Vacant Home Insurance
Vacant home insurance covers an empty dwelling for perils such as fire, vandalism, theft, and certain water damage that a standard homeowners policy typically restricts once a home sits unoccupied past a set period, often around 60 days. It may also include liability protection for injuries on the property while the home stands empty.
An empty house is not a lower risk to your insurer. It is often a higher one. Once a home sits unoccupied beyond a set period, a standard homeowners policy typically restricts or suspends coverage, which can leave you exposed at exactly the wrong moment.
What does vacant home insurance cover?
- Physical damage to the empty dwelling from covered perils such as fire and certain weather events.
- Vandalism and malicious mischief, which standard policies often limit or exclude once a home is vacant.
- Theft and attempted theft, including damage from break-ins.
- Water damage from covered causes, subject to policy terms.
- Broken glass and related damage.
- Liability protection if someone is injured on the property.
Who needs it?
Owners living through a transition: a home undergoing renovation, a property tied up in probate or an estate, a house listed for sale and standing empty, a rental sitting between tenants, and a property held for redevelopment or acquired as a distressed asset.
Many standard homeowners policies begin restricting coverage once a home has been vacant roughly 60 days, and the exact trigger and terms vary by policy. In California, earthquake and flood are typically handled through separate coverage, so a vacant-dwelling policy generally will not include them. If the empty period is tied to major remodeling, a course of construction approach may fit the work better than a vacancy policy alone.
How do we help?
We start by confirming whether your situation counts as vacant or unoccupied under your current policy, since the two are treated differently. From there we walk you through a dedicated vacant-dwelling policy or, in some cases, a vacancy permit endorsement that can restore protection to your existing coverage.
Standard forms restrict coverage once a property has been unoccupied beyond the period the policy states, which moves it out of your usual household policies.
The 60-day vacancy suspension is the reason this coverage exists, and a house that is furnished and used part of the year is seasonal home coverage rather than vacant. The wider program is on our personal insurance page.
Why does a vacant home need its own policy in California?
Because the standard form takes coverage away after 60 days. The California Standard Form Fire Insurance Policy adopted by Insurance Code section 2071 provides that the insurer is not liable for loss occurring while a described building is vacant or unoccupied beyond a period of 60 consecutive days, and under section 2070 every policy insuring the peril of fire in California must be at least as favorable to the insured as that form. Modern homeowners forms use that room to narrow the suspension, typically to vandalism and a few other perils, while fire coverage continues. A homeowners policy on an empty house is therefore not a policy with weaker coverage; after the 60th day it is a policy with none for the events that matter most. A vacant home form restores coverage on terms priced for an empty building: named perils, often actual cash value unless replacement cost is endorsed, and conditions about inspections and securing the property. The permission to leave a home vacant can also be bought as an endorsement on some homeowners policies for a stated period, which is the answer for a house between tenants or in probate for a few months rather than a year.
The Insurance Code provisions cited here are as published by the California Legislative Counsel at the time of writing. The Legislature amends them from time to time, and that office publishes the current text.
Vacant homes in California, explained
What does “vacant” mean under a California policy, and is “unoccupied” any safer?
Not under the statute. Insurance Code section 2071, the standard fire form, says the insurer is not liable while a building is vacant or unoccupied beyond 60 consecutive days, unless the policy provides otherwise in writing. Both words are there and they are treated the same. The furnished-versus-empty distinction is an industry convention, and it matters only because modern homeowners forms use that “unless” clause to narrow the rule. A typical homeowners form keeps fire coverage and cuts off vandalism after 60 days of vacancy, and a dwelling under construction is not counted as vacant. The FAIR Plan’s dwelling form uses 30 days, not 60, for its vandalism cutoff. So the question is never whether the house is “technically unoccupied.” It is what your particular form says, and whether the carrier knew the house was empty when it wrote the policy.
The owner died. Who is the insured now, and what must the executor do?
The policy does not end at death, and the duty to protect the house passes to whoever is in charge of it. Probate Code section 9650 gives the personal representative possession and control of the estate’s property and requires them to take all steps reasonably necessary for its protection and preservation. Section 16006 puts the same duty on a trustee. Standard homeowners forms continue coverage for the legal representative for the rest of the policy term, but only for the premises and property covered at death. The 60-day clock keeps running from the day the house empties. So the executor’s first insurance call is to notify the carrier with the death certificate and the letters of administration. The second is to arrange a vacant dwelling policy or a vacancy permit before day 60. An empty house in probate that burns on day 90 with nobody having made that call is the loss this page exists to prevent.
We inherited a house and cannot decide what to do. What does waiting cost?
