Home insurance for unoccupied properties follows one rule with local variations. The rule: after a stated number of consecutive days with nobody living there, cover narrows. What varies between insurers is only the number of days and the surviving peril list. Once that is understood, every question about empty property cover becomes a question about two numbers.
The rule, stated once
Cover is written for an occupied building. After the stated period of unoccupancy, the policy restricts to a named set of perils unless the insurer has agreed otherwise. The restriction is automatic, requires no notice, and applies whatever the reason for the emptiness. That is the whole of it, and every insurer's wording is a variation on it.
The first number: days
Thirty, forty five or sixty on household policies; thirty to ninety on landlord policies. Consecutive days, counted from when the last person stopped living there. Furnished or unfurnished makes no difference. Find this number in your own wording, because it is the only date that matters.
The second number: how many perils survive
Usually four to six: fire, lightning, explosion, aircraft, often storm, sometimes flood. Everything else, and in particular escape of water, theft, malicious damage and accidental damage, falls away. Some wordings list what survives and some list what stops, which is worth noticing when comparing two policies.
What to do with the two numbers
Diary the date. Before it arrives, either get an extension in writing or buy an unoccupied policy. That is the entire decision, and the reason it catches so many owners is that nothing prompts it: no letter arrives, no premium changes, and the policy continues to look exactly as it did.
Questions people ask about home insurance for unoccupied properties
Is the rule the same for every insurer?
The structure is. Only the number of days and the surviving peril list vary, which is why both are worth finding in your own wording.
Does it matter why the property is empty?
Not for the rule itself, which is automatic. It matters a great deal for what the insurer will agree to afterwards.
Will I be told when cover narrows?
No. Nothing arrives and nothing changes on the schedule. That is why it catches people.
Does leaving furniture in make a difference?
No. Occupancy means somebody living there, not the presence of belongings.