Article by Jason Hulott
Second home insurance should be more or less similar to first home insurance, youd think. Like many things in life, the answers both yes and no. Holiday home insurance bears many similarities to the insurance you have probably already arranged for your principal residence but there are significant differences, too.
The similarities
Just like standard home insurance, holiday home insurance is designed to provide financial protection for your investment in the property in the event of a whole range of risks that could result in loss or damage to the fabric of the building itself or to its contents. If accidents or natural disaster should strike, the insurance is there to indemnify you against the loss or damage. So there are typically two main components:
? Buildings insurance: as the name suggests, this is the element of insurance for the structure and fabric of the building in the event of its damage from storms, flooding, fire, falling debris, vandalism and the like. The actual sum insured might appear to be a relatively high figure since it needs to cover the cost of completely rebuilding the home and this can typically far outweigh its current market value;
? Contents insurance: the contents of even a second home can represent a sizeable investment. The sums youve spent on furniture and furnishings, appliances and equipment, not to mention your personal belongings, can soon mount up and the cost of replacing items lost, damaged or stolen could leave you seriously out of pocket. Second home insurance typically aims to help you make good any such loss.
Do note that any successful claim normally comes with an excess (this is the first part of any claim that you are liable for) and also that policy features and benefits can vary depending on the provider, so never assume that the cover you need is automatically included do check.
The differences
Whilst holiday home insurance is therefore clearly recognisable as a form of otherwise standard property insurance, there are particular considerations attached to insuring what is a second, rather than the principal, home. Second homeowners might want to pay special attention, therefore, to at least the following:
? its probably in the very nature of the second home that there will be times and possibly prolonged periods when the property remains unoccupied. Where standard home insurance on your principal residence is unlikely to maintain full cover during such extended periods, you might want to ensure that the cover on your second home continues to afford the protection required during such times;
? similarly, if your holiday home is likely to be let out to paying tenants, you are likely to want the reassurance that full insurance cover is maintained during periods that the property is let and that the insurance does cover paying guests;
? if your holiday home is overseas, there is the potentially added complication of dealing with local insurers and grappling with policies written in a foreign language. Fortunately, however, there are UK-based, specialist insurers perfectly competent in arranging holiday home insurance on properties abroad, with policy documents written in familiar and readily accessible English.
About the Author
Jason is the Webmaster of http://www.holidaypropertycover.com where you can compare rates for your holiday property insurance as well as take advantage of some excellent policy features.