Why does my mortgage company ask if property is vacant?

Question

Every time I call they ask me this and if my home is for sale. It is for sale and we reside there some of the time. We were gone for the summer so I said that it was vacant she sounded concerned and put me on hold. After 20 minutes I hung up. What's with that?

Answer 1

Vacant means that nobody lives there at all (which means that it has lower security than if it were occupied).  Being away for extended periods of time (including a Summer absence) doesn't mean the same as being vacant.

Answer 2

There is more to this question.  How many times would a person call the mortgage company?  Something is up with this.  Why would the mortgage company ask that question without justification?  Maybe it is going into foreclosure & none of the registered letters were picked up.  

Answer 3

Another point to consider is that insurance companies usually do not cover vacant property.

Answer 4

If you are still using the home then its not vacant. Not sure why a mortgage company would ask you that unless you are or have been late on payments. Perhaps they are just trying to get an alternative address for you -- next time they ask you that question then why don't you ask them why they are inquiring.  

Answer 5

well, if you aren't living in it as your primary residence, and you don;t have a paying tenant in the house, the bank will feel there is risk you won;t be able to afford the payments - why do you call every month? don;t you get an invoice every month or have a payment book?

Answer 6

Because you got busted when they did a random audit of your file.

It is a violation of your mortgage note to no longer use the property as your primary residence without telling the mortgage company.

They also know that your hazard insurance (which was originally issued on OWNER OCCUPIED property) will not cover a vacant residence.

I would highly suggest you get more cooperative with them....they do have the LEGAL right to CALL THE NOTE DUE IN FULL if you violate any of those terms.

More and more people are getting busted for occupancy fraud.  I am glad you posted this question b/c people need to know that they DO audit for this.

PS:  Keep in mind that they probably sent a representative to do drive-by's of the property.