A second home fails the occupancy condition on a standard policy by definition.
A second home stands empty for months at a time, which is exactly the condition a primary-residence policy is not written for. We cover holiday and seasonal homes properly.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
Send us what you have. We’ll tell you if it’s right.
Your current policy paperwork, a renewal notice, or nothing at all. A licensed agent reads it and replies the same business day.
What secondary and seasonal home insurance actually covers.
Seasonal occupancy
The policy expects the house to be empty for part of the year.
Without it — A primary-residence form treats the same pattern as vacancy and cuts perils.
Water damage and freeze
Burst pipes in an unheated, unattended property.
Without it — Freeze losses are commonly excluded when heat is not maintained and nobody is there to notice.
Liability, including guests
Injury claims at a property you are not present at.
Without it — Lending the house to family does not lend them your liability coverage.
What clients with secondary and seasonal home insurance ask us.
Can I just add it to my existing homeowners policy?
Usually not as a second dwelling. Most carriers want a separate policy for a separate location, though they will often write both and apply a multi-policy discount. What you can and should link is the liability: a personal umbrella can sit over both properties, which is cheaper and cleaner than two sets of excess limits. The bigger issue is that a primary-residence form assumes somebody lives there, so a second home placed on one is misrepresented from day one.
We rent it out a few weeks a year. Does that change things?
Yes, and it must be declared. Any short-term rental, a few weeks on Airbnb included, converts part of the exposure to a commercial one, and most seasonal homeowners forms exclude it. Depending on the frequency this is either a home-sharing endorsement or a landlord policy. Not declaring it is the single most common reason a claim on a holiday home is denied, and the carrier finds out because the listing is public.
Commercial insurance is 96% of what we do — it is not a department here, it is the whole business. Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.