Holiday Home Insurance

Holiday home insurance allows you to relax and enjoy owning a holiday home -- even when you're not on holiday. If you own a second house that you only visit once or twice a year, you can still benefit from a comprehensive coverage when you protect the dwelling with holiday home insurance. Secure your investment and your family's source of relaxation by purchasing quality coverage at affordable premiums.

If you let your holiday home to tenants, you may require a specialist policy for landlords. Landlords home insurance can either provide building cover only, or combine house and contents policies if your second residence is partially furnished. Compare house contents insurance quotes, features and benefits from several reliable insurers as you tailor a policy that's perfectly suited to your property.

Holiday House Insurance Features

Traditional house insurance policies protect the building that you own against common hazards, such as fire and smoke, natural or man-made floods, a storm or tempest, falling objects, theft or vandalism. Policies that cover your primary home generally exclude damages that occur whilst your property is left unoccupied for 30 days or more. Because an unoccupied building has a higher risk of incidents such as water damage due to frozen pipes, electrical fires or forced-entry theft, most insurers refuse to cover damages that occur when you leave your dwelling for long periods of time.

Holiday home insurance is dedicated to the needs of property owners who have a second residence that they visit periodically or let to tenants on a short term basis. No matter how long you leave your property unoccupied, your insurance policy will pay out to repair or replace the house if it is damaged by perils covered in your policy. You may love your holiday home, but you can't necessarily leave it attended throughout the year. Second home insurance gives you greater peace of mind about the security of this valuable asset.

Holiday home insurance protects the fixed, immovable elements of your residence, such as flooring, walls, windows, doors and permanent fixtures. If your property is broken into whilst you are away, your policy may pay out to repair doors or windows that were harmed by forced entry. Your benefits will also pay out to repair damages caused by vandalism.

Fully comprehensive holiday home insurance policies include liability coverage, which protects you if your tenants or guests are injured on the premises. Liability coverage can protect you against financial losses if a guest or tenant is seriously hurt or suffers a significant loss. Policies may be expanded to include employer's liability cover to insure you against legal claims brought by care takers or other employees who are injured whilst working on the property.

Contents Protection for Holidays

Because most holiday homes are at least partially furnished, a comprehensive holiday home insurance policy includes contents protection as well as cover for the building, itself. Contents coverage protects the movable items in your residence, such as carpets, furniture, appliances, art and books. Holiday home insurance may include optional accidental damage cover to insure your furnishings and carpets if they are damaged during mishaps caused by tenants or guests.

New for old contents policies pay out to replace your damaged or destroyed belongings with new versions of the lost items. Many owners consider this level of protection to be more cost effective, even though premiums may be slightly higher. Indemnity policies merely secure your belongings for their current value, including a deduction for depreciation. If you were to attempt to replace your items with the benefits from an indemnity plan, you would likely find that the sum was insufficient to purchase new equivalents.

Holiday Home Insurance Restrictions

Many providers apply certain restrictions when covering secondary properties. Many providers will only insure houses in the UK with a standard contract. If you own a villa in Greece or Spain, you may require specialist protection for overseas homes. There may be restrictions applied to the building materials used to construct the dwelling, as well as to the type of foundation and roof.

If you let the dwelling commercially, you may encounter certain restrictions on the length of time the premises are occupied. Homes that are let on a long term basis may not be eligible, depending on your provider's guidelines. Houses that are left permanently empty may not be covered as a secondary residence, although they may qualify for policies that are tailored for vacant properties.

Holiday home insurance is a valuable product if you own a separate retreat in addition to your primary residence. Knowing that this asset is properly insured will give you greater peace of mind when the building is left unoccupied, or when your guests or tenants have taken over. Request a quote from several reliable insurance providers to find the product that's best suited to your use of the residence.