What do you do to your house?

[onekg]

We have been snowbirds for about 10 years. The wife worked so we were limited to 6-8 weeks. We are both now retired and plan to be on the road 5-6 months at a time. Previously we just had someone keep an eye on the place, flush toilets and check for water leaks etc. I am now getting a little worried about letting the house sit empty for 6 months at a time. What do you do for water, I thought about shutting it off but then you have a chance of p traps drying out. Also how warm do I want to keep the thermostat. Last year I kept the water on and the thermostat at 50. Any comments or suggestions

Ken

[azrving]

Tell your agent exactly what you are doing no matter if it's 3 weeks or 7 months and then get it in writing that it is ok for you to do what you explained to them. They may issue a rider because the house is considered unoccupied. NOT vacant but unoccupied.

Unoccupied vs vacant

[Community Alumni]

Up around us, the insurance companies are only concerned with houses that are empty, ie, moved out. Folks go on 2,3,4 week vacations all the time so it simply not feasible for an insurance company to insist that a house be tended to. I'd quickly change insurance companies if they insisted on such a rediculous requirement.

[John_M1]

Yes, a couple of years ago our agent showed us where our homeowner's policy had that provision. I have concerns about turning off city water, or using very little electricity due to that abandoned/vacant thing.

[catkins]

Had an interesting discussion with my insurance agent. HAd a tree damage clain last year. She said that the house is considered "abandoned/vacant" unless someone 18 years or older is checking the house weekly............ She said that I needed to notify them and then be sure someone walks through weekly.

Would hate to not do that (which we did for years with a neighbor keeping an eye on the place but not necessarily entering once a week) and discover we were not covered due to "abandoning" the residence. Hmmmmmmmm...................

Anyone else been told this?

[Community Alumni]

pyoung47 wrote:
I am all electric. My meter is read daily through the transmission lines. I use their app to monitor daily usage for any anomalies.

Good point, I forgot all about being able to do that; we all electric digital also and can do the same. :C

... Eric

[pyoung47]

I am all electric. My meter is read daily through the transmission lines. I use their app to monitor daily usage for any anomalies.

[Community Alumni]

When we're gone months at a time, we set battery powered digital timers throughout the house, shut the hot water heater off, turn the water off, set the heat (fully electric) on low and stop the mail. Set the alarm on and leave.

We have a lawn service in the summer and a snow service in the winter. As well, my neighbor across the street uses our driveway for one of his 3 cars when we are away.

Our kids live in the area and one of them will usually come by to check on the house now and then. Neighbor also has a key.

[John_Joey]

joebedford wrote:
I get my driveway plowed by a local. All the locals know we're gone anyway. It's only strangers who might think the place is occupied.

Funny how we all think different. I have the same thing, but don't plow. Makes it hard for a stranger to get close to the place, plus alerts the locals if they see tracks that something is going on.

True story. A local motel had a snowmobile stolen from one of it's customers. Local Sheriff followed the snowmobile tracks to the thief place, got the machine back and took the person to jail.

[Dog_Trainer]

We installed a whole house generator a smaller 8,000 watt unit that has the automatic transfer feature feature I have 10 circuits that transfer in during a power loss. I leave the furnace on 52 during our absence in the winter and 80 during summer absence. I shut off the water heater and drain the water at a low point faucet in the basement. Everything that comes to us in the form of a bill comes through an email. all my reoccurring bills are set for auto pay. I have set up on credit cards and bank withdrawals, alerts that come to my cell phone so that I know anytime a payment or withdrawals are made. I do not carry a lot of cash as ATM's are everywhere and my bank reimburses all fees. I found a lawn cutting company that will cut the lawn at any amount if times I want. My neighbor across the street keeps the driveway clean and we keep him stocked in goodies from our travels. I alert the police dept when we leave. For longer absences we do the temp change of address for short jaunts we just have the mail held at the P.O. We have close friends that check the house from time to time.

[joebedford]

I get my driveway plowed by a local. All the locals know we're gone anyway. It's only strangers who might think the place is occupied.

[almcc]

I second the comment about finding another insurance company/policy. Before we started to spend winters in the south I contacted our broker who confirmed that the coverage would continue as long as we had the house checked.

Two winters ago we had an ice storm and a tree branch broke and fell on the roof, a neighbour E-mailed us to report it. I E-mailed the broker who sent out a crew to inspect the roof, they had to put rock salt on the ice to check for roof damage, turned out that the only damage was to the eaves trough, and the cost estimate was lower than our deductible so I waited until our return to get it fixed. No charges from the insurance company and all done via E-mail.

[onekg]

Thanks for all the info. It takes a lot of planning to leave for an extended time. All of you have a good winter in the warn south

[MarkTwain]

rjxj wrote:

djgarcia wrote:
Snowbirds----
1. Make sure your home insurance is up to date and paid.
2. Sign up for a Volunteer Police watch program to keep tabs on your home when you are gone.
3. Turn water off to your refrigerator ice maker
4. Purchase a commercial alarm system for your complete home. The alarm system should be throughout your home and connected to a 24hr. alarm security call center and your local police/fire dept. It is cheap insurance and gives you peace of mind.
5. make sure a reliable friend in town has a complete set of keys for your house. Be sure this friend has the correct pass word for you alarm system if they have to talk to the call center.
6. Put all your valuables i.e. jewelry into your safe deposit box.

Good point about the insurance. I'm in snow country so when I'm gone there is no getting in the driveway. No, I'm not paying someone to plow it and know that I'm not there. I'll take my chances with not having it accessible for the locals to empty it out or squat in it. SO.......I went around and around with the insurance co because of it being snowed in. They would verbally say it's ok but they wouldn't give it to me in writing. One agent told me that properties that are vacant need a special pricey insurance or it's considered abandoned. I cant even remember all the stuff that they said but I think there are a lot of people around me who are not actually insured. It seems to be one of those things that no one wants to talk about but if something happened like a fire they may be surprised at the outcome. I finally got it insured with Citizens and have it in writing that it is ok for the property to be snowed in and no access to the house.

I would be looking for a new home owner's insurance policy.

[old_guy]

shut off the water to washers and turn off the water at the wall for toilets. set thermostat down to 50 or less, nothing will freeze. a friend of mine years ago unplugged every thing clocks, furnace, frig, freezer, you name it. the electric company came out and replaced his meter, they thought the meter stopped working