Home Insurance question on unoccupied house

[Mumha]

Hi

I'd appreciate advice on this.

We've just bought a house which will long term be a rental property. It needs a lot of work done to it, but we were informed that we have to have had it rented out once for Revenue to view it as a rental property, and then we can write off any renovation costs.

In the meantime we need to obviously get it insured, but because it is unoccupied at the moment (until we get a short term tenant), the insurers we've contacted at the moment, will not quote. Our timeline is get the house insured, get a tenant for 2 to 3 months (which we think we may have shortly), then start renovating (which will take 3-4 months), so it will be unoccupied for a while. On the plus side it is currently monitored by Phonewatch, and we are only 5 minutes away from the house.

Could anyone recommend an insurer who would quote for this ?

 

[R. Moore]

After my father died, the family house was unoccupied or a certain length of time. Very few carriers will underwrite unoccupied properties and those who do, will restrict cover (in our case FIRE only). We dealt with Chill Insurance at the time but can't remember the underwriter.

 

[Jimbobp]

If the house is unoccupied and under renovation, then you will need an unoccupied house insurance policy. When you put a tenant in, then you will need a landlord policy which is a different type of policy. So you might need to think about the way you are going about this. Out of interest, why would you need to rent it out to avail of the home renovation scheme? If this is your principal private residence that you will be entitled to avail of that?