Insurance for chimney removal (by myself)

Mistral001

There is no builder involved here and insurers will thus be very cautious about giving insurance.  You might be able to get  self-build insurance, but will proably be expensive as it is usually taken out just for self-build of a whole house..   

Another_Level

Bendy_House said:

Another_Level said:

Have had a few chimney breasts removed by a specialist company, they offer a turn key service although its expensive but worth it as it eventually work's out free 

Curious! How?

This is an example of one of my projects, Its about adding useable floor space as well as extra room volume.   

         Two chimney breasts+hearths removed adding 2sqm of useable floor space much more spacious rooms and easy to furnish.

Turn key cost for when the work was done ( a few years ago) £6k.  Sold the property privately and did similar again in same area.

As a guide the property is mentioned here, https://housemetric.co.uk/results?str_input=W5+4ss its about £ per square meter at sale date.

  

Sandtree

Apodemus said:

An interesting question, which raises a much wider question on the extent to which normal house insurance might cover for unforeseen consequences from DIY maintenance.

FaceHead said:

My home insurance covers DIY mistakes. I'd suggest you have a read of yours and see what you are already covered for. 

In the case of mine, it's clearly intended for when you're doing significant jobs, e.g. falling through a ceiling when replacing a floor, rather than drilling through a water pipe when putting a new smoke alarm up.

Given the building control involvement, on my policy wording, they might try to argue it's not DIY due to building control involvement etc. I'd argue that you are indeed doing it yourself.

If not as standard, you might find the cover in an accidental damage optional extra. Consider this cause in policy expert's accidental damage extra:

"loss or damage as a result of any alterations, extensions, renovations or repairs to the buildings"

That will do you. I'd expect there will naturally be the exception somewhere else in the policy that it's not covered if you or a tradesman are negligent, or if you can recover the cost from a tradesman. 

I dont know of any Home Insurance policy that doesnt require that you declare if any major works or any structural works are being done. If you do make such declaration then insurers normally significantly limit or suspend the policy until such time as the works are completed (or already has wording excluding cover during these periods).

So yes, drilling through a pipe when trying to put up a fire alarm would be covered if you have accidental damage cover. Accidently knocking your and your neighbour's houses down whilst doing DIY structural work that hasnt been declared will almost certainly result in a claim being declined for both aspects. 

Home PL cover isnt a statutory requirement unlike car insurance so it isnt the case that they'd pay the neighbour and then try to recover the loss from your like they would if you allowed your 15 year old son to drive the car and he crashed into a neighbour