Home insurance while building works are taking place (loft conversion)

dodgy

Hi,
Our house is currently insured through Tesco Home Insurance, however they have said they'll be unable to continue the insurance once work starts on our loft conversion and so it'll be cancelled. They gave me the name of Towergate insurance and suggested I contacted them or the British Insurance Brokers' Association.

Does anyone have any other suggestions on who I can contact? The work is substantial, but a fairly standard loft conversion. We'll be in the property throughout, and the company doing it are long established and have liability insurance. Obviously I'm hoping not to pay a fortune and would need buildings and contents.

I assume the 'normal' comparison sites are no use here.

Thanks 

Sandtree

You'll find most mainstream insurers won't provide cover during such works and the brokers that appear on aggregators will reprice for a different product once you tell them about the work (dont think any aggregator has built a comparison for building work policies).

Contact a few local brokers or BIBA will recommend local brokers if your google is broken. 

TELLIT01

Have you asked the company who are going to do the work if they know any insurers who will cover you?  Or ask them for contact details of anybody they have done work for and ask them?

dodgy

TELLIT01 said:

Have you asked the company who are going to do the work if they know any insurers who will cover you?  Or ask them for contact details of anybody they have done work for and ask them?

Yes, they explained that they were rarely asked for their insurance information by clients, thus probably most people didn't bother to make any changes. 

Sandtree

dodgy said:
 thus probably most people didn't bother to make any changes. 

I think its less "didn't bother" and much more "didn't realise it was an issue"

dodgy

Just to close it off, a broker was able to find an insurer willing to cover the property while the work is being undertaken; 5x the price I was paying before, but little choice but to accept it. Hopefully once the work is complete I can transfer to a product with more sane premiums.