Two clocks are running. The insurance clock is the 60 days above. The tax clock is Proposition 19. Since February 2021 the parent-child reassessment exclusion applies only when the inherited home becomes the child’s principal residence. The homeowners’ exemption must be filed within one year of the transfer, and the excluded value is capped at the current taxable value plus about $1 million. The Board of Equalization’s Proposition 19 page has the current figures. A family that leaves a Granada Hills house empty for a year while it decides has usually let both clocks expire: the vandalism coverage is gone, and so is the property-tax basis. Buy the vacant policy in month one and decide in month six. It is far cheaper than the alternative.
Is a house under renovation “vacant”?
It depends on the form and on what the work is. Standard homeowners wording says a dwelling being constructed is not considered vacant. The FAIR Plan takes the opposite view. Its dwelling form treats a house under construction as vacant if it lacks the furniture minimally necessary for habitation, and its application sends a significant remodel to the commercial program. Section 2071 also suspends coverage while the hazard is increased by any means within the insured’s control, and an open framing job with a contractor’s torches on site is the textbook increase of hazard. The safe practice is to tell the carrier before the work starts and let it decide between a renovation endorsement, a builders risk policy and a vacant dwelling policy. A claim on an undisclosed remodel is where the increase-of-hazard clause gets used.
Will the FAIR Plan insure a vacant home, and what is a vacancy permit endorsement?
Yes, with restrictions. The FAIR Plan’s dwelling program is named-peril, fire, lightning, internal explosion and smoke, and its application warns that the policy restricts coverage for buildings that are vacant or unoccupied. Vandalism is not covered on a vacant FAIR Plan home at all without a vacancy permit endorsement, and vandalism requires the extended coverage option first. Replacement cost is available only on dwellings 25 years old or less; otherwise settlement is actual cash value. A vacancy permit endorsement, on any carrier’s form, is the written addition section 2071 contemplates: it suspends some or all of the restrictions that apply after the vacancy period. For a vacant house in a wildfire zone, the FAIR Plan plus a vacancy permit is often the only fire market available. A difference in conditions policy has to be found separately for the rest.
Squatters in an empty Los Angeles house: what changed in 2024 and 2025?
Two things, in opposite directions. Since January 2024, under SB 602, a trespass letter of authorization filed with law enforcement is valid for 12 months for property whose owner is absent, instead of 30 days. For property posted closed to the public it is valid for three years. It must be on the police form, notarized, and can be filed electronically. File one the day the house empties. Since January 2025, under AB 2347, an occupant served with an unlawful detainer has ten court days to respond instead of five. That lengthens every eviction, including one against a person who never had a lease. Adverse possession, the thing people mean by “squatters’ rights,” requires five continuous years of occupation and payment of all property taxes for those years under Code of Civil Procedure section 325. There is no 30-day version. For insurance, squatter damage is adjusted as vandalism, which is the peril a vacant home loses first.
Does Los Angeles require me to register, secure or fence a vacant house?
Once the City notices it, yes. Granada Hills is in the City of Los Angeles. The Municipal Code’s vacant building provisions let the Department of Building and Safety order an owner to clean, fence and barricade, post a responsible person’s name, and pay reinspection fees. Ordinance 188197, effective April 2024, spells out the securing standard for a vacant property open to entry. It means three-quarter-inch exterior plywood or 16-gauge steel mesh over openings, and a ten-foot chain-link fence with lockable gates where the City requires one. Graffiti must be removed, no-trespassing signs posted, and pools maintained or drained. The City may do the work and bill the owner. A house in foreclosure must also be registered within 30 days of a notice of default, with penalties of $250 a day for non-compliance. And if the house is north of Rinaldi in the very high fire hazard zone, the Fire Department’s brush clearance rules apply year round whether anyone lives there or not.
Can I be sued if someone is hurt at my empty house?
Yes. Civil Code section 1714 makes everyone responsible for injury caused by a want of ordinary care in the management of their property, and California has not used a separate trespasser rule since Rowland v. Christian in 1968. That means the duty of ordinary care runs to a neighbor’s child who climbs the fence to the drained pool. A vacant dwelling form is a property policy; premises liability is usually an endorsement, so ask for it, and tell us if the house has a pool. On the property side the same rule applies: some vacant homes we can place directly and quickly. Others need underwriting review or a wholesale market, and those take longer. Either way you know which applies before you decide. Start a vacant home quote or call the Granada Hills office.
Statute, ordinance and FAIR Plan form citations current as of September 2026. Vacancy periods, permitted perils and liability options vary by carrier and form; your own policy wording controls.
