At 79.1% owner-occupied, Surprise has one of the highest ownership rates in the Valley, and a large share of those owners leave for the summer. An empty house is a different risk and most policies say so.
Cover narrows once a dwelling is unoccupied beyond a stated period. The clause is in the policy already.
Three things about a home that is lived in part of the year.
Most homeowners forms restrict or exclude certain perils once a dwelling has been unoccupied for a stated number of consecutive days, commonly sixty. Vandalism, glass breakage and water damage are usually first to go. A household that leaves in May and returns in October has crossed that line without anyone mentioning it.
The classic seasonal loss is a supply line or water heater failing in an empty house and running for weeks. It is also the loss most likely to sit inside a vacancy exclusion, which is the worst possible combination. Shutting the water off at the main is the single most effective thing an absent owner can do.
Seasonal and secondary residence policies exist, and some carriers simply endorse the standard form. Either way it has to be arranged deliberately, because the default policy assumes someone is home.
The absence, planned for rather than hidden.
Measured against the vacancy clause in your own form.
The cheapest risk reduction available and carriers notice it.
A documented check during the absence helps both the claim and the underwriting.
Tell us which months you are away and whether the water gets shut off.
We write it for a house that is empty half the year, because yours is.
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