Self build insurance over £1 million

[PSC88]

Hi

 

Im looking for recommendations for my self build insurance my surveyor and mortgage company require cover for rebuild cost for £1.8 million

 

Most insurers online quote a max £1 mill rebuild cost

 

protek are quoting me just under £4k for 12 months this seems steep

 

any other recommendations or brokers?

 

[Russell griffiths]

How long will you need it ?

insuring 1.8 for a premium of £4000 is not a bad rate, it’s a fairly high risk area. 
does that cover public liability and other stuff. 
if your going to be finished in a year or two that’s a small percentage of build cost. 
mine was only £1200 a year but i renewed it 4 times. 

[Conor]

That's a good price. 0.002% of your build cost....

[Gus Potter]

Ah.. First thing I think is that are you building a small house on a very valuable plot? 

 

If you are putting a 1.8m value house on a £250k plot then the warranty is far too cheep. 

 

I do claims work from time to time against the warranty providers. There are new comers to the market and you really nead to read carefully their T & C's. It bad enough for me going up against the NHBC as their T &C  are not the same as they used to be. My last experience with Protek was.. the computer says know.. they are relatively small compared with the huge contingency ( all be it ring fenced) that the NHBC hold.

 

One of their surveyors came to my office and I found him very competant, had a huge depth of knowledge about the building industry but a good bit of the liability rested with him, not Protek Unfortunatly the Protek management came over as a bit twatish..and a bit financially niaive about the self building industry. I think the main guy was about 40 years old.. still clearly in primary school.  but with a bit of tough love they seemed to wake up and smell the coffee and we agreed a sensible premium that balanced their risk against mine. 

 

For the keen, folk that are familiar with how policies are written.. many waranty providers are shedding risk to independant surveyors and SE's to keep the cost down.. the banks are just burying their heads in the sand lending wise. I recently (not be named) one waranty provider wanted me to take on the contaminated land risk.. for £100 quid.. they are either out of their mind, or low IQ or just chancers! It's business so the latter is most likely. In this insurance business there are no friends in the desert! I know and make claims agianst them.. on the wanker ratio they are often above 5. Some are actually competent individuals.. but why do they take the mickeal out of ordinary home owners that say just work for the NHS... like my wife? 

 

You must understand how limited the cover is you are going to get for 4.0k. 

Edited Saturday at 00:01 by Gus Potter

[Owain1602]

We had/have the same situation. Anything over £1M goes down a different pathway in these companies, and gets a more bespoke assessment. I found that the costs go up disproportionately for anything over £1M. Went with Protek in the end, after looking at others. 

 

@Gus Potter You seem to be discussing warranty, whereas the question is related to insurance. 

[Gus Potter]

On 11/04/2026 at 11:00, Owain1602 said:

You seem to be discussing warranty, whereas the question is related to insurance. 

Warranty providers are insurance companies.. who just happen to underwrite self builds. 

 

Many just sub contract out all the inspections, plans and SE checks! That is backed up with a nice bit of marketing, sales staff etc which is what you see. 

 

I do battle with warranty providers on claims stuff so get to see what is behind the curtain. There is no way you could know this unless you do a bit of this stuff as a day job. 

[Gus Potter]

On 09/04/2026 at 23:40, PSC88 said:

Im looking for recommendations for my self build insurance my surveyor and mortgage company require cover for rebuild cost for £1.8 million

For a bit of fun lets have a peak behind the curtain. Take your case at 1.8m and you are just seeking rebuild insurance.. just that.

 

How would you get to the stage when you need rebuild insurance alone? This would mean that every other policy has failed to offer cover (which is normally standard)  and Protek are offering this as independent cover as a one off and have nothing to do with the warranty. 

 

As I said in a previous post I have met with them and engaged. The problem they seem to have is that their computer says no and some of their coms systems are a bit shite,  this lets them down. It can be really frustrating for Clients and myself. It's not that they are offering a bad product or are infested with chancers. Once you get up the chain a bit I've found them very reasonable to deal with. 

