Insurance during renovation?
We are purchasing a house to renovate and need to show hazard insurance in order to close on the house. The house is liveable but practically in estate condition so we are doing a new gut reno. My insurance is asking whether it will be vacant and if repairs are cosmetic and I’m nervous about…
We are purchasing a house to renovate and need to show hazard insurance in order to close on the house. The house is liveable but practically in estate condition so we are doing a new gut reno. My insurance is asking whether it will be vacant and if repairs are cosmetic and I’m nervous about explaining the renovation. What do people do in this situation?
What everyone here said, tell the truth to the insurance co. They will want to know how long the reno will take, and may charge you a premium for that period. But what you don’t want to happen is for there to be any kind of insurable incident during your renovation and not to have informed your insurer. They will wash their hands of all claims, including any collateral damage (or claims of supposed damage) to your neighbor’s property.
Maybe I don’t understand the question, but if it’s livable then you can get a mortgage and homeowner’s insurance. If it has a kitchen and bath that work, it’s livable.
In my (limited) experience, a builders risk policy was cheaper than the add-on to our homeowners policy (Chubb). You should shop around, but definitely get insurance and don’t put things to chance over a few thousand dollars.
Agreed, we are having to pay a big premium on our crackhouse renovation while work is ongoing and no one is living there. We have been assured it will reset lower upon occupancy. If it doesn’t we’ll have to reshop everything.
What they said. If you are NOT living in it during the renovations, it will make a big difference to them.
We got homeowners insurance and had a bump in premium to cover builder’s risk during reno. Premium reset when work was largely done and we were just on to the finish. We insured with Fireman’s Fund through HUB.
if you are not honest with them and need to make a claim, your insurance coverage may not be in effect. This could also potentially be a problem with your mortgage, again if something bad happened, since you are required to have home owners insurance.
Just because a house is in estate condition does not mean that it needs a gut renovation, so maybe you mean substantial cosmetic updates? A gut renovation usually means you are taking out all/most walls and floors, plumbing, electrical, etc and rebuilding from the studs. Obviously remodeling the kitchens and baths and skim coating the walls is a different scope. Even completely new plumbing and electrical can be put in without “gutting” a house.