Insurance

[Socksitis]

A grumble. Whilst working on the old house and not living in it, we have had reduced insurance cover, a bit like third party for a car. So now we have turned the water on - never was water in the house before. We also have a septic tank and flushable toilet - never had ones of these either. So the house has been pulled into the modern age. Being keen to have it properly insured, i phoned the agents and told them of our progress, thinking that now we have a working kitchen and bathroom we could be properly insured, but no, we need the house signed off by Building Regs.

This cannot be right. Where we live has never had any building regs and when we moved insurance to this company, we never had to show building reg certificates for this house? Why now? Is this something to do with new builds, which this isn't, anyone got any ideas where this is coming from?

 

[MatthewC]

I agree. I cannot see what Building Regs really has to do with the insurers. When I did this house (was it really 8 years ago?) they would only insure it for basic things like fire while it was unoccupied - certainly not from thieves! Then when I had the kitchen done we insured it fully, even though we didn't actually move in for another fortnight. Even then they never asked about any Building Regs approvals.

 

[Flyfisher]

I suspect this is something to do with the specific insurers rather than being a general requirement. We've had various works carried out that required building regs sign-off but our insurers have never asked for completion certificates, even though we informed them of building works being in progress.

However, to be fair to the insurers (did I really just write that?!), it doesn't seem completely unreasonable to request a completion certificate for any works carried out that required building regs; surely the insurer has a right to confirm that any regulated works have been correctly carried out?

In this case, it sounds like the kitchen and bathroom have been altered, or in the case of the bathroom actually installed, and depending on what work was done it might well fall within the requirements for building control. If BC is not applicable then simply inform the insurer that there is no completion certificate because the works did not require BC. Or try changing insurer?