Ask the Expert: Suppose a major anchor store is leaving a shopping mall, but several small stores there are still open for business. Is the empty area still considered vacant by insurers?

Marla Donovan,
Vice President of Product Development
Burns & Wilcox

Yes. And it doesn't matter whether it's a major tenant creating the vacancy or one of the smaller ones. Each unoccupied and empty space counts as vacant, and the owner does have liability for it.

This is also true for residential property. If you move out of your condo before you sell it, or you buy it but don't move in for months, insurers consider it vacant -- even though it is surrounded by occupied units.

Conventional wisdom is that the more isolated a property, the easier it is to vandalize, so you would expect a vacant apartment or store in an otherwise busy area would be relatively safe from intruders. Sometimes, though, the occupied properties draw people who notice the vacancy and vandalize it. So a vacancy is a vacancy.