Three months after the fire — in August 2024 — my house was burglarized. The property was vacant, in the middle of active recovery, boards on the windows, and someone got in anyway. That opened a second insurance claim on top of the fire claim already in progress. Here's what that process looked like and what I'd do differently.
A vacant property is a target
This is the uncomfortable reality of fire recovery: the same event that makes your home uninhabitable also makes it attractive to burglars. Boarded windows signal vacancy. A property sitting untouched for weeks signals nobody's watching. Anything left inside — appliances, copper plumbing, tools, stored items — becomes accessible.
In my case, the burglary happened despite the property being secured by the mitigation company. Someone found a way in. What they took was relatively limited — some remaining personal items and building materials — but it was enough to trigger a separate claim process.
What I didn't have, and wish I had: a camera system on the property. Even a basic wireless camera setup would have created a deterrent and documentation. It's a $200–400 investment that becomes much more valuable when you're trying to prove what was taken.
How the second claim worked
The burglary claim went through the same policy as the fire claim, but it was processed as a separate claim with a separate claim number. That matters because it counts as a distinct claim on your loss history — which affects future premiums independently of the fire.
The process was: police report first, then insurer notification, then adjuster inspection. The police report is non-negotiable — insurers require it for theft claims, and they'll ask for the case number as part of the claim documentation. File it even if you don't expect the police to recover anything. It's the paper trail the claim depends on.
The insurer sent an adjuster to inspect the entry point and document the theft. The adjuster also reviewed what items were reported stolen. This is where having documentation of what was in the house before the burglary would have been invaluable — I was reconstructing from memory what had been left at the property, which is a weaker position than a documented inventory.
The vacancy exclusion question
Most homeowners policies include a vacancy clause: if a home is vacant for more than a certain number of days (typically 30–60 days), certain coverages are excluded or limited. Theft is often one of them.
This is a critical issue for anyone going through fire recovery. Your home becomes vacant the moment it's uninhabitable — which is day one of a major fire. By month three, you've almost certainly crossed whatever vacancy threshold your policy sets.
In my situation, my insurer processed the burglary claim despite the vacancy status. I believe this was partly because the vacancy was itself a consequence of the covered fire loss — the home was vacant because the fire made it uninhabitable, not because I chose to leave it empty. That's a different situation than a vacation home sitting empty.
But don't assume this interpretation is automatic. Ask your insurer directly, early in the fire claim process, how they treat the vacancy clause when vacancy results from a covered loss. Get the answer in writing.
What to do differently
If you're in active fire recovery with a vacant property, here's what I'd recommend based on what I learned:
- Install cameras immediately. Battery-powered wireless cameras mounted at entry points provide deterrence and documentation. They don't require power or internet at the property — just periodic charging.
- Remove anything valuable from the property as soon as possible. Anything you want to keep, get it out and store it somewhere secure. Don't leave it in a vacant structure for months.
- Coordinate with your mitigation company on security. Ask specifically what they're doing to secure entry points and what their liability is if the property is breached on their watch.
- Notify your insurer of the vacancy status and ask about coverage implications. This is especially important around the 30-day mark.
- Document what's in the property before you leave it. A video walkthrough on your phone is enough. If something is stolen later, you have a baseline.
The burglary added stress to an already exhausting process, opened a second claim with its own paperwork and adjusters, and created separate premium consequences down the road. It was entirely preventable with better security measures in the first weeks of recovery.
Related: Complete Timeline of My House Fire and Insurance Claim — where the burglary fits in the full 18-month recovery story.