According to an article by Renovation Insurance Brokers, an estimated 82% of homeowners are unaware that their home insurance does not provide cover that includes claims related to renovation works. This could include risks related to the job itself and if you don’t check you have the right cover, your entire home could be left uninsured.
Why you need renovation insurance
Most forms of home insurance do not include additional cover features that you will require when building renovations take place at your home. This includes additional safety features, as well as insuring your home and possessions from a security perspective. Specific areas that you may need to include in renovation insurance include:
Public liability insurance
If someone is injured whilst working on, visiting or walking past your property as a result of building works during a renovation, your home insurance needs to include sufficient public liability insurance. This includes covering you in the event that an intruder enters your property and becomes injured, too.
Buildings cover
If any part of your home becomes damaged whilst building work renovations are being carried out, your standard insurance cover is likely to offer no cover for new buildings, or in fact for parts of any current buildings.
Contents insurance for high value machinery and tools
Just like contents insurance, if any expensive equipment, machinery or tools are stolen whilst being used or stored on your property, you will not be covered for the cost of these unless you let your insurer know that you would like them to be covered during your building renovation works.
Unoccupied home insurance
Some insurers insist upon a house being slept in, in order for it to be proven as occupied over a certain amount of time. If you are not able to sleep in your house for several weeks or even months, this could nullify your existing home insurance.
Increasing the rebuild value of your home
If your home renovation adds value to your house or alters the re-build cost of your home, your insurer needs to know about this too. This can be anything from a double storey extension to the addition of a conservatory and should also take into account any additional contents such as newly fitted kitchen appliances.
Advice about planning your home renovation
At Abell Building Services, we specialise in home renovations and extensions and can support you with the process right from the idea stage, until your plans are realised in bricks and mortar. If you’re unsure whether your home renovation buildings project requires additional home insurance, we can help you to identify the areas required to keep you, your home and your project as safe as possible.
To speak to a member of the team about a home renovation, call us on 01509 734550 or email us using our contact form.
