Vacant or restoration property insurance
Steadily provides vacant property insurance and renovation coverage for landlords working on unoccupied properties – whether you're restoring a rental between tenants, renovating before listing, or even fixing up a property you plan to sell instead of rent.
What is a vacant or restoration property?
A vacant property is any home or building that's unoccupied for an extended period; typically 30 to 60 days or more, depending on your insurance policy. This includes rental properties between tenants, homes you've inherited but haven't decided what to do with yet, or investment properties you're preparing to list for sale.
Standard homeowners insurance and even many landlord insurance policies exclude or severely limit coverage once a property sits empty, leaving you exposed to risks like vandalism, theft, and weather damage during the vacancy period.
A property under renovation falls into a similar category, especially if the work involves significant repairs or restoration that make the home temporarily uninhabitable. Whether you're updating a kitchen between tenants, restoring property damage from a previous incident, or doing a complete gut renovation before renting or selling, traditional insurance carriers often won't provide adequate coverage during construction.
Vacant home insurance and renovation insurance fill this gap by protecting your investment while the property is unoccupied and undergoing improvements, covering perils that typical policies exclude and ensuring you're not left financially vulnerable during the transition period.
Protect your vacant or restoration property in minutes!
How vacant property insurance protects your investment
Vacant home insurance protects against risks that standard policies exclude once a property sits empty. This includes vandalism and theft, weather damage like frozen pipes, fire and smoke damage, and liability if someone is injured on your property.
For properties under renovation, coverage extends to construction-related risks, protecting both the existing structure and improvements you're making. These are usually smaller-scale renovations; larger, ground-up projects may require builder's risk insurance.
Traditional rental property policies typically reduce coverage or deny claims after 30-60 days of vacancy, but specialized vacant and renovation coverage maintains protection throughout your project.
Steadily covers light to moderate renovations on properties in transition, whether you're doing a fix and flip, restoring an inherited property, or updating a rental between tenants. Coverage includes property damage protection and liability with increased limits given construction activity, plus flexibility around whether you ultimately rent or sell after completing work.
We cover a wide range of risks, or you can choose a limited set of coverages for a lower premium
Riot & civil commotion
Steadily’s landlord insurance covers property damage from riots and civil commotion — broken windows, structural fires, looted common areas — so the repair costs don’t fall entirely on you. Documentation connecting the damage to the civil unrest is required.
Vandalism & burglary
Steadily covers malicious damage to your rental from vandalism and break-ins — broken doors and windows, defaced surfaces, damaged fixtures and appliances. A police report is typically required to file the claim.
Loss of rent
When a covered event makes the unit temporarily uninhabitable, Steadily’s loss of rent coverage replaces the income you’d lose while repairs are underway — whether the cause is a fire, a burst pipe, or storm damage.
Storm and hail
Steadily covers storm and hail damage to the structure of your property — roof punctures, broken windows, wind-torn siding, fallen debris — as well as damage from extreme wind and tornadoes.
Water
For sudden water damage events such as burst pipes, plumbing failures and appliance overflow, Steadily covers the structural repairs and lost rental income if the unit can’t be occupied while the work is done. Flood damage from rising water requires a separate policy.
Legal liability
If a tenant or visitor is injured at your rental and sues, Steadily covers the medical bills, attorney fees, and any settlement or judgment — up to your policy’s liability limits.
Fire
Steadily covers structural fire damage, smoke damage, personal property you own at the unit, and lost rental income while repairs are underway. That includes fires started in the kitchen, by the wiring, by a tenant, or by a wildfire nearby.
What's the difference between fix and flip and fix and rent?
Fix and flip means you purchase a property, renovate it, then sell it for profit without ever renting it out. Fix and rent, which can be a part of the BRRRR method (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat) involves renovating a property with the intention of keeping it as a long-term rental to generate ongoing income. Both strategies require vacant property insurance during the renovation phase since traditional landlord insurance and homeowners policies won't adequately cover properties under construction or sitting empty. Steadily covers properties during light to moderate renovations regardless of whether you plan to flip the property for sale or rent it out afterward, giving you flexibility to pivot your strategy based on market conditions without worrying about coverage gaps.
How does vacant property insurance differ from builder's risk insurance?
Builders risk insurance covers major construction projects like ground-up builds, complete renovations, or significant structural work with multiple contractors. Vacant property insurance is designed for properties sitting empty or undergoing light to moderate renovations, like updating a rental between tenants or restoring an inherited property before sale. If you're doing substantial construction, builder's risk is the right fit. For vacant properties or lighter renovation work, vacant property insurance provides the coverage you need. Steadily can help you get a quote for either type of coverage depending on your project scope.
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We cover a wide range of risks, or you can choose a limited set of coverages for a lower premium
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