OOA v Home Insurance

[Roland Pulfrew]

I am going OOA soon and I have just been informed by my insurance company that they won't cover my home contents against theft or attempted theft whilst I am away. :hmm: Now this sort of negates having contents cover so whilst I am also using my friend Mr Google, I was wondering if anyone on here has used or can recommend a good insurance company that will provide contents cover on a property that might be empty for a few months?

[Melchett01]

Roland, being in the same boat on a regular basis, I think you'll be lucky in this increasingly risk averse world for any company to insure an empty property for the full duration of your OOA (assuming a 6 monther). Those that would be prepared to cover you will probably be specialists demand a huge premium.

The best you will probably find is a company that does 60 days unattended cover, although they also seem to be increasingly difficult to find with 30 days unattended cover being the norm. I'm with Forces Direct and they used to do 60 days cover which made things a bit easier for me last year as I then got family / friends to do a night stop every so often to re-set the clock as it were. You will have to check if they still do 60 days or whether they have dropped their limits to 30 days aswell - they seem to be increasingly happy to take your cash but for reduced cover levels.

The only alternative is to take out a normal policy, hope that you have good neighbours who will keep an eye on the place and then get a mate to night stop once / month to comply with the 30 days clause in return for a bottle of something nice which will probably be a lot cheaper than a specialist policy.

[Background Noise]

You could try Pax since they are supposed to be geared towards the military - there's a one-liner here about being away on ops (under additional benefits). Not mentioned on the contents page however.

Military Building Insurance, Armed Forces Building Insurance - PAX Insurance (http://www.paxinsurance.aon.co.uk/paxinsurance/buildings.asp)