COVERTRADE SERVICES
Holiday & Second Home Insurance
Comprehensive protection for your holiday and second homes.
A Second Home And A Holiday Let Are Different Products
The dividing line is whether money changes hands. A second home you use yourself and lend to friends is one product. A holiday let taking paying guests is another, because letting is a change of use that most home insurers exclude outright.
Plenty of owners drift across that line (a few weeks let out to cover the costs, a cousin's friend paying something towards it) without mentioning it. The risk is not only that a guest-related claim is declined; an undeclared change of use can be raised against claims that have nothing to do with the letting.
What both share is the thing standard home insurance cannot accommodate: the property stands empty for most of the year. That, and what happens to the pipes in January, is what this cover is really about.
The Months Nobody Is There
A holiday home is empty far more than it is occupied, and that is the fact standard household insurance cannot accommodate. Most policies restrict cover after 30 or 45 consecutive days empty, which a second home passes routinely.
A policy written for holiday and second homes expects the empty periods instead of penalising them. In exchange it asks for a few things: someone visiting on a regular pattern, the water managed over winter, and reasonable security.
Tell us honestly how many weeks a year it is actually used. Owners tend to overestimate, and a policy priced on twenty weeks of occupancy that turns out to be six is not a policy you want to be relying on.
If You Let It Out At All
Letting changes the policy, and it needs declaring even if it is only a few weeks a year.
Guests bring liability. Someone injured by a loose stair rail or a faulty appliance has a claim against you as owner. Property owners' liability of £2m to £5m is the usual answer.
Guests bring damage. Damage caused by a paying guest is treated separately from your own accidental damage, and theft without forced entry (by someone who was given the key code) is excluded under many wordings.
Letting brings income to protect. If the property is unlettable after a fire or flood, loss of income cover replaces the bookings you cannot fulfil.
If letting has become the main purpose rather than an occasional thing, a short-term let policy is usually the better fit.
Before Winter
What a holiday home policy expects of you.
- Water off and drained, or heating on low
- Someone visiting on a regular pattern
- Letting declared, if you let at all
- Contents in outbuildings, checked
- Key holders known and limited
- Flexible payment options
- Dedicated account managers
- Out-of-hours contact should you need to make a claim or just have a question
- A quick and easy, pain-free service
- An excellent customer experience
Winter, Water And An Empty House
Escape of water is the claim that defines this market. A holiday home is typically unheated and unvisited through the worst of the winter, and a joint that fails in January can run for weeks before anyone opens the door.
Expect a condition requiring the water to be turned off and the system drained between roughly November and March, or heating left on at a low constant temperature. Both are normally acceptable; neither is optional. If the property is somewhere remote or coastal, ask about the position on storm and flood as well, since exposure varies far more than on a main residence.
Who Holds The Keys
Most holiday homes have a caretaker, a cleaner, a neighbour or a letting agent with access, and that arrangement is worth telling your insurer about rather than keeping informal. It is usually a positive: someone who visits regularly satisfies inspection expectations and finds a problem in week one rather than week six.
Keep it tidy though. A key safe with a code shared widely, or keys left with several people over the years, is the sort of detail that surfaces after a theft where there is no sign of forced entry, and no forced entry is exactly the situation many policies exclude.
Contents You Would Not Have At Home
Holiday homes accumulate things: bikes, boards, kayaks, garden furniture, barbecues, outboards and the good bottle nobody drank. Much of it lives in an outbuilding or a garden rather than the house, and cover for contents in outbuildings or in the open is usually limited and sometimes excluded.
If you keep anything valuable there (bicycles in particular) check the limit for items in outbuildings and whether individual items need specifying. And if you let the property, remember that guest damage to contents is treated differently from your own accidental damage. Premiums can be paid monthly or annually.
What We Need To Quote
The address, age and construction, the rebuild cost, roughly how many weeks a year the property is used and how many it stands empty, whether you let it and to whom, who holds keys and how often anyone visits, what contents and outbuildings there are, whether it is in a coastal or flood-exposed location, and any claims in the last five years.
Protect Your Holiday & Second Homes
So why wait? Protect your holiday and second homes today with CoverTrade's comprehensive insurance coverage. Contact us now to schedule a consultation with one of our expert advisors.
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this policy.
Common questions
Can I insure a holiday home on a normal home insurance policy?+
No. Standard household insurance is written on the basis that the property is your main residence and is lived in continuously, and a second home breaches both assumptions. The long empty periods alone put it outside most household wordings. A holiday home or second home policy is written for a property that stands empty for much of the year, with conditions about inspections and the water supply instead of an unoccupancy restriction that would leave you with almost nothing.
What is the difference between a second home and a holiday let?+
Whether you take money for it. A second home is for your own use and that of friends and family; a holiday let is a business, and letting to paying guests is a change of use most home insurers exclude. Letting even a few weeks a year without declaring it can affect claims that have nothing to do with the letting. If you let at all, say so. The cover exists and it is not expensive, but it has to be the right policy.
What happens over winter when nobody is there?+
Escape of water is the claim this market is built around: a joint fails in an unheated house in January and runs for weeks before anyone opens the door. Expect a condition requiring the water off at the stopcock and the system drained between roughly November and March, or heating left on at a low constant temperature. Both are normally acceptable to insurers. Doing neither is what turns a routine claim into a declined one.
Do I need public liability for a holiday home?+
Yes, particularly if anyone else ever stays there. As owner you are responsible for the condition of the property, and a guest injured by a loose stair rail, a faulty appliance or an unlit step has a claim against you. Property owners' liability of £2m to £5m is standard, and it is worth having even for family use, a friend's child hurt in your holiday cottage is still a liability claim.
Is my stuff in the outbuilding covered?+
Usually only to a limited amount, and sometimes not at all. Holiday homes accumulate bikes, boards, kayaks, garden furniture and outboards, much of which lives in a shed or garage rather than the house. Cover for contents in outbuildings or in the open is typically capped well below the main contents sum insured. If you keep anything valuable there, check the limit and whether individual items need specifying.
How much is holiday home insurance?+
The average for a holiday let or Airbnb property runs at around £410 a year, and published guides tend to scale it by size: roughly £290 for a one-bedroom, £320 to £350 for a two-bedroom, £430 to £450 for a three-bedroom and around £600 for a four-bedroom. Those are typical figures rather than a quote for your property. What moves it is the rebuild cost, where the property is (coastal and flood-exposed locations differ a great deal) how many weeks it stands empty, whether you let it, and the contents you keep there.
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Related reading
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