Did you know that renovating or extending your home could impact on your home insurance cover?

Now that the days are getting longer thoughts may not be turning just to holidays, you may be considering projects to start renovating or extending your home.

Depending on the cost of the works some insurers seek to restrict cover they offer on properties undergoing such works due to the increased risk of damage to the property, some exclude this cover altogether. It is important that your insurers are made aware of any planned works as soon as possible so that they have time to consider the cover and terms which they wish to apply.

Having renovation works carried out or extending your home increases the
risk of damage to your property. Structural changes and extensions often
involves the temporary weakening of the building and there could be periods
when the property will be unoccupied as well as careless contractors who have
often been found to be the cause of serious floods and fires.

Don’t just rely on your building contractors insurance:
often they only carry Public Liability Insurance and this is not enough.

A Contractors All Risk insurance policy provides the cover you require.

Joint Contract Tribunal (JCT) contracts drawn up by your architect sets out the insurance obligations during the works and it is important that the insurance in place is sufficient to meet these obligations. Currently there are three main variants:

• Minor Works Contract – for smaller or simple works up to about £250,000 in value
• Intermediate Works – for medium-sized, more complex contracts between £100,000 and £1,000,000
• Standard Form JCT – for complex contracts in excess of £1,000,000.

Each of these contracts contains insurance clauses which convey the duties of both the ‘contractor’ and the person engaging them ‘you’ sometimes referred to as the ‘employer’

By having the correct policy cover you are protecting not only the existing structure up to the cost of rebuilding it but the value of the works being undertaken, the materials on site prior to fitting, your liability to the public and liability to your neighbour under “The Party Wall Act”

No contract with your building contractor ?

This isn’t a problem but whether you are renovating or extending with or without a contract with your builder, you still need to have the correct insurance cover in place.