Insuring your home under construction

Insuring your property whilst work is taking place is made more complicated if you are not living on site. Insurers take the view that there is more risk, as there is less security, and you are not there to take care of any incidents.  It is not just burglars that are the problem - often we hear of fires which are started through the use of angle grinders.  Sparks land on materials and can smoulder for hours - flaring up when the site is unmanned.  Sometimes entire houses burn down, which if people had been living there, would probably not happen.  We have run sites which were stripped by thieves overnight - hoardings have been removed, windows taken out and smashed, doors pulled off, and in one case, every internal door smashed to pieces.  If the site was occupied, this would probably have been avoided.  Any form of security is better than none, but there is nothing to compare with occupation.  Do remember that if you are living in a caravan on site, this may still not meet the requirements of the insurer that the building is 'occupied'.  We have sites where our guys live permanently on the property - working in shifts - but the owners are still not able to achieve 'occupied' insurance, and the premiums are a lot higher.

In short, the quicker you can get the building to a lock-up state which allows you to move in, even if living with orange boxes, the better.

Insuring work to an extensions are generally a little easier, because you will normally be living in the home whilst you are extending it.  If you are renovating or restoring, insurance is difficult to arrange, because it is assumed you will not be on the premises all the time.