Vacant house, avoiding break-ins (rental, insurance, month to)

[pizzatruck]

Hi there,

We're in the process of moving out of a house in the peninsula, and it will take several months to clean everything up. We'll probably be coming by on the weekends, and otherwise it will be vacant. It's worth noting that this is a nice area, but the house is up a long driveway and not visible from the street, and has a massive hilly backyard (unusual for that area).

Any ideas on avoiding break-ins?

Is it worth keeping our beater car for a while longer and parking it in the carport (obviously no garage) and registering it as a non-op? We had a few teenage idiots break in before while we were out (hardly anything stolen thankfully), and I suspect the missing car set them off. Are cameras a good idea?

Also on that note... what will registering non-op cost me in insurance? Will not running the car for that long harm it, or is starting and idling it on the driveway every now and then enough? (I can disconnect the battery.) It it easy to undo when I do sell the car?

Thanks!

[kgbnsf]

I would suggest that you stop the mail, keep the landscaping going and use devices to mimic people at home. You can get an LED light that simulates changing images of a TV. Have a radio (news/talking format) that comes on periodically via a timer, and of course, lights that come off and on. See if you can get a neighbor to stop in periodically. Check with you insurance company on rates. It should be less.

[capoeira]

Originally Posted by kgbnsf

Check with you insurance company on rates. It should be less.

Do not tell the insurance company the house is vacant!!! It becomes uninsurable! Also its not really completely vacant since you will be there on some weekends.

[evening sun]

AfaIk a non op vehicle will not require insurance, becasue it is not to be moved (hence non op) but check with dmv.

[bmw335xi]

Buy some ARLO Cameras from Amazon or Best Buy. No wires, very easy to setup, all you need is wifi. Stick a couple no trespassing and 24 video surveillance signs up. That's your best bet, if the camera(s) detect anything, they will record to cloud and send you a text alert, so you can see what's going on in real time. The Arlo Pro also records sound and you can talk through it or turn on an emergency siren, which is painfully loud.

[BurnInTheMil]

Originally Posted by kgbnsf

I would suggest that you stop the mail, keep the landscaping going and use devices to mimic people at home. You can get an LED light that simulates changing images of a TV. Have a radio (news/talking format) that comes on periodically via a timer, and of course, lights that come off and on. See if you can get a neighbor to stop in periodically. Check with you insurance company on rates. It should be less.

This is what I recommend as well. My parents bought a new house awhile back, and the old one is in a "country" area that they will be using as a getaway home (it's near a river, great fishing). They bought the LED lights that can mimic things, like this poster said. Never had any problems while it was vacant (for about 2 months).

Now they have stuff there and it's a rental on VRBO as well. But during the vacant period, all was well. Then again, it wasn't in California, and was a nice country area outside a nice small town

[pizzatruck]

OK, I'll look into the ARLO cameras. Will require us to keep internet around though. (Alternatively, recording to an SD card would be OK with me, so long as there's a backup that's not in the camera itself - in case they steal that.)

For what it's worth, we've always kept a talk radio going near the front of the house when we're gone. Didn't work, we came up the driveway, heard it louder than usual, and realized the front door had been broken open (the deadbolt wasn't anchored as well as we thought). We're mostly home, the one hour we left and had no car parked there...

The more I look into non-op, the more this doesn't make any sense - sounds like I have to do it for the entire reg year. CA's normal reg fee isn't that much. Will have to see what my insurance charges if we're not driving it/doing minimal mileage as a spare car (it's already liability only).

Is paying for a security system and monitoring worth it? Or is throwing up some signs, and an alarm panel visible near the front door, good enough? The thieves in this area aren't exactly bright...

[kgbnsf]

Originally Posted by capoeira

Do not tell the insurance company the house is vacant!!! It becomes uninsurable! Also its not really completely vacant since you will be there on some weekends.

You are correct, vacant houses could lead to insurance problems. Although, the OP and I are talking about reducing coverage on a *vehicle* as inoperable- something I do regularly for a car that I store.

[MaryleeII]

Originally Posted by kgbnsf

I would suggest that you stop the mail, keep the landscaping going and use devices to mimic people at home. You can get an LED light that simulates changing images of a TV. Have a radio (news/talking format) that comes on periodically via a timer, and of course, lights that come off and on. See if you can get a neighbor to stop in periodically. Check with you insurance company on rates. It should be less.

Wrong!


Insurance rates go UP for unoccupied property! Usually you have a 60-day period before you have to notify the insurance, I suppose that's for vacations, etc. I've found its NEVER a good idea to call insurance to ask for advice. Find out some other way.....like read your policy!


Also, its NOT considered a good idea to stop the mail. Of course, you don't want mail piling up, that's a sure sign of vacancy. However, if someone is watching your place, and sounds like they might, due to previous break-ins, it would be a dead give-away if the mailman passes by your house on a regular basis. Best if you can to get someone to come by and pick up the mail. Try a house-sitter, or just someone to come by on a regular basis, bring in mail, put out trash on trash day, change lights, rotate cars in driveway, etc.

[bmw335xi]

Yeah, actually a lot of insurance companies won't insure a vacant house... you usually need to pay a month to month policy which is more costly.