Insurance for renovation property

[sansserif]

Does anyone have advice regarding insurance for a renovation property I'm purchasing soon? The property is not habitable and is in poor condition with missing roof tiles, boarded up windows etc... My long-term plan is to redevelop the property -- either a substantial renovation or even full replacement. Currently no concrete plans but have been chatting with an architect.

 

Here's what I'm finding:

• Normal home insurers aren't interested because the building is in poor condition and I won't be living there for the foreseeable future
• I've managed to find one specialist policy that will offer coverage, at about 5-10x the cost of a normal policy 😬
• Site insurance doesn't seem applicable until there are concrete plans in place.

 

I'm mainly concerned with liability, e.g. the classic "roof tile falls on someone's head" scenario. The building itself I'm less concerned about as it's a complete re-do job anyway.

 

Does anyone have any advice on what kind of cover makes the most sense to get?

[nod]

Your going to struggle for anything will cover past 60 days of an empty property 

[sansserif]

35 minutes ago, nod said:

Your going to struggle for anything will cover past 60 days of an empty property 

Indeed, I am struggling!

[nod]

40 minutes ago, sansserif said:

Indeed, I am struggling!

We’ve come across this over the past twenty odd years of renovating properties 

Its actually got worse 

We simply held back on fitting the kitchen appliances till we had a tenant ready to move in 

Although LV would do a building’s policy to cover Fire 

[G and J]

We purchased a bungalow that was "habitable" with a view to replacing. Whilst we were going through planning etc we took out "holiday/second home" insurance for about £300 for the year on the basis that we could visit and therefore satisfy the max 30 day empty rule (we live close by and we were working in the garden).

 

When the year was up (the bungalow was technically still habitable (although you wouldn't have wanted to!) We swapped to monthly premium for 3 months before swapping to site insurance for demo.

 

Throughout we were completely honest about the fact we weren't living there, and were aware that the likelihood of them paying out for break ins/water leaks etc wasn't something we were bothered about BUT did give all the necessary public indemnity etc

[sansserif]

5 hours ago, G and J said:

We purchased a bungalow that was "habitable" with a view to replacing.

 

I think this is key.

 

My learning here is that insurers have no appetite to insure a building that's not in a good state of repair (fair), but also that liability cover can't be bought separately to buildings cover. So basically, if you have an uninhabitable building, you're completely uninsurable in any way, even for liability. I spoke to dozens of insurers and brokers, and heard the same things every time. It's frustrating because the building isn't unsound, just needs 5-10K put into it to bring it back to a "habitable" (if not nice) condition. But investing those sums doesn't make sense if it's going to be redeveloped.

 

Feels like there's a gap in the market.

 

Ended up going for the expensive specialist policy, which I'll cancel and switch to liability-only self-build cover when I have a better idea of the scope of the build.