What insurance do I need?

[DInwood]

We are about to refurb & extend a house using a main contractor.  It is currently empty, will be stripped, part demolished & extended.  Our existing empty property insurance is about to run out.  What insurance do we need until we move in?  Excuse our ignorance.

[LizG Cambridge]

I am so pleased you asked this question! Could you share what you found out?

 

 I have a very similar question in that we are also refurbing and extending a house, although we don't have a main contractor. I've been reading various blogs and websites and I'm  now completely bamboozled by whether we need Self Build Insurance (as it's not a whole new build), Renovation Insurance (as we are doing lots of structural renovations to the existing property but also building a new two-storey structure on the back that is actually slightly bigger than the original house), Structural Warranty Insurance (does that apply to hybrid build/refurb projects like this? is it needed for lenders if we refinance or sell it?) ...  Do we need all of them? None of them? A combination?

 

I realise some of it might come down to personal choice and attitude to risk but I'm finding it hard to get clear on what's legally required and none of them is cheap so while I don't want to expose us to a high level of risk I also don't want to over-insure or to buy inappropriate policies that wouldn't cover us anyway if the worst should happen! I know there is Site Insurance as well and we will need that.

 

A rookie question I know but it seems like a tough one to unravel as the insurers themselves seem happy to sell you an unlimited number of policies!

 

Thank you in advance for any insights.

[ICFBuilder]

I would also be interested in this, I am planning a self build extension with ICF, we will use a contractor to demolish existing walls and to install steels, but we plan to do the rest ourselves. 

 

Someone also mentioned that I would possibly need pulic liability insurance, but as we are not hiring individuals to assist (we may contract some companies to do specific tasks, eg electrician), I am not sure we would need public liability insurance as any companies we contract to do work would have their own insurance?  This is probably even more of a rookie question ?

 

I was just planning to contact my existing home insurance provider and let them know I'm building an extension - is this the best option?

[LSB]

I have been getting insurance quotes, these vary a lot with the cheapest from Zurich, this is a few hundred cheaper.

Has anyone used Zurich and claimed successfully.

 

[Mr Punter]

19 minutes ago, LSB said:

I have been getting insurance quotes, these vary a lot with the cheapest from Zurich, this is a few hundred cheaper.

Has anyone used Zurich and claimed successfully.

 

Zurich are a very large and well regarded insurance firm.  In my experience, none of them will pay a claim happily.

[LSB]

4 hours ago, Mr Punter said:

 

Zurich are a very large and well regarded insurance firm.  In my experience, none of them will pay a claim happily.

Thanks, I do tend to think of Zurich as one of the better one.

Hopefully, I will never need to claim, but better safe than sorry.