Home insurance renewal when an extension is planned within 12 months

[becsmeister]

Renewal has always been easy but this time I have to consider that our home will have a part 2 storey, part single storey rear and side extension in the next 12 months.
I normally just use confused.com. They have a question 'Is there any building works in progress?' which there isn't yet but there will be. If I change it to there is building works in progress the quote hours up £40 but its not clear what exactly it covers but it states it doesn't cover accidental damage.
What do people normally do? of course I could renew at the normal price based on no building work and call them up when building work starts but then you are in a position where it is much easier to take what they offer you rather than cancelling that policy and comparing the whole of the market to take a new policy on the basis of building work being in progress.

Renew stating no building works as there aren't any at present, then ring up and ask them to change it when you are ready to start building the extension.

Thanks @Cyclistmumgrandma. Are you then not tied to that insurer so they can charge you a premium? Also, any idea how much it would cost for a 3 month build of part one part 2 storey rear extension.

I don’t use comparison sites as they don’t compare for specific situations such as this.

if I were you I’d take a few of the companies you like the quotes for and get direct quotes to include this situation. If they don’t allow for “oddities” they aren’t for you this year.

If you're going to be building an extension in your property, spending thousands of pounds, £40 is surely neither here nor there. Your house, including the extension could cost more to insure anyway, at renewal.

During the extension you need specialist insurance.

Our home insurer said to let them know on the day the works started, they would terminate our policy on the day the works started and repay the unused part of the premium.

some normal home insurers will cover limited building work but unlikely they will cover you during a big job like that.

your builder should have insurance for the site but it doesn’t usually cover the existing building, that’s what you need the specialist insurance for

i got chat gpt to explain it to me

We were in the same position last year. I'm surprised that you're able to get a quote for just £40 more because I found it impossible to get a standard policy that covered me while building work was ongoing and I had to take out specialist cover. Check the terms of that policy carefully and confirm that you will be covered.

In the end we cancelled our existing policy mid-term - which is totally possible and normal - and then took out the specialist cover. I would advise taking out cover for longer than you think you will need it. Our work was supposed to take 3-4 months. We're currently at 10.5 and still not quite done.