Your property questions answered.
Holiday home insurance
We own a holiday home in a small holiday home development in Donegal. Last year a neighbour's house was severely damaged due to burst waterpipes but the insurance company refused to pay out for a reason that we are still mystified about. With winter on its way we are now worried about our house, especially as we are insured with the same insurer and we live in Kildare, so can't exactly check up on things regularly.
The whole point of insurance - if you believe the glossy advertisements that is - is to remove the sort of worry you are experiencing. Without knowing the full details of your neighbour's mishap, it could be that they did what a lot of holiday-home owners do and ignored the "unoccupancy clause" in their insurance policy. Industry sources say that holiday homeowners often speed read this part, assuming that it simply refers to the fact that the house is regularly unoccupied. In fact, the clause commits the homeowner to doing certain basic maintenance tasks, usually from November 30th until March 30th. If they don't, they won't be covered for some, usually waterpipe-related, accidents.
Typically, these tasks include turning off the water supply at the mains and draining the system or leaving the heating on to around 10 degrees. As most people would baulk at the idea of heating an empty house - for environmental as much as financial reasons - putting on the heat isn't really an option. However, there may be a way around this. Under some policies homeowners can install a small thermostat device known as a "frost stat" that activates the heating system when the temperature drops to four degrees. These measures, as you can gather, are designed to stop pipes freezing - which is what happened to your neighbour. All homeowners, including holiday homeowners, should check their policies every year to make sure they are adequately covered. What does your "unoccupancy clause" specify? Have you in any way improved your holiday home - for example, added a conservatory, upgraded the kitchen? If so, this should be reflected in your level of cover, as should the increase in rebuilding costs. For more information look at the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority's website, www.itsyourmoney.ie.
Radon levels and surveys
Why aren't radon levels part of a survey? I don't want to buy a house that could kill me - yet am in the process of buying a property here that the homeowner cannot supply me with any details of radon activity in the home. One of the details supplied to my parents when they recently changed house in America was a radon reading. Can I make this a condition of the purchase of my Irish house?
You could try. A prospective buyer can make just about anything a condition of a sale - all the seller has to do if they don't want to comply is walk away. If the seller agrees to a radon reading, it'll take three months through the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII) - which may not suit either your or their timeframe. You don't say where this house is but it might help if you look at www.rpii.ie where there is a map of Ireland which indicates radon hotspots.
Send your queries to Property Questions, The Irish Times, 10-16 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2 or e-mail propertyquestions@irish-times.ie.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to respond to all questions. The above is a representative sample of queries received. This column is a readers' service and is not intended to replace professional advice. No individual correspondence will be entered into.
