Home insurance during extension

FaceHead

Hi,

What are people's views on telling your home insurer about building work (and paying the extra money) or taking a stand alone insurance policy?

What are the typical costs of these things? What does extra insurance actually cover?

It seems to me from looking at policy documents that big name insurers won't cover anything not already covered by the builder's liability insurance. I'm therefore reluctant to pay out without being able to see what the extra cover actually is.

I'm expecting most people will say 'yes you absolutely need to pay for this and it isn't the place to save money', but why, because if anything goes drastically wrong it seems you'd be claiming against the builder/their insurer.

Dedekind

This is a question I am also interested in, since I am about to start an extension. I checked my policy documents and there is a question "Building work in progress?" and my answer last year was "Yes" because I was renovating other parts of the house.

I'd assume this still applies and nothing else needs to be done.

m0t

I'm with  Admiral and they didn't charge any extra for the work, the new rooms or increased property size but they did charge an admin fee of £19 to change the policy documents to show the additions.

If you're adding rooms you'll need to tell them at some point anyway so I'm not sure there is much to be gained from not telling them at the start.

Mistral001

You need to tell your insurance company.  It could void your insurance if you do not.  It also depends on the type of building works.  If they involve major alterations where the builders will be working over parts of the house which will be inhabited while the works are being carried out, separate insurance might be required.  Note do not just rely on the builder's own insurance as it might not cover all you want it to..

NeverTooLate

When we did an extension and loft conversion we couldn't get insurance from a normal house insurer, had to get renovation insurance. We only bought it for 6 months and hoped that the build went to schedule, which it did, then reverted to normal insurance again.

Our builder stipulated that we have our own insurance, and the renovation insurers also needed to see proof of the builder's insurance.

We found the insurance through a local broker, all the online offerings were much more expensive.

Mutton_Geoff

Plenty of online brokers that will get you cover. It's up to you whether you self insure or not. You could suffer a different type of loss during the works (eg burglary or fire) then find you're not insured as you didn't declare the work.