There are a lot of vacant homes on the market right now. Homes that are for rent and homes where the owner has vacated awaiting a sale. While each insurance company and each policy is different there are some insurers who will stop coverage when a home becomes vacant after 30 or 60 days. Their concern is theft, vandalism, fire and water damage that can occur without anyone around to report it.
Things like fire and theft alarms, someone checking on the house on a regular basis can reduce premiums. Also their is a company that makes fake TV's which gives off light and it looks like someone is home watching tv. Light sensors turn the TV on and a timer lets it run a certain amount of time. It costs $39.95 and the website is www.faketv.com. If you have a property on the market you should check your homeowners policy to determine your coverage.
From one of my readers:
A recent New York case seems both apposite and persuasive. In Lamoureux v. New York Cent. Mut. Fire Ins. Co., 244 A.D.2d 645, 663 N.Y.S.2d 914 (N.Y. App. Div. 1997), the insured building was a one-family residence located adjacent to and behind plaintiff's residence. The premises were destroyed by fire three months after the plaintiff's tenant had moved out. The policy excluded coverage for loss if the building were vacant over 60 consecutive days. Plaintiff's principal challenge to a finding of vacancy was that he was personally renovating the house and was inside the building every day for a couple of hours. The court reversed the trial court's denial of the insurer's motion for summary judgment, "[g]iving the word vacant its plain and ordinary meaning. . . ." 244 A.D.2d at 646, 663 N.Y.S.2d at 915. It also ruled that because "plaintiff himself was never an inhabitant of the premises, the fact that he frequented the premises for the purpose of renovation is not germane to the issue of vacancy." Id.
From Realty Times, here.
After watching the fires out in California this past week and all the suffering of people who lost their homes and the torrential rains that we had here in Westchester County last spring I guess that the best you can do is be prepared since you certainly can't control what happens. 
