The Briefing Room
The policy that covers your house when you are in it may not respond the same way when you have been gone for two months. Find out before you need it.
We are not insurance agents and this is not insurance advice. What we can tell you is what we see on the ground. Many standard homeowner policies contain language about homes that are vacant or unoccupied for an extended period, often somewhere between 30 and 60 consecutive days. Depending on the carrier and the wording, certain losses during that stretch, especially water damage, freezing, vandalism and theft, may be limited, excluded, or subject to conditions such as maintaining heat or shutting off water.
Second-home owners are frequently surprised by this because the house is furnished and loved; it does not feel vacant. The policy may not make that distinction. The only way to know how yours responds is to ask your agent directly, in writing, and keep the answer.
Whatever your carrier requires, the practical value of a scheduled walkthrough is the same: it breaks the stretch of time nobody was inside, and it creates a dated record. When a claim does happen, the questions are always when did it start and what did you do about it. A photo of a dry ceiling on the 3rd and a stain on the 17th answers the first. The report showing we shut the water, called you and had a plumber there that afternoon answers the second.
Bi-weekly or weekly visits on a fixed schedule, each one time-stamped and photographed.
Interior temperature recorded at each visit, water status noted, mechanical room checked.
Reports land in your Private Estate Ledger the day of the visit, so the history is there before anything goes wrong.
Your signed emergency protocol spells out what we do and spend without waiting to reach you, so action is not delayed by a time zone.
We do not promise that a walkthrough satisfies your carrier, because every policy is different and the carrier decides. What we promise is that if you ask your agent what they want to see, we can almost certainly provide it, and that you will never be in the position of having to say nobody had been in the house since Labor Day.
If your agent gives you a requirement, send it over. We will tell you plainly whether our cadence and reporting meet it, and what plan does.
Special Care Estates is operated by Specials Home Selling Team LLC. Walkthroughs are visual, non-invasive checks and are not a licensed home inspection.