What insurance needed to move in before completion?

[YorkieSelfBuild]

Hi

 

I currently have site insurance from BuildCare/BuildStore. Can I move in before completion?

 

If I can, can I switch from site insurance to building and contents insurance? It doesn't cover contents and it's over £1200 pa. I think one solution is site insurance for building and separate contents insurance?

 

I've read other posts so I have a list of insurers to contact for quotes (or find a broker) for TF house with less than 20% timber cladding.

 

Cheers

[JohnMo]

We never bothered with build insurance, but when we moved in work was still ongoing. Set up building and contents insurance in the normal way and ticked the box for work happening currently on site and then listed the minor and bigger jobs to finish. Didn't mention completion certificate as it wasn't asked - only answered the questions that came up truthfully.

 

We are over 50% for timber cladding, no-one asked about it!

[nod]

We where moved in both time more than six months before sign off 

AXA The only difference we found was valuables weren’t covered before we actually moved in 

[YorkieSelfBuild]

Thanks, I'm a FTB so everything's new to me.

 

My neighbours are on danger development, they moved in 2 month's ago! My house had delays but still

[YorkieSelfBuild]

Home Protect is £974 pa, 400k rebuild, near a (quarry) cliff and Frontier won't quote.

 

Hmm, I hope being timber frame won't bite me in the backside

[Hannah82w]

On 20/09/2025 at 15:42, JohnMo said:

We never bothered with build insurance, but when we moved in work was still ongoing. Set up building and contents insurance in the normal way and ticked the box for work happening currently on site and then listed the minor and bigger jobs to finish. Didn't mention completion certificate as it wasn't asked - only answered the questions that came up truthfully.

 

We are over 50% for timber cladding, no-one asked about it!

Hi JohnMo, can I ask which insurers you used please? We are also timber frame with over 50% timber cladding, and a zinc roof, and I'm not seeing these as standard materials on any of the comparison sites or a few companies that I have tried directly.

 

We moved into our almost finished house a year ago but are still working on a second building on our plot which includes a garage, workshop and additional domestic space, although all the structural work is done. (So working out the gross floor area is complicated!) At the time that we moved in, the site insurance company recommended we use a specialist insurance company to bridge the gap until we are signed off by building regs, but it's expensive and I'm not sure that it's really necessary if the lack of completion certificate is not an issue for standard buildings and content insurance...as has been said, you can only answer the questions that have been asked.

 

But finding an insurer that is open to timber frame, timber cladding and zinc roof is proving tricky to find.

[JohnMo]

We started with One Insurance (think that's they are called) now with direct line. I found I answered the questions that were asked only. We are ICF, so our wall construction is concrete etc.

14 minutes ago, Hannah82w said:

open to timber frame

Is it an open timber frame - or just a timber frame?

[Hannah82w]

14 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

We started with One Insurance (think that's they are called) now with direct line. I found I answered the questions that were asked only. We are ICF, so our wall construction is concrete etc.

Is it an open timber frame - or just a timber frame?

Thank you, that's really helpful. I've found some other suggestions of companies to try on some similar topics, too. One of them is the company we are currently insured with, but I've not had a great experience with them recently regarding the renewal.

 

Re open timber frame, I meant as in will they consider it!

[Benpointer]

On 11/12/2025 at 14:29, Hannah82w said:

...

 

But finding an insurer that is open to timber frame, timber cladding and zinc roof is proving tricky to find.

Hi Hannah,

 

We're in the same boat - also timber frame, timber cladding and zinc roof, aiming to move in in the spring, probably before a completion certificate is issued.  We currently have build insurance that runs until November 2026 but I suspect it won't cover us if we're actually living at the site (need to check).

 

A month or so ago I did a search on a comparison site (Money Supermarket I think) as if the house was occupied, and it came back with a couple of options in the £400 p.a. range, which didn't seem too awful and eased our insurance concerns but I haven't yet put anything in place.

 

Good luck - do please let us know where you get to with this. 

Edited 19 hours ago by Benpointer

[Benpointer]

Just to add that I have checked our Protek site/build insurance and it doesn't really mention whether the cover persists if we occupy the house but there is an exclusion as follows: 

 

The Insurer shall not be liable under this Sub-section in respect of:

 

4 Occupation of the works

Loss or Damage due to the use or occupancy other than as dwellings of any portion of the Contract Works by any owner, tenant or occupier other than as herein provided.

 

But since we would be occupying as a dwelling, my reading is that we would continue to be covered (no contents cover though).  I am going to give Protek a call and double-check.

[Bramco]

On 11/12/2025 at 14:29, Hannah82w said:

But finding an insurer that is open to timber frame, timber cladding and zinc roof is proving tricky to find.

We have timber frame, crinkly tin roof and cladding, as well as timber cladding and render. Also a small flat roof section.

 

We were with Direct Line (and still are for contents) but they wouldn't do the buildings cover. They put us on to Gallaghers who were v good, although the price seems to jump around a bit. Last year the quote was about £500, so I looked around using links from here and couldn't get anywhere near Gallaghers, so we stayed with them. This year the quote was around £400 - so they got the business again.

[Benpointer]

1 hour ago, Benpointer said:

Just to add that I have checked our Protek site/build insurance and it doesn't really mention whether the cover persists if we occupy the house but there is an exclusion as follows: 

 

The Insurer shall not be liable under this Sub-section in respect of:

 

 

4 Occupation of the works

Loss or Damage due to the use or occupancy other than as dwellings of any portion of the Contract Works by any owner, tenant or occupier other than as herein provided.

 

But since we would be occupying as a dwelling, my reading is that we would continue to be covered (no contents cover though).  I am going to give Protek a call and double-check.

Just to confirm, Protek say we are covered to live in the house until our Building Completion Certificate is issued, at which point our self-build insurance ceases and we need standard buildings insurance.