Home insurance

[Hilux]

When I look at the small letters in my MSIG home insurance, I notice that the insurance will stop to cover my belongings if I am away from the house for more than a week. After speaking to the insurance office they told me that that was a normal clause....

Does anybody know of an insurance that does not have this clause? has anybody ever been denied coverage because of a similar clause?

Thanks in advance

Hilux

[barrys]

Hi Hilux

As far as I'm aware they all have a similar clause.

And 8 years ago I did have a claim disallowed following major theft from my house in Pattaya at that time because of such a clause.

These clauses are also common in Europe from (fading) memory!!

[mat]

All policies have a clause like this in their fine prints. There is a difference however between leaving the house unattended and without an inhabitant. Some companies are speaking about leaving the house unattended, most times this is 7 days. In these cases just make sure that somebody checks at least 1 time in the week. Doesn't matter if it's done by neighbours, friends or the cleaning lady. If it's checked it's okay. We (insurance broker) do propertychecks ourselves for people that don't have maintenance while away and don't want to bother other people with it.
Then there are companies that speak about leaving the house without an inhabitant. Most times this period is 90 days. Maybe this suits your situation better? If you want to know more about this, you can allways pm me.

[Pagey]

Barry suggested a company called QBE to me. Their clause quotes cannot be unhabited for more than 60 consecutive days.

[norm]

We had 30 days on our house insurance in Australia. We planned on coming to LOS for 6 months so arranged for a trustworthy friend to stay rent free (she paid utilities) and looked after the place while we were gone, worked out good for us and her.

[Hilux]

Thanks for all the replies. I need to check whether it says "unattended" or "without an inhabitant".

We already have a company checking the house once a week, so it sounds like it just may not be a problem at all

Hilux