Why Home Owner’s Insurance On Vacant Homes Is Important

Last night a house a couple roads over from us burned down.  Luckily the house was vacant because 4 local fire departments responded, but they had trouble getting to the house because of the ice on the roads.  It was pretty much gone before a single fire truck got there.  This is the second vacant house near us to burn down this year.  No cause has been released yet for this one, but the first one was arson. It started when a bunch of thugs broke into the vacant house which was rumored to be haunted to camp out and started a fire from the kerosene heater they were using. 

This got me to thinking about exactly what the people who own the house have to go through.  They weren’t living there, so there’s a good chance the house is empty of their belongings.  Still do they have vacant home insurance? Thank goodness nothing like that ever happened to my Grandparent's when they built their new home and moved out of the one we now live in. This house sat vacant for 11 years before we moved in, and I know for a fact they dropped the homeowner's insurance on it while it was empty.  It baffles me that they did that because they kept the water and electric on, and this house became a guest house and extra storage area. They got a new policy when we moved in, and we also have a renter's policy now, too.

It does make me wonder, though.  How many vacant homes out there don’t have homeowner’s insurance on them anymore, and what would happen if god forbid they caught fire or were hit by some other disaster?

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