Insurance for building work

[Cockwombleseverywhere]

Looking for advice

We are in the process of selling our current house and purchasing a new one.
The property we are buying is a 3 bed but we are planning to convert the integral garage to create a 4th bedroom.

We are trying to get insurance quotes for buildings and contents but having no luck as no one will insure for building work.
I’m getting to the point of thinking we just get a normal policy and tell them once the work has been completed

Does anyone know of any insurers that will cover having building work done on their polices?

Or what has everyone else done?

I’m a bit confused. Normally you just tell your insurer that you’re having building work done - they often don’t cover theft during that time. The work itself should be covered by the builders’ indemnity insurance.

I thought that too. I rang our current provider to get a quote for the new property and they asked if we were planning any building work when we moved in. I told them about the plan and they said they wouldn’t insure us as they are a ‘low risk insurer’ and that we would need a specialist insurer to cover us 🙄
Tried to do quotes on CTM etc and put building work on, once it took me to the insurer site it said they couldn’t offer it?!

Surely anyone having work done would encounter this, and it’s a fairly common thing to do, so I’m now thinking no one tells their insurers until the work is complete?

There was a similar thread a week or two ago. Somebody pointed out that the insurance company would not be able to refuse a claim arising from anything unrelated to the building work.

The his being, as long as the builders and contractors are insured, the risk is minimal.

I didn’t have that when we bought this house (2019) so maybe it’s new? I don’t know how I would answer either because yes we knew we had to renovate the house but none was planned/booked before we arrived

The gist, not his.

Are you having the work done before you move in? As in, the property will be empty at the time, that might be an issue?

No, we will be moving in and the work will be done while we are living there.

Thank you! I will have a look 😊

Also try Home Protect or Hiscox (we used the latter but we were living out).

Home protect are insuring ours. But yes, nothing related to the build is covered.

Prepare for a significantly increased premium.

We had buildings and contents insurance with Direct Line, called up to tell them we were about to start the building work, and they cancelled us on the spot. I did a lot of phoning round insurers and I think there was a 2-5 day period when we were technically uninsured, but I got a policy with Hastings. It's probably wildly overpriced but I will shop around again after completing the work. There was no question of not telling them, we took half the external walls out and did major structural alterations including a totally new roof. Sure, damage or accidents caused by builders would be on them, but we still needed insurance for things like an electrical fault causing a fire in the original part of the house, a leak from the remaining bit of plumbing, a burglary because it was far less secure (there were 3 months when all you'd have needed to do was push over a piece of plywood to break in!), or weather damage.

You are right to be thinking about it ahead of time. I should have asked the insurers much earlier, and even if they would have said the same, I'd have had a lot longer to sort it, rather than being in a panic.

Very odd that a company won't insure you with just the intention of doing building work though. And what sounds like not particularly major structural work too. In your case I would get insured with no mention of the work (because you aren't definitely doing it until you've got permitted development and builder quotes, right?) and then phone round to get options for the new insurance, and then ask your insurer if they'll cover it - if not, you've got your plan b prepared.

Endsleigh do specialist insurance to cover all types of building work.

I will have a look at all the suggestions above, thank you so much!
We have had the builders quotes already and because the garage is integral and we’re not changing the footprint of the house there’s no planning permission required.
We’ve been quoted between £8 & £9k for the work so not a massive job really and only 2/3 weeks work.
I really want to make sure we’re insured whilst the work is going on and it seemed like I was hitting a dead end, I really appreciate the help

We had a normal policy with Halifax. I called in advance of our building work started and the charged us an additional amount while the structural work was being done. Once the roof, walls, windows etc were done and the work became more cosmetic they dropped the premium back down again.

We used Home Protect for our current renovations, they were the only company who would insure us due to starting renovations as soon as we purchased (ie not actually moving into the property first). Lots had a 6 month requirement that you live there before starting work. Prices are reasonable too.

We were already insured with Admiral when we needed building work cover, but were a bit shocked at the additional premium of around £200 to cover 3 months of building works.
A bit steep, so once the work was done we renewed with someone else.

I was insured with LV, had to pay about an additional 20 pounds a month whilst doing building work, no drama at all.