Do I need to inspect an empty house?

Yes. Most insurers require regular inspections to ensure the property remains in good repair and to catch issues like leaks or vandalism early. While many providers require weekly visits and written reports, Insuristic only requires an inspection every 14 days (or 30 days for Probate), evidenced simply by two photos on your mobile phone (one of the front of the property and one inside).

The simple answer is that unoccupied homes pose a higher risk of insurance claims, including water damage, theft, fire, malicious damage, and vandalism.

You also have a duty to keep the property in a good state of repair (which is also a policy condition).

For this reason, insurers generally require regular inspections of unoccupied property to enable quicker intervention when issues arise and minimise damage.

To illustrate why inspections are so necessary, imagine the property has developed a burst pipe.  If the property is occupied, the issue is usually identified and dealt with quickly, minimising or eliminating any claim.  It might be a plumber call-out followed by a mop-and-bucket cleanup.

For unoccupied properties, this issue could go undetected for days.

A minor incident can gradually build up, causing significant property damage and a big claim for the insurer.

Or imagine a storm damages roof tiles at the property, and a few days later, heavy rainfall results in water ingress and damage to the property’s interior.

In both examples, inspections would help minimise damage, initiate repairs, and reduce the size of claims for the insurer.

It is therefore understandable that insurers generally require property inspections.

In addition, the policy usually requires the property to be kept in a reasonable state of repair, the gardens to be kept tidy, and mail to be removed regularly. This ensures the property looks lived-in and minimises the risk of break-ins and vandalism.

Inspections also make sense for you. They can minimise the risk of a claim and, therefore, disruptions to your plans for the property.

If there is a claim, you will need evidence that the property has been inspected as per the insurer’s condition.

If you provide a property report that a professional hasn’t produced, the insurer might need additional proof that the property was regularly inspected.  After all, a non-professional written report could have been produced at any time.  If so, could you prove the inspections happened and when?

Failure to prove the property has been regularly inspected can cause the insurer to decline your claim.  There is plenty of evidence of this on the Financial Ombudsman’s website, with many of these cases being reviewed and the outcome going in favour of the insurance provider if their terms and conditions were clear.  Which they usually are.

So, inspections can be a trap that catches you out if you need to claim.

The frequency of inspections is one of the most important conditions in any unoccupied property policy. If you fail to comply with the condition, your insurer could refuse to pay a claim for damage that would have been preventable as a result of these visits.

While requirements vary across the industry, here is how inspection conditions typically compare:

• Standard Insurance Market: Most providers view empty properties as a high risk and require inspections every 7 days, backed up by inspection reports. For many people, especially those living far away, this weekly commitment is a major logistical burden.  

Insuristic makes things so much easier to manage and evidence compliance of the inspection condition:

• Unoccupied Home Insurance: Our standard unoccupied home insurance requires a physical inspection only every 14 days.

• Insuristic Probate: We offer even greater flexibility for those managing an estate. If you are using our specialist Probate Property Insurance, you only need to inspect the property every 30 days.

With either policy we don't require written reports.  Instead, to evidence your inspection, simply follow these three steps:

Step 1: Take a photo of the exterior

Stand at the front of the property and take one clear photo of the house. This proves you were physically at the location and confirms the exterior (windows, doors, and roof) appears secure and undamaged.

Step 2: Take a photo of the interior

Go inside and take one photo of any room. It doesn’t matter which room you choose.  This photo serves as evidence that you entered the property to check for internal issues such as leaks, dampness, or unauthorised occupants.

Step 3: Save the photos on your phone

You don't need to email or upload these to a portal every time. Simply keep them in your phone’s camera roll or a dedicated folder.

Why this works for you:

• Automatic Time-Stamping: Every digital photo contains "metadata" (the date, time, and GPS location). If you ever need to make a claim, this metadata provides indisputable, legal proof that you completed your inspections on time.

• No Paperwork: No more carrying clipboards or worrying about losing a written logbook.

• Instant Claims Support: If something goes wrong, you can simply select the photos from your gallery and send them to our claims team to fast-track your settlement.