So who knew that one of the first things connected to a major refurb project would be one of the hardest to work out? Insurance. It's not very exciting but, like underwear, it's foolhardy to go without!
However, there are only a few providers who will cover refurbishment and extension projects. Ironically if we were knocking our house down completely and starting again we would be covered in full by our builder's insurance. However, as we're doing a rather drastic combination of refurb and build we've discovered that there are not many insurance companies interested in this amount of risk. So whilst our builder will provide cover for any new works, works to the existing structure remain uncovered to a degree and therefore it falls to us to ensure we have some insurance.
So here's some serious blurb about something rather critical to a build:
When undertaking significant renovation/extension works to an
existing property it is essential to have the appropriate insurance cover in
place. The British Insurance Broker’s Association is a good place to start to
find our brokers who specialise in certain types of insurance www.biba.org.uk with the Find Insurance
helpline 0870 950 1790. We found this site to be a an efficient route to finding a
broker.
With our property undergoing significant renovations and
extensions such that the property is uninhabitable during the construction period our
main builder has provided ‘Contracts Works’ insurance to cover
the works under the contract we have with him for any claim related to his
work or responsibility. ‘Site’ insurance is what we, the property owner, require
to cover non-contract works and to cover the main insurance categories of: theft,
fire, storm or water damage, etc. Insurers offer 'Site' insurance and this may
come with a number of exclusions depending on the insurers assessment of the
project and may also depend on what you intend to do with the property at the
end of the project i.e. move back in or sell.
Site insurance for the existing property is an absolute
necessity for the property owner and doesn’t come cheap because of the
associated project risk. Furthermore, finding an insurer via the broker may provide
challenges depending on the project magnitude risk profile (basically the bigger the job the bigger the risk). To give you an idea
of the difficulty we faced in finding an insurance broker, we had two insurers decline to offer Site insurance for the existing property
simply due the significant scope of work under contract which is covered by the
contracts works insurance. Fortunately we found an insurer who was
happy to cover us on the basis of information provided through a brief questionnaire and approved
planning permission drawings. Phew!
One last thing...
Any architect or technical sign-off from the property doesn’t
necessarily provide full assurance on quality of build and so Structural
Warranties are also offered by companies and may be necessary for a potential
buyer if you wish to sell the property however if you plan to move back in and
live there for a long time then this may well be a moot point since time itself
will demonstrate the building’s integrity. Finally once your project is
complete then your Site insurance policy should be replaced by any normal Buildings
(and Contents) insurance policy.
Cheers
Rob & Jo
