House and contents insurance during building

[frazzeled]

We are doing an attic extension and re roofing - I rang our insurance company to inform them, and they have told me they will not cover us at all as the value of the work is over £25,000. I have rung a couple of companies and no one will cover us for contents insurance whilst we are building, despite the fact the house is accipiter and secure for the whole duration.

Has anyone had similar experiences and has some wise advice? Basically need bikes/jewellery etc covered.

Thank you!

M & s insurance didn't ask the value of the work, we were told we would only be covered for theft during the works if there were signs of forced entry. To me that seemed fair enough. Just had to make sure I called them once the work was done.

Try Lark insurance. They found us cover during extensive building work this yr. I have now switched back to usual provider through them but was approx £1400 for 7 months cover of. Works cost us approx £200k and contents insured were high. We lived in the property throughout FWIW.

We were doing structural stuff so a maybe could be lower cost if just roof related.

Thanks - they do seem to be being really difficult (admiral insurance - not going to use them again!). They want to cancel our policy the moment we start - and not sure how a new company will feel taking us on mid renovation. We are moving some walls downstairs so there is structural work also. Will try some of the above - thanks!

Tricky, we were not covered for conents whilst the house was unsecure (we removed the back of the house) But in terms of buildings cover, we just ensured that the builders and structural engineers had appropriate PI/PL insurance.

It is a real pain! We ended up using renovation plan, a specialist company. Not cheap but comprehensive. Lots of the insurance i looked at had clauses that I just didn't know about - such as no bricked up door ways or windows. Not being a builder I had no idea. We didn't live in during the works - so it might be different if you are living there. Duration of works seems to matter to some companies. Good luck with it.

We have insurance with John lewis who were fine - just insisted we stayed living there and again would have to demonstrate a break in (which would have been more difficult as there was a gaping hole at the back for a few weeks).

We had chipboard instead of back to our house and still insurers were fine. Annoyingly I haven't got the docs here to check who provider was but honestly Lark will sort you out!! It is not uncommon to carry out work and want contents cover!