Insurance for house to be demolished?

imers

We are in the process of completing on a house which we want to demolish asap. We were advised to have buildings insurance by our solicitor but he does not know exactly if it is needed. Anyone had any experience of this and if needed where would be the best place to find insurance. Thanks for any hep

Owain_Moneysaver

You need insurance because, even if it's a derelict house, if a tile falls off the roof and kills a passer-by you want to have public liability cover. A good broker should be able to help, otherwise look at insurance for self-builders adverts in the relevant magazines.

lincroft1710

It does sometimes happen that permission to demolish is not granted, so insurance would be a sensible idea.

huckster

Approach the Insurers that cover your main residence. They may be willing to provide cover for this property for limited perils e.g fire, lighting, aircraft and explosion, plus property owners liability.

If they cannot help or you want to obtain further quotes/advice, approach a decent local broker (not Swinton) who will be able to search for the cover you need.

mattymoo

If the house is to be demolished (and permission obtained) then you should ask for cover for "Debris Removal Costs" only plus property owners liability.

The Prop Owners Liability covers your legal liabilities arising from ownership - e.g. a tile falls off and injures someone.

The Debris removal cover will pay for site clearance costs if the building burns down. You will need to obtain it via a broker since none of the internet sites are geared up for it and you'll confuse most call centre staff.

If you insured the full rebuild cost of the house, knowing it was going to be demolished, the insurers will be highly suspicious of any claim and rightly so. Debris removal cover is the correct way to do this and avoid claims problems at a later stage.

dacouch

mattymoo wrote: »

If the house is to be demolished (and permission obtained) then you should ask for cover for "Debris Removal Costs" only plus property owners liability.

The Prop Owners Liability covers your legal liabilities arising from ownership - e.g. a tile falls off and injures someone.

The Debris removal cover will pay for site clearance costs if the building burns down. You will need to obtain it via a broker since none of the internet sites are geared up for it and you'll confuse most call centre staff.

If you insured the full rebuild cost of the house, knowing it was going to be demolished, the insurers will be highly suspicious of any claim and rightly so. Debris removal cover is the correct way to do this and avoid claims problems at a later stage.

If you are after the type of policy Matty is recommending you will need to go to a god commercial broker as most normal brokers will not be aware that these policies exist as they are fairly specialist

Astaroth

There is no legal requirement to insure a home. There is often a condition in mortgages or other finance secured on a property that insurance is in place but this is a contractual obligation.

As long as there is no secured finance on the property then there is no requirement to have insurance. That said, it may still be sensible to have at least 3rd party liability insurance so if someone is injured by the property somehow then you are covered.

It may not be worth bothering with debris removal given your going to have to pay for debris removal in the near future when you knock it down anyway.

cogito

It may not be worth bothering with debris removal given your going to have to pay for debris removal in the near future when you knock it down anyway.

In priciple, that's correct. In practice, it would probably be cheaper to buy a Debris Removal policy with Property Owners Liability cover tacked on rather than a stand alone POL policy.

dacouch

In addition having a "normal" property demolished is considerably cheaper than hav a fire damaged property demolished. This is because a demolition company will make most of their money on selling the reclaimable building materials and the value of these are built into their costs (With a property that has unusual or sort after building materials you can often find a demolition company will actually pay you for the rights).

Another issue to bear in mind is in a fire the fire brigade put a massive amount of water into a property, this can wash polution onto other properties or into the water course. I've dealt with a few motor trade claims where the huge amount of water washed the oil and solvents onto surronnding fields and car parks. The costs to remove this (It has to be done quickly to reduce the chances of it getting into watercourses) can be expensive, under some (Not all policies) The costs of this may be covered.