A new building in our garden... insurance cover?

Mr.Boy

We are building a new building in our garden and are struggling to get anywhere with our current insurer whether it will be covered under our policy, or how to get it included.

It is costing tens of thousands of pounds so the building itself needs to be covered but it's a slightly unusual case and trying to get past someone with a script on a phone switchboard is proving difficult - I think we actually need to speak to an underwriter?

To make things more complex, we will be running commercial activities from this building - a home business. Contents and liability cover we can get sorted quite easily just not making sure the building itself is insured. Should it burn down I can our current insurer saying "well it wasn't mentioned on the policy" but then our property already has several outbuildings and we were never asked to mention those before.

Can anyone offer advice either how/where we go to get insurance, or what type we need. In the old days they'd send someone out to look at your property and draft a policy! An actual human we can discuss with would be far easier.

Thanks for any help.

Mr.Boy

By the way we have/will have planning and building control sign-off on it. It'd be a bit like building a stables or a workshop in your garden... is it part of your dwelling or something else? Nobody is living in it so what sort of cover is relevant if not included in your house building insurance?

DanParks87

A few things to consider here, firstly is the cover for the new building while it's being constructed. Is this being gone by an outside contractor or are you doing the work (wholly or partly) yourself?

If the latter, things become a bit more complicated and you stray into the realm of self-build insurance. If the former, then the new build should be covered by the builder's insurance - their Contract Works insurance will cover it whilst being constructed and Public Liability will cover injury to you and damage to your existing property.

Moving onto the crux of your question, any cover you get for your home business should allow you to cover the building along with the contents and liability. Just be sure to state that it's located in the garden of your residential property. If anything, this should make it less of a security risk.

Essentially, what you need is a commercial policy that covers your business liabilities, contents, buildings and anything else relating to the business (such as stock).
You might be better off speaking to a broker, feel free to drop me a message directly if you want any further help.

Mr.Boy

Thanks Dan, I couldn't remember that a broker was the person who does this kind of face-to-face stuff. Just what we want, I think.

So you're suggesting the business should just get its own policy covering the building as well as everything else, regardless if the building is covered by our residential policy?

I believe we also need to ensure our residential policy covers "commercial use" even though this is actually 50m from the house and in a totally separate building... we just get this included in our policy rather than quibble over it?

DanParks87

If your residential policy is happy to cover it as an outbuilding then you don't need to worry about insuring it again, but I would be very surprised if they do! Most home insurers that I know of wouldn't look to cover it, especially as it's used entirely for commercial use.

Yes you should mention to your home insurers that you are working from that building, but as you say if it's entirely separate then they should be OK with this. For this reason it's probably best to keep everything related to the business on a separate policy.

SonOf

To make things more complex, we will be running commercial activities from this building - a home business. Contents and liability cover we can get sorted quite easily just not making sure the building itself is insured. Should it burn down I can our current insurer saying "well it wasn't mentioned on the policy" but then our property already has several outbuildings and we were never asked to mention those before.

You are moving away from the realms of your comparison website style home insurance and will need better quality insurance going forward.

The quality providers, like NFU, will have no issue with things like this on their home insurance and there are other providers that have homeworker policies.

I believe we also need to ensure our residential policy covers "commercial use" even though this is actually 50m from the house and in a totally separate building... we just get this included in our policy rather than quibble over it?

We are in the same situation. We have barns etc and one of those is used for business and NFU covered it and the business equipment with no issue all on the same policy (along with a number of other things you would not expect on the average household policy).
It should be noted that the type of work you are doing from home and if you have stock or visitors etc will have a big impact on who you can use. You can probably forget about using internet comparison sites from now on.

Mr.Boy

DanParks87 wrote: »

Yes you should mention to your home insurers that you are working from that building, but as you say if it's entirely separate then they should be OK with this. For this reason it's probably best to keep everything related to the business on a separate policy.

Our thinking was they might just say "these people are in your property so you need to include it" but as people have said, we need a proper bespoke policy not a comparison site quote so we should hopefully be able to get these details sorted out.

Mr.Boy

We called our local NFU office and they said "we won't cover that" - neither cover our house only but understanding the business building is in our grounds, nor covering both buildings.

Was quite surprised.

SonOf

d000hg wrote: »

We called our local NFU office and they said "we won't cover that" - neither cover our house only but understanding the business building is in our grounds, nor covering both buildings.

Was quite surprised.

I am surprised too. They are pretty much known for covering all sorts of unusual stuff.

Is there anything unusual about your building type or business? (as someone here may know of insurers more suited to you).

You may need to try a local broker (not Swinton)

Zorillo

You need a Homeworkers policy, which will involve a local commercial insurance broker.

Mr.Boy

SonOf wrote: »

I am surprised too. They are pretty much known for covering all sorts of unusual stuff.

Is there anything unusual about your building type or business? (as someone here may know of insurers more suited to you).

You may need to try a local broker (not Swinton)

It's a small childcare business (2 staff, up to 20 kids) using a new purpose-built building.

Zorillo wrote: »

You need a Homeworkers policy, which will involve a local commercial insurance broker.

Aren't they just for people who work from home, rather than running a business with people on site?