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Site insurance sorted


Weebles

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Is this a good time to reread "The Mythical Man Month?"

 

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The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering is a book on software engineering and project management by Fred Brooks, whose central theme is that "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later". 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mythical-Man-Month-Software-Engineering-Anniversary/dp/0201835959

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My insurance renewal will be an interesting exercise because of the little local difficulty, not to say fight, I had with ours. 

 

Here's the back story (with a quick summary)

I should add a small counterpoint to the somewhat churlish attitude demonstrated at that time.  As a direct result of the delay caused by that disaster, we have had to store our windows. I am told they are in store in a storage warehouse in Birmingham.

 

I rang our insurers to tell them the windows were in store. After a quick check, the same company that gave us so much grief earlier have agreed to insure the windows while in store  for free.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/5/2017 at 22:44, Weebles said:

In case this is helpful to anyone we have just sorted out our site insurance.  We got quotes from (with the actual insurance company in brackets):

Buildstore (Catlin Insurance company)

Buildzone (EC Insurance)

Protek (QBE Europe)

Self Build Insurance (Zurich)

 

Self Build Insurance (Zurich) were almost 30% cheaper than the other 3 so definitely worth a call.  

 

We have gone for 24 months as it seems that lots of people on here end up having to renew half way through and premiums can be hiked at that point.

Hope we don't need to use it.  And hope we get it finished within 24 months.....we are starting tomorrow with knocking down our garage and will attempt to finally locate our water supply (where Thames Water, a diviner and alot of hand digging has failed hopefully a digger bucket will do the job :)) .

 

Thanks for this. Just purchased my self build insurance (gone with 24 months as well!) and Zurich is the cheapest by about £150 and a better policy then others as well. 

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Glad it was helpful.  An update, if this might be helpful to anyone for site insurance / self build mortgages:

 

We guessed the contract works cover, based on our estimated build costs.  We fixed site insurance in place to cover that.

We proceeded with refinancing onto a self build mortgage (Ecology Building Society) and their valuer has put a much higher estimate on the build costs (seems he doesn't believe our estimates).  The building society is insisting on site insurance at the higher value.

 

Self Build Insurance (Zurich) has been very reasonable in increasing the amount of contract works cover (policy only in force so far for 3 months out of 24) and at a not unreasonable additional premium.  Quickly sorted and almost painless. :)

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Thanks again.

I have been trying to suss out what Zurich actually call their self-build Insurance "site insurance"

As i am not taking out any 10 year warranty thingy ...I just want to make sure the site and workers 

etc are covered .....do they have a "name" of this policy ...I am sure it must differ from standard public liability ?

 

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3 hours ago, HerbJ said:

I  arranged my insurance through Self Build Insurance. My premium was £1853 for 18 months, Insured Value was £650,000.   Like many others on BH I ended up having to extend the period by 3 months twice, was expensive. So think carefully about the build period.....

http://www.selfbuild.uk.com/

 

I got my insurance from that site. £700 for 24 months, insured value £240,000.

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Having read the small print, Zurich may require an intruder alarm to be fitted?  I assume they will tell me if this is the case at my build site? I assume this will only apply if you claim and they want to mitigate any future incident?

 

Thoughts?

Edited by Triassic
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Interesting. I have just quickly read my Policy (dated 2014) which I attached to an earlier post and there was no requirement for intruder alarms to be fitted. Neither is it detailed on my Insurance Schedule.

 

It may be a new requirement. Where did you find this small print?

 

My build is complete and the cover lapsed last February 2017, so no longer of any importance for me. However, it is something for other self builders to check carefully when comparing policies.

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I  have reread the Policy and there is a section on "Intruder Alarms" - see Special Conditions, 8 on page 10.

 

This Clause only applies IF an  Intruder Alarm is detailed  in the Schedule as a Condition of the Insurance Policy = my Schedule did not include such a condition . The Applicable Clause 8  details the requirements to be met by any Intruder Alarm System to be installed, IF  it required as a condition of the Insurance Cover. 

 

This should be resolved with your Broker when placing the Insurance Cover, to ensure that there is no such requirement. It is unlikely to be a requirement for a one off building site, but may be a requirement for a large multi-unit site.

 

FWIW - i do have such a requirement on my Household Building  and Contents Policy and have  a suitably specified Intruder Alarm System. This is not unusual depending on the value of the building & contents. 

Edited by HerbJ
correct typo and get clarity
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