Yes, they can. This is because an unoccupied house can have a myriad of risks to cover. Many home insurance companies will not allow insurance coverage for such a home to continue due to the risk of the house falling into disrepair or being targeted by vandals and subsequently leading to unnecessary losses to the company.
Don’t fall victim to a cancellation of your home insurance coverage
Most homeowner insurance companies therefore have rules determining the maximum period of time that a house is allowed to remain unoccupied or vacant before its insurance coverage is terminated, typically 30 or more consecutive days.
Some homeowner’s insurance firms do offer subscribers a vacancy permit if one requests it before the maximum 30-day period allowed for the home to remain unoccupied elapses. Such a vacancy permit allows some of your insurance coverage, like for fire or wind damage, to remain intact but excludes cover for water damage, glass breakage and theft.
In case you happen to fall victim to a cancellation of your home insurance coverage for vacancy reasons, there are other homeowner insurance policy providers that can offer you a specialized vacant home coverage. One such company is Lloyds of London, which offers an insurance policy that covers vacant homes that are valued up to $1 million with no restrictions on the age of the house. However, such a home must either be up for sale in the name of an estate, or undergoing renovation.
If the Lloyds of London solution doesn’t apply to your case, then you may want to find a house-sitter so that your home will not be considered unoccupied by your homeowner’s insurance company. Either you can have a family member or friend do the home-sitting for you for free, or you can hire a professional house-sitter to help you save your home insurance cover from cancellation
