Home insurance - can anyone help?

[fandabbydozier]

I've tried to renew my home insurance today and answered all questions in the comparison site to get quotes. One question they ask is around whether I am currently doing building work which I am not.

I have got planning permission for an extension which we hope to start later this year but we haven't chosen a builder yet or set any dates for work to start.

I found a policy with Halifax that looked good. I then contacted them to ask what I needed to do when we start the work. They then told me they couldn't insure me as we were 100% going to do building work and had planning already.

I then looked for a new policy, declaring that we were doing building work. It's a big extension and as such the premium was very high.

In this situation should I:

A) take out a normal (non building) policy and contact them to review terms when/if we are ready to proceed with the extension

Or

B) take out a pricy policy covering us for building work we aren't even doing yet and may not start for another year

If anyone can advise I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks

Take out a policy as normal otherwise they will murder you in the premium and the build might not occur in the duration of the policy...ours took 18 months to get started and the current CV carry in could lengthen things

Just ring your insurer when you know you are starting. They doubled ours for a 6 month build back to normal

Thanks Marie. That's what I think I'll do. I'll change the insurance when we start the work, like you say might be ages away.