A family home is often routine work for the contractor – but the biggest investment of the client's life. This asymmetry gives the genre its particular insurance character: a small team, high stakes, plenty of hands-on work, a tight budget. Let's look at what a sound cover framework looks like for house-building.
- Project CAR works for house-building too: the value of the works and the deadline set the framework.
- A main contractor running several houses a year will usually find an annual open cover more convenient.
- On the private client's side, the question is: who takes out the policy, and what, exactly, is confirmed to them?
- Given how close neighbouring properties usually are, the liability section is no side issue here either.
The contractor's side
For a main contractor, the house under construction is a significant item on the company's balance sheet: paid-for materials and completed work can be damaged by a single fire or storm – just when the interim invoice hasn't yet been settled. For a one-off house, a project policy is the natural route; for several houses running in parallel each year, an annual open cover takes the administration off your hands. Bringing the specialist subcontractors (mechanical, electrical, tiling) into the policy also needs settling here: chain article.
The client's side
The private client is typically not an insurance specialist – but there are two questions worth asking regardless. One: who is insuring the house under construction? If it's the contractor, ask for a certificate of insurance and check what it actually covers (a simple checklist); if it's no one, that's worth a conversation. Two: what's covered on your own side? The existing building on the plot, materials you've sourced yourself, and questions of liability during construction – these are covered in the homeowner's article and on the lakas.biz sister site.
The house-specific risk picture
The open weeks between the roof structure going up and the covering going on are the main ground for natural-catastrophe losses; materials stored on site (bricks, insulation, doors and windows) are the ground for theft; the closeness of neighbouring buildings – especially with semi-detached or terraced layouts – is the ground for liability claims. For work involving vibration (foundations, demolition), a pre-start condition survey of neighbouring buildings is inexpensive and invaluable: neighbouring-damage article.
A frank word about size
Not every house-building job needs the full arsenal – but the sense that it's "small work" is deceptive: the loss doesn't scale with the size of the job, but with the value and the surroundings. For the decision, some frank pointers: small project – is separate insurance needed? And where a mandatory scheme tied to residential construction comes into play, the applicable laws in force prevail: details here.
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