Vacant vs Unoccupied Homes

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Vacant vs. Unoccupied

While at first glance whether a property is vacant or not would seem to be obvious, it is unfortunately not nearly as easy to determine as one would hope. It is essential to understand whether a home is unoccupied or vacant because in most policies damage to a property caused by vandalism or burglary is excluded if the property has been vacant for more than 60 consecutive days immediately before the loss.

Vacancy

Vacancy is defined as buildings that do not contain sufficient personal property to support intended occupancy or use. An example of this would be if an insured has sold their home and has moved to another state. When the insured moved they took all their belongings with them thus considering the home vacant as they have left the house without any evidence of someone living there, thus if something were to happen to the home than that loss would generally not be covered as most property policies have provisions that limit or eliminate coverage for property deemed vacant.

Unoccupied  

When a home is empty but contains a sufficient amount of the insureds contents, furniture, etc. Of course, these definitions leave a lot of room for interpretation, but that’s because someone can leave their home for a variety of reasons for shorter or longer than 60 days. An example of an unoccupied home would be a couple going on their honeymoon for two months, while the couple is traveling they have all of their possessions still in the home, the home would be declared unoccupied as they have a majority of their belongings still in the home.