 

It could be that you are splitting out the Protek offer and seeing 4.0k as an item. But that is not how business works.. their itemisation is likely based on them securing the warranty and turning stuff into a bundle packaged up. 

 

Go back and look at what information you have given them and have another go. There is probably a bit more to this? Do you have a back story you want to share? 

 

 

 

Edited Monday at 23:17 by Gus Potter

[Temp]

No idea if this helps but ChatGPT suggests..

 

Key insurers offering unlimited rebuild cover..

1. Aviva – “Aviva Signature”
Offers unlimited buildings sum insured on qualifying homes
You don’t need to estimate rebuild cost yourself
Typically available for:
Standard construction homes
Up to ~5 bedrooms (criteria apply)
Often accessed directly or via brokers / partners (e.g. banks)
This is one of the most mainstream UK options. �
Aviva

 

2. Victor Miles – Unlimited home insurance
Provides unlimited buildings cover (subject to eligibility caps)
Conditions include:
Rebuild cost below certain thresholds
Property value limits
Aimed at mid-market homes rather than high-net-worth
This is a more specialist direct insurer offering structured “unlimited” policies. 
victormiles.co.uk

3. Howden Insurance (broker route)
Can place policies with unlimited rebuild guarantees
Typically via:
Private client / high-value insurers
Tailored underwriting
Important context: truly unlimited policies are becoming less common in standard markets, so brokers are often needed. 
Howden Insurance

4. High-value / “private client” insurers (via brokers)
Examples (usually not direct-to-consumer):
NFU Mutual
Chubb
AIG

[Owain1602]

You are right @Gus Potter, that Protek on the Structural Warranty outsource the inspections and responsibility to another smaller firm. But the smaller company are controlled massively by Protek, and ultimately, it’s Protek that decide if they are happy with the evidence submitted to Surveyor Link. 
 

I had one instance where the smaller surveyor company weren’t sure what to do regarding a retrospective watching brief on excavations. They gave me the details and asked me to call the main man at Protek. Explained the situation to him, and he was happy. He told the smaller firm to accept my explanation, and we moved on.
 

Coming back to the original question regarding build insurance, do you also have liability in the policy?

As I say, we went around the houses with numerous other companies. Protek were the simplest to deal with (although quotes for rebuild costs over £1M took a long time!). We went with a price very similar to yours for 15 months cover. 
FYI, Protek are not the insurer, it’s a company called QBE

[PSC88]

To add some context, I’m building a property on a plot that’s been valued at £750k

 

my build costs are coming out to be approx £1 million.

 

My end value for the property post build was listed at between £2- £2.2 million.

 

my broker has queried why the surveyor recommended a £1.8 mill rebuild cost to the mortgage company as she believes this may be an error particularly as he signed of the build costings at a 1 mill.

 

I was surprised at the level of insurance cover required. £1.8 mill rebuild cover on a total GDV of 2-2.2 mill seems high. 
 

particularly as the land alone valued at £750k plus 

 

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 21:39 by PSC88

[Mr Punter]

The insurance rebuild costs are often higher than the actual build costs.  It may take account of demolishing existing and maybe removing foundations and services before starting again, with a generous allowance for fees, prelims, contingency, overheads and profit.

[PSC88]

10 hours ago, Mr Punter said:

The insurance rebuild costs are often higher than the actual build costs.  It may take account of demolishing existing and maybe removing foundations and services before starting again, with a generous allowance for fees, prelims, contingency, overheads and profit.

Even with the above we are looking at £500k plus for demo, foundations and fees which I believe is excessive.

 

[Mr Punter]

This is the way of things.  Lots of back covering and padding.  It is not in anyone's interest (apart from, maybe, yours) to get you to underinsure.  Shop around as the likelihood of a successful claim for the full amount is probably vanishingly small.