Call your New Bedford Insurance Agent Before You Vacate Your Home
The world of real estate can be very unpredictable. It could take months or years for your house to sell after you put it on the market, or it could sell in a few weeks. It’s important to talk to your New Bedford insurance agent before you move and have to leave your home with your real estate agency. Massachusetts homeowners insurance is meant to protect a home that people live in, so even a house that is vacated for renovations is more at risk. That is because damage and theft are more likely to happen in empty homes, so the risk associated with insuring an empty home is much higher.
Protect Your Home in Massachusetts
If you don’t let your insurance agent know that you’re going to be leaving your house empty for a few months until it sells, your policy may not cover you anymore. Talking to the agency directly about your plans is the best way to find out if you can get a price for home insurance that will cover your empty house. When you’re not at home, you should think about all the ways you could be held responsible if something went wrong. You might think your friends will be able to let you know if they see anything wrong with the property, but they might not see everything.
In some places, kids really like to jump over the fence to party inside an empty house, which can cause expensive damage to the property. Also, you could be sued if one of those teens slips, falls, or gets hurt in some other way on your empty land. Talk to your New Bedford insurance agent about getting a policy for your empty home or seeing if there are ways to add an addition to the policy you already have. There are a lot of different rules about this from state to state and from provider to provider.
Go Over Your Homeowners Insurance Policies
Get in touch with your New Bedford home insurance company right away if you want to sell your house. Tell them if you are going to move out or if you are going to stay in the house. You will need to let them know when and for how long you plan to be gone if you are leaving the house empty. Most Massachusetts homeowners insurance policies have something known in the industry as a vacancy exclusion. This means that after 30 days, the policy won’t cover things like theft and broken glass, and after 60 days, it won’t cover fire and lightning. That means you might be okay if you’re only going to be gone for a few weeks. Still, you should talk to your agent before you put your house on the market so they can tell you what to do about your security.
Policies for empty homes are priced based on how risky it is for the insurance company to cover the property. It’s not just vacant homes, but also homes that are not occupied during renovations or major repairs. Talk to your agent about video surveillance systems, security tracking services, and other things that could affect your coverage. Keeping up with these services after you’ve moved out can give your empty home an extra layer of safety. This is still a good idea, even if it doesn’t change the insurance policy. You will want your home to be in great shape if you are trying to sell it, after all. Nothing you can do to stop break-ins or damage will hurt you either.
Contact Your New Bedford Insurance Agent
Going to see your local agent to talk about your Massachusetts home insurance policy is the best thing to do. Your agent may have choices and ideas that you hadn’t even thought of. The rules for New Bedford home insurance and an empty house aren’t well known, so it’s a good idea to learn everything you can about coverage before you move. In fact, it might be best for you to stay in your home or at least live there a few days a week while it’s on the market. It might not work for all homeowners, especially if they are moving out of state, but it might work for some.
Since 1909, Borden Insurance Agency has been helping people in the Southcoast area of Massachusetts insure their homes and cars. You can benefit from the fact that we have worked with clients in almost every kind of case for many years. Call us at 508-999-3636 to talk to one of our reps. We can give you a price on home insurance, answer any questions you have about insurance and selling your house, or give you more information about the policy you already have.