Of everything on the vacant-home checklist I published a few weeks ago, one item generates the most follow-up questions: the insurance call. It deserves its own issue, because this is the gap that turns a bad week into a five-figure loss.
Here’s the problem. Most standard homeowner policies limit or exclude coverage once a home has been vacant — commonly after 30 to 60 days, depending on the carrier and the policy. An estate home hits that window almost by default: the owner has passed, the family is grieving and sorting out court paperwork, and sixty days evaporate before anyone thinks about the policy.
Two distinctions matter when you make the call. The first is vacant versus unoccupied. In insurance language these are different conditions — an unoccupied home still has its furnishings and looks lived-in; a vacant one is empty of contents. Policies often treat them differently, and an estate home can shift from one to the other the day the cleanout crew finishes. Don’t assume; ask the carrier which definition applies and when.
The second is the named insured. The policy was written for someone who is no longer living. The carrier needs to be told, and coverage may need to be handled in the estate’s name going forward. Not mentioning the death to the insurance company isn’t a strategy — it’s a way to discover at claim time that there was no coverage at all.
Three questions to ask the carrier, in one call: When does the vacancy limitation start, and what does it exclude? Does the estate need a vacant-home endorsement or a separate vacant-home policy? And what happens to the policy now that the named insured has died?
Yes, vacant-home coverage costs more. It is also one of the cheapest forms of protection an estate can buy relative to what it protects — and for the fiduciary personally, keeping the estate’s largest asset insured isn’t optional. A lapse on your watch is exposure on your watch.
If you’re advising an executor whose property is about to sit empty, the insurance call and an early market valuation are the two highest-return hours in the entire process. I can’t make the first call for them — but the second one I’ll handle at no cost.
Andrew Howell, REALTOR® | eXp Realty · (614) 632-5733 · andy@centralohioestateservices.com.
Andrew Howell is a licensed Ohio real estate agent with eXp Realty and is not an attorney. This article is for general informational purposes and is not legal or tax advice; confirm current thresholds and procedures with a licensed Ohio probate attorney.
