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.
This guide will help you arrange short term unoccupied home insurance in the UK quickly, clearly, and with confidence.
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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 (often called FLEEA Insurance) 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 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.
| Cover Level | 3 months |
|---|---|
| Bronze | £105 |
| Silver | £114 |
| Gold | £166 |
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.
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.
Insuristic is the broker. We handle any administration queries such as requests to cancel, change your policy, renewals etc.
Our Unoccupied Home Insurance scheme is underwritten by SJL (Worcester) Ltd, trading as SJL Insurance Services, on behalf of Lloyd’s Syndicate 4444, which is managed by Canopius Managing Agents Limited.
Canopius Managing Agents Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority (Financial Services Register number 20487).
Lloyd's of London is the world's largest specialist insurance market, with a Standard & Poor's financial strength rating of A+. Cover backed by Lloyd's syndicates is among the most financially secure in the UK insurance market — meaning when a claim is needed, the funds to pay it are there.
Yes, effectively. The shortest policy you can buy from Insuristic is 3 months, but because we don't charge cancellation fees and refund 100% of unused premium (subject to no claims), you can buy a 3-month policy and cancel after 30, 60 or 90 days, paying only for the days the property was covered.
We don’t offer monthly instalments because that typically involves third-party premium finance, which incurs fees and interest; neither of which applies to our policies.
Even if you needed 12 months' cover, you can insure every 3 months at no extra cost.
Yes. Short-term unoccupied buildings insurance is available without contents cover, which is useful when the property has been cleared out, when the contents value is low or when you simply don't want contents cover. For the full breakdown of how buildings-only cover works, see Can I insure just the buildings?
Every 14 days, from the day the policy starts. Anyone with key access can carry out the inspection; it doesn't have to be you. The evidence required is simple: one photo of the front of the property and one of any room inside, kept in case of claim. The underwriter doesn’t need the images unless you make a claim.
It depends on which cover level you have. The draining-or-heating condition only applies to Gold cover, because Bronze and Silver don't include escape of water cover at all.
If you've bought Gold cover and the policy runs between 1st of October and 31st of March, you should either drain the water system fully or keep the heating on at a constant 15°C with the loft hatch open. This protects against burst pipes and is a condition of the cover.
Gold cover includes escape of water up to £3,500 per incident.
The same as on a full annual policy. Locks on all external doors and accessible windows must be in good working order and engaged whenever the property is unattended — even on a 3-month policy. Theft and malicious damage claims can be declined if security is not maintained.
Reply to your policy email or fill in the contact form with the reason for cancellation, and we'll handle the rest. If you haven't claimed, there are no cancellation fees and no admin charge. You'll receive a pro-rata refund of any unused premium, refunded to the card you used to pay. Refunds typically arrive within 5 working days.
Claims are handled by our in-house UK team at SJL Insurance Services. Call 01905 27775 during office hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm), or 0121 411 0535 outside office hours, 365 days a year. You'll be assigned a dedicated UK-based claims manager — no overseas call centres, no script-readers. See our property claims guide for the full process.
No. The policy is paid as a single up-front premium for the full policy term. Premium finance is not practical on policies this short — finance agreements typically require a minimum commitment that doesn't suit a 3 or 6-month policy. If you want to spread cost, the simplest approach is to buy 3 months at a time and renew if you still need cover; renewing takes a couple of minutes through your secure online portal.
Yes, provided the work is non-structural, and the project is under £50,000, but you must declare these at the quote stage. Structural projects or larger works can be considered with prior notice and/or on referral to the underwriter following your quote request. For the full breakdown of what we'll and won't cover during renovation, see Will you insure my empty house during renovation?
Yes, provided the property is empty, you can arrange a short-term policy and keep extending it until you find new tenants. It is essentially our Unoccupied Home Insurance policy. When you get a quote, choose the unoccupancy reason as “empty between tenants”.
Yes, if it is going to be empty and not lived in at all, just select Holiday Home as the reason for unoccupancy.
No. Short-term policies don't auto-renew. About 20-30 days before your policy ends, we'll email you with a renewal option if you still need cover. You decide whether to renew — there's no continuous direct debit, no automatic charge, and no need to cancel to stop cover at the end of the term.
Not currently — our short-term unoccupied home insurance covers properties in England, Scotland and Wales only. If your property is in Northern Ireland, the BIBA broker finder is the best route to a specialist broker who can help.
Rob Faulkner is an ACII Chartered Insurance Broker with nearly 30 years' experience in the UK insurance market. He is also a Chartered Manager and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
As the founder of Insuristic, Rob has developed clear, flexible insurance solutions for property owners and people managing empty homes.
He writes regularly on property and business insurance, with a particular focus on probate insurance, unoccupied home insurance and risk management, areas where he brings deep expertise.
Rob is especially passionate about product development and insurance education, helping people understand what they are buying. These values shape everything we do at Insuristic.
Want to learn more? Visit my author page or follow me on LinkedIn.
Insuristic Limited is an Appointed Representative of SJL (Worcester) Ltd, who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority with the reference number 991835. This can be checked by visiting https://register.fca.org.uk/s/.
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