines.

At renewal

1. Read the unoccupancy wording again, because terms can change at renewal.
2. Tell the insurer if the way you use the home has changed.

If you ever claim on an unoccupied property, a loss adjuster will ask how often the home was checked and what evidence exists. A tidy log with dated entries and photographs ends that conversation quickly. “My neighbour pops in now and then” does not.

Who should do the checks?

Anyone responsible can, and both routes below work if they are done properly.

	A neighbour or relative	A professional service
Cost	Usually free	A monthly fee
Reliability	Depends on their diary, holidays and memory	Scheduled visits that happen regardless
Records	Often nothing written down	Dated log and photographs after every visit
When something is found	They tell you, then it is yours to fix from a distance	Reported, quoted and fixed by known contractors

A diligent neighbour serves plenty of owners well for years. The weak points are gaps and evidence: visits drift when life gets busy, and few people keep the written record an insurer wants to see. If the home is a long drive away, the fixing side matters as much as the finding side, because a small leak found on a Tuesday should not wait for your next trip.

Where Livdin Concierge fits

Livdin Concierge cares for private second homes that are never let and never listed. Every package includes logged key holding and a monthly check of the whole house, inside and out, with a photo report after every visit, so the dated record builds itself. If your policy asks for visits more often than monthly, we agree the extra visits with you in advance and quote them, so the schedule matches your wording rather than the other way round. Complete and Premium add maintenance with local trades, seasonal care such as drain-downs and frost checks, and a check after bad storms.

Two related jobs sit alongside the inspection routine: holding keys properly, covered in our guide to key holding services, and preparing the house for cold weather. Policy wordings differ and change, so we confirm what your insurer actually requires before setting the visit schedule. This page is general guidance, not insurance advice.