Short Term
Unoccupied Home Insurance

If the property is at any stage of the probate process, visit our specialist Probate Property Insurance page.  You can also insure short-term on this policy, the same rules on this page apply.

Short-term unoccupied home insurance is a specialist policy for residential properties that will be empty for more than 30 days but less than a full year. Most policies are bought for 3, 6 or 9 months — typically while a home is up for sale, undergoing renovation, between tenants, or empty because the owner has moved into care or gone abroad.

It is also known as short-term empty house insurance, short-term empty property insurance, temporary unoccupied house insurance, or short-term vacant home insurance.

Whichever phrase you searched for, it is the same product: a policy designed for a property that is temporarily unoccupied.

Standard home insurance is the reason this product exists.

Most home insurance policies cover a property for up to 30 consecutive days of unoccupancy. Beyond that point, insurers may not wish to continue providing cover, or, if they do, it is often reduced to fire, lightning, earthquake, explosion, and aircraft (FLEEA) only.

With Insuristic’s short-term unoccupied home insurance policy, you can buy broader cover for the time you need.

You only pay for the short-term unoccupied home insurance you use.

Insuristic charges no cancellation fees and retains no minimum amount of premium, so if you cancel before the policy ends and haven't claimed, you get 100% of the unused premium back, refunded to the card you used.

This means you could (again, subject to no claims) buy a 3-month policy, cancel after one month, and get back the unused premium for the two remaining months — making the effective cost roughly the same as a true one-month policy.

This same approach applies whether you bought a 3, 6, 9 or 12-month policy and needed less time on cover than you thought, which is common when insuring an empty house.  It's hard to know how long you need, as the property might take longer to sell or be reoccupied than you thought. 

When you are searching for quotes online, you should be aware that most short-term unoccupied home insurance providers charge a cancellation fee (commonly £30 to £60) and may retain a minimum amount of premium even on early cancellation.

Insuristic decided from the outset that it wasn't fair, so we don't do it. We occasionally incur costs for customers who need only a few weeks of cover, but the goodwill we have generated is significant.  

Our policyholders are usually insuring an empty house due to:

• The property is up for sale -You can insure until the property sale is completed; then reply to your policy email to confirm this and arrange a prompt cancellation and refund if you haven’t claimed.
• Renovation or building works - If the property is being renovated, with no structural changes, and the project is less than £50,000, this policy works well. When you are ready to move back in, arrange a home insurance policy and cancel ours from the point the home is reoccupied. 
• Between tenants: It is hard to know how long your property will be unoccupied for. Our approach removes the worry about over-insuring. When you have a tenant, arrange a landlord's policy from the point they move in and cancel ours.
• Owner has moved into care - Our policy works well if the move is temporary, or the property is up for sale. As an attorney or deputy, you can also arrange broad cover to protect your liability and cancel the policy when the property is sold or occupied again.
• Going abroad or extended travel - Long sabbaticals, working abroad, or extended holidays where the home will be empty for more than 30 days. Take out our policy and cancel it when you're ready to move back in.
• Recently purchased and not yet moved in. If you have bought an empty property and haven’t moved in, you can insure from the point of exchange until completion. Choose Pending Sale as the reason for unoccupancy when you get a quote.  Cancel the policy on the day of completion if you are moving in, or leave it running if it remains empty until it is occupied or tenanted.

Insuristic offers three levels of cover — Bronze, Silver and Gold — and the choice is the same whether you buy for 3 months or 12.  Each is explained to you during the quote process.

For the full breakdown of what each level covers, see Unoccupied Home Insurance — cover levels.

The average premium for a 3-month short-term unoccupied home insurance policy depends on the level of cover you choose. The table below shows the average price our customers paid over the past 12 months.

The average premiums are taken from all short-term policies sold by Insuristic in the 12 months to April 2026.

Figures shown before Insurance Premium Tax.

Your actual premium depends on the property's location and the sums insured for buildings and contents.  If you don't know the building's sum insured, the price will be based on the number of bedrooms (we can quote for 4 bedrooms or fewer; otherwise, you will need to provide the building's sum insured). 

The cheapest Bronze policies over the last 12 months started at £35; the cheapest Silver at £49; the cheapest Gold at £77.

The only way to find out what your property would cost to insure is to get a quote — it takes under two minutes.