Second homes and concierge
What inspections does an empty home need for insurance?
Last updated 4 July 2026 · Reviewed by Nick Thorpe, founder
The short answer
Most insurers expect an empty home to be inspected regularly, commonly every 7 to 14 days, by someone who goes inside, checks for problems and keeps a dated record. The exact interval and conditions are set by your own policy wording, so check your schedule and follow it exactly.
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 unoccupied for longer than your policy allows, most insurers change the deal: cover narrows, and conditions appear. The one that catches most owners out is the inspection clause.
What does “unoccupied” mean to an insurer?
It means whatever your policy says it means, usually a set number of consecutive days with nobody living in the home. Occasional visits do not normally count as living there, so a second home that sits empty between weekends can still be treated as unoccupied.
Once a home crosses that threshold, two things tend to happen. First, some cover is restricted; escape of water, theft and malicious damage are the usual candidates. Second, conditions are added that you must meet for the remaining cover to hold. Wordings vary between insurers and can change at renewal, so the only version that matters is yours. Dig out the schedule and read the unoccupancy section before assuming anything on this page applies to your policy.
The 7 to 14 day inspection clause
The most common condition requires a responsible adult to inspect the home, inside and out, at a set interval, typically somewhere between every 7 and every 14 days. That is a common pattern of policy wording, not a legal requirement, and your own policy may say something different, so check it.
The inspection clause usually comes with other conditions: heating kept running at a minimum temperature through the winter, or the water system drained down entirely; post kept out of sight; doors and windows secured; and any problem found dealt with promptly. Fail to meet a condition and the insurer may reduce a claim or refuse it altogether. These are the terms on which the insurer agreed to cover an empty building at all.
What does a compliant logged inspection look like?
A visit only protects you if you can prove it happened. A proper inspection is a short, repeatable routine with a written trail:
- Record the basics: the date, the time and who carried out the visit.
- Walk the outside: roof line, gutters, windows, doors, any sign of attempted entry, and anything that makes the house look empty from the street.
- Walk every room inside: leaks, damp patches, ceilings, under sinks, unusual smells, pests, anything electrical that looks wrong.
- Check the specific conditions your policy imposes: heating running at the required level, or the system still drained, and the alarm set on the way out.
- Clear post from the mat and out of view.
- Take a handful of timestamped photographs on a phone.
- Write it up in one running log, report any problem the same day, and record what was done about it.
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 the honest answer is that 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 down.
Where Livdin Concierge fits
This is exactly what Livdin Concierge is built for: care of private second homes that are never let and never listed. We visit on a schedule matched to your policy’s requirements, complete the full internal and external check, and send you a dated, photographed log after every visit, so the evidence builds itself. We hold keys securely, and when something needs fixing we arrange it with contractors we already trust. Tiers run from regular checks through to full care of the house, so the level of cover matches how the home is used.
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, covered in winterising a second home. Policy wordings differ and change, so we confirm what your insurer actually requires rather than guessing, and set the visit schedule to match.