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Completion certificate


ryder72

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Hi all

 

We are very close to having the house finished and have booked movers for 1st February.

 

Some elements of the house remain incomplete and will be finished by end of February and others such as hard landscaping, patios etc will be addressed in early spring.

 

What are the implications of moving into a house without a completion certificate?

Are insurers happy to insure houses that havent got completion certifcates? Does a typical insurance policy assume that the house has been built and certificated as suitable for habitation?

What happens with council tax etc which currently stands suspended?

We will have relatively minor jobs ongoing and my site insurance expires on 15th February. Is there  a requirement to extend it?

 

Thanks

Amol

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Up here, you can get a "certificate of temporary habitation" that legally allows you to move into an unfinished house as long as it is basically functional.  That also qualified it to be accepted for a normal insurance policy, and is also valid proof of completion for a VAT refund.

 

Do English BC not offer something similar?

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We moved in prior to BC sign off. Our build insurance covered us for this, our council did not query anything and were fine to register us for council tax from move in date, on an "emergency" council tax band until it had been properly valuated.

 

Risk was that contents were not insured. Also we were unable to get onto a domestic mortgage or insurance policy until BC sign off.

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Our BC inspector said it was quite normal for self builders to move on prior to sign off. Not sure about the legality, was a case of JDI, though I did tell various parties like self build mortgage, build insurance, council.
 

 

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14 minutes ago, worldwidewebs said:

It's absolutely no issue at all. We've been in since early October and won't complete for a month or two. Sorted out insurance on that basis too (a bit more expensive than normal but not that bad)

Was this buildings/contents insurance issued without completion or site insurance with permission to live in the property offering buildings and contents cover? Could you PM me your insurers details?

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BCO made it CRYSTAL clear to my customer that to get a temporary certificate of habitation the gas, electricity and EPC absolutely MUST be in place / complete / registered PRIOR to her moving in. He insisted on seeing the electrical certification and gas certification in person and was happy to wait for them to arrive electronically, but the EPC he wanted email confirmation of. 

 

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8 hours ago, ryder72 said:

Was this buildings/contents insurance issued without completion or site insurance with permission to live in the property offering buildings and contents cover? Could you PM me your insurers details?

The former. I'll dig out the details but it won't be until tomorrow I'm afraid

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  • 1 year later...

@ryder72 how did you resolve this in the end?  @worldwidewebs those buildings/contents insurance details would be useful please?

 

Without a BC completion cert' I can extend my Protek site insurance and live there, however I cannot find anyone to give contents insurance.

 

The part of my house i'm moving into is physically fully complete and the unfinished part is partitioned off and at 1st Fix stage.

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  • 4 months later...

Help please.  We are self builders, our house will be finished next week, all electrics/plumbing/air test etc carried out, however, the certificates from contractors won't be completed until after Christmas.  We have site insurance with self build zone and they say once you move in the insurance is then cancelled.  I have tried various brokers and it appears we can't get buildings insurance until we have our completion certificate (won't have this for several weeks after submitting Part P etc) due to time of year.  Some of you seem to have moved in with no problem.  Can anyone provide any advice of who would cover us for buildings and contents insurance in our new home without a completion cert from building control.  I am losing sleep over this :(

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55 minutes ago, dimpsy said:

We didn't have any certificates when we moved in and got our building and contents insurance through Direct LIne who were quite happy with our situation.

But did you make clear to them (contents insurer)you didn’t have comp cert?  From my experience it seems they’d take it for granted, until you claim, then ask for it and subsequently invalidate your claim when you couldn’t produce it.

 

@Caroline if you do get (valid)contents ins I’d love to know....I went to some lengths trying, but failed.  I’m not optimistic for you, sorry.

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I had a look at the policy wording here and couldn't see any mention of building control approval but they don't cover contents where...

 

"Loss or damage caused by building work which involves alterations, renovations, extensions or repairs."

 

https://www.aviva.co.uk/insurance/home-products/buildings-insurance/?source=GP7A&entry=117165&cmp=ppc-hom-prd-goo-Bui_Main_Phr&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=CjwKCAiAxMLvBRBNEiwAKhr-nPl02vGiyPT4QWotsJGXnr3o25JzXmxW2nPqxdds4Bp8pK24IrQWhhoCPvkQAvD_BwE

 

Policy wording..

 

https://www.aviva.co.uk/content/dam/aviva-public/gb/pdfs/personal/insurance/home/home-insurance/home_insurance_policy_wording_insurance_home_nhdhg6080_v35_012017_140617.pdf

 

There must be thousands of properties with extensions that were built without building control approval. 

Edited by Temp
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16 hours ago, Caroline said:

Can anyone provide any advice of who would cover us for buildings and contents insurance in our new home without a completion cert from building control.  I am losing sleep over this :(

For several months between site insurance running out and full house cover we had uninhabited buildings insurance. This is usually used for renovation works on unoccupied rental properties. Ours was with Sennocke Insurance and was a couple of years ago.

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9 minutes ago, PeterStarck said:

For several months between site insurance running out and full house cover we had uninhabited buildings insurance. This is usually used for renovation works on unoccupied rental properties. Ours was with Sennocke Insurance and was a couple of years ago.

 

9 minutes ago, PeterStarck said:

For several months between site insurance running out and full house cover we had uninhabited buildings insurance. This is usually used for renovation works on unoccupied rental properties. Ours was with Sennocke Insurance and was a couple of years ago.

The house will be inhabited though as we want to move in:(

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Hi Peter

 

I called Sennocke, they say they are part of Buildzone who told me we would lose our site insurance and that was that.  He said they should have told me about them and they do provide buildings and contents cover as long as completion is provided within 90 days, yippee.  Not sure of cost as I am waiting for them to email over but that has made my Christmas.  Thanks to you and Sennocke.

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1 hour ago, Caroline said:

Thanks to you and Sennocke.

We've always found Sennocke to be helpful and they said we could convert to a different type of cover when necessary. They are more expensive but as they seem to be able to cover most situations it's easier for the first year.

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We moved in to our house end of December 2017, BC signed off February 2019. We had the necessary documentation for our electrics at the time of moving in, no gas anyway.  We were rated for council tax. We transferred our John Lewis policy from the old house and they were aware that our new place was not signed off, had no problem with them.

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