An empty building is a liability from the day the last tenant leaves. Insurers know it, which is why cover on vacant property is restricted, more expensive and usually conditional on you taking specific measures.
The three things that happen
Vacant property attracts a predictable set of problems: unauthorised occupation, theft of copper, lead and cabling, and fly-tipping in yards and car parks. Each of these is far more expensive to reverse than to prevent. Removing occupiers is a legal process measured in weeks. Stripped cabling means a rewire. A yard full of tipped waste is a disposal bill plus a potential environmental notice.
What actually works
- Remove the attraction: clear anything of scrap value before the building goes empty
- Secure the obvious entry points properly, not with a padlock on a rotten door
- Light the approaches — dark buildings are tested first
- Detection with a monitored response, so an entry reaches a person who acts
- Timed patrols with a documented record you can show your insurer
Proof of presence matters
One detail is routinely missed: your insurer will often want evidence that inspections happened. Timed, logged patrols give you that record. Informal "someone drives past most nights" arrangements do not, and they tend to fall apart precisely when a claim depends on them.
Between phases on a development
Development sites are most exposed in the gaps — after the contractor demobilises and before the next phase starts. If you own the site, that gap is yours to cover. It is worth planning it into the programme rather than discovering it after the first break-in.