Specialist renovation insurance - recommendations?

[superking]

Our home insurer won't continue to cover us whilst we are having works done to our house (single storey extension) so we will need to get specialist renovation insurance. Does anyone have any recommendations? It's a fairly standard build.

Your builder should be obtaining insurance. There are specialist insurers but they tend to cover damage to third parties. Your best bet is calling an insurance broker.

We did the same and found it really difficult to find cover. We paid the cost of the builders all risk insurance - which is expensive - and had the work noted on our buildings policy.

We went with Renovation Plan insurance when we did our house. It was fine but we didn’t have to claim so can’t comment on that aspect! It covered all tradespeople, theft inc tools & materials, fire due to someone breaking in, etc.

It was expensive compared to normal home insurance but there wasn’t another option for us - the job was so big I project managed and we did the rip out so there were periods with no builders here and the property empty/open to the outside.

Did that cover the actual work? I was just having a google and some cover excludes damage to the work being done (that is because it can be covered by a different type of commercial insurance).

Our builders have their own insurance but my understanding is that just relates to the work they're doing and won't cover us for fire, theft, all the stuff that is covered under a standard home insurance policy. Will try a broker. Thought this must be a fairly common situation so maybe I was missing something obvious but perhaps not! Thanks all.

You need to contact an insurance broker who will get quotes from specialist insurers.

Your insurance will cover you for general problems, your builders insurance will cover for the work whilst he is doing it.

We used an insurance broker, Gill Noble in Bromley to find the specialist insurance for our extension. I’ve used Gill Noble (based in Bromley) for my car and house insurance for over 30 years. I’ve always found them reasonable and straightforward.

We found Admiral would cover us whilst having building work done when QMH wouldn't.

I don’t think it did - it covered something happening to the tradespeople like the house randomly falling down on them (didn’t happen but wasn’t completely unlikely given the state it was in) but it didn’t cover them ripping us off or accidental damage by them (luckily that also didn’t happen).

The actual work would usually be covered by the tradesperson's own insurance whilst they are doing the work.

Your insurance covers things happening to the house unrelated to the work happening. eg fire, burst pipes etc.