Will home owner's insurance cover a loss if a person is not living in the home?

Question

My cousin has been living in her mother's home in the same city where her home is.

Last week a neighbor called to say that water was running out her garage door.

She found that an upstairs pipe had burst. The ceilings had fallen and the floors were ruined. The insurance company told her that since no one was living in the home that they would not cover the claim. Is this correct? My cousin has been staying at her mother's house for about a year.

Answer 1

True.  The homeowners policy is for owner occupied homes.  Once the owner has been out of it more than 30 days, it's considered vacant.

There's an automatic suspension of coverage that goes into effect, for pipes that burst, when the house is vacant.  

Where's the mother?  It's HER house!   If she's not living in it, she needs to have a landlord policy on it.   If she's deceased, the cousin needs to show utility bills (telephone, heat, water, gas, electric) for the past six months to prove it's been occupied - but expect to get a cancellation notice, as the OWNER doesn't seem to be living there now.  

And if the NEIGHBOR had to tell someone that the pipe burst, she wasn't living there.  Obviously, the water was there for A WHILE to cause that kind of damage.

Answer 2

Since the dwelling was not occupied there are limits to the coverage and also the type of homeowners insurance that she purchased plays a role into what is covered. This is why everyone needs to sit down and read all the details of all insurance policy's.

Answer 3

That could be grounds to deny the claim.  Homeowner's insurance is for owner-occupied homes.  Different coverage is needed for tenants, paying or not.

Answer 4

is not right, your cousin should be alert with that, tell your cousin to report the house problems at the insurance company who holds it. if he wants some informations or security for the insurance

try to visit this site http://www.mooreinformationservices.com/

lots of informations in this site...

just go to the service section of the site...

Answer 5

Unfortunately . . . the insurance company may take this round.  Without someone living in the home to watch and take ordinary care of the property . . . it's unlikely this would have happened to the extent that it did had someone actually been living there.

Only the fine print in the insurance contract would offer any detail needed one way or another