Find out how making home improvements, building an extension and converting a loft or basement can affect your Home Insurance.
Rather than moving, many people choose to improve their home, often to increase its value, but also to accommodate a growing family or simply because they fancy an upgrade.
Improvements might include updating a bathroom, and creating more space with an extension, a loft or a basement conversion. And they might also have an influence on your Home Insurance.
How can building works affect your Home Insurance?
Any major home improvements you carry out are likely to have an impact on your Home Insurance, both during the construction work itself and in the longer term. Knocking down walls, reworking plumbing and electrics, and taking up floors all have the potential to cause the kind of damage to your home that could lead to an insurance claim.
Similarly, if you have scaffolding outside your home and have builders with spare keys going in and out, the security of your home is at greater risk.
You also need to consider the long-term impact on your Home Insurance before building an extension or making other improvements. Adding extra rooms, fixtures and fittings may increase your insurance premiums, as they could also push up the costs of rebuilding covered by your insurance. And if you add any new furniture or valuables to your extension, you might want to reassess what’s covered by your Contents Insurance.
Notifying your insurer about building work.
You should notify your insurer as early as possible if you’re doing any building work on your home – preferably at the planning stage – and keep them updated if anything changes while the work is carried out. If you don’t and something does go wrong during the building process, you may find your policy is invalid.
Make sure to also check that your builder is covered for any damage they may cause to your home during the building work. It’s also worthwhile checking that anyone you hire has references and do indeed know what they’re doing, as poor work or faults that develop later as a result may not be covered by your insurance.
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