Hiscox Renovation and Extension Insurance

What is renovation and extension insurance?

Renovation and extension insurance covers you for the things that might go wrong while your building works are being carried out. Home renovations are complex projects, and the potential problems might not always be obvious. During this time, your home may be exposed to the elements, structurally unstable, vulnerable to theft, and controlled by contractors.

Although most contractors will have insurance for the works carried out on your home, this might not protect you in all circumstances. Different contractors will have different levels of cover, with their own limits and exclusions. For example, the following could be excluded from contractor’s liability:

• application of heat (e.g. using a blowtorch or grinder)
• demolition
• height or depth limits
• damage to your existing building

If, for example, a fire broke out as a result of the building works, burning your extension down and if ‘application of heat’ was excluded from the contractor’s insurance, rebuilding your extension would also be excluded. This would leave you without an extension, having to sue the contractor or paying for the works once again, through no fault of your own.

Hiscox Renovation and Extension Insurance gives you comprehensive cover for your existing building, your contents, the works and all materials while the project is taking place. The cover makes sure that you have the right level of protection against the increased risks associated with a higher value project and puts you back in control of your biggest asset, your home. Watch our short video to understand the increased risks, cost and duration of building works.

Does my home insurance cover my extension or renovation?

Home insurers will ask you to notify them of works before they begin and may then either withdraw or limit the home insurance cover provided for your existing structure and contents - leaving your biggest asset potentially uninsured. If you take out contractor’s insurance, this is designed primarily to cover aspects of the works themselves. This might mean that you are not covered for certain things you would expect, such as:

• damage to the property caused by a contractor’s negligence
• burst pipes, or fires
• storms
• damage to the property or your possessions because of an open roof
• theft of on-site materials.

With your home’s market value at risk, you want to ensure you are gaining full coverage for your existing home and the building works project, with peace of mind there are no gaps in coverage – this is what we provide.

Our renovations and extensions insurance  is added to your Hiscox Home Insurance policy, meaning your building structure, contents and materials used are all covered if things goes wrong. Once your works are complete, we’ll remove the extra cover and your Hiscox home insurance policy continues uninterrupted.

Key benefit of our Renovation and Extension Insurance cover

By taking out a Hiscox Home Insurance policy and adding our renovation and extension cover for projects over £250,000, there’s no need to switch between insurance companies and different policies. It will cover the duration of the works with no gaps in your protection and means there’s no need to purchase a separate specialist building works policy.

How does renovation and extension cover work?

First you need to have a Hiscox Home Insurance policy. By speaking to one of our insurance experts, you can immediately add the renovation and extension cover to your policy for the duration of the works.

If you need to make a claim, our award-winning claims team will assist you with getting your project back and up running as soon as possible. We will give you a dedicated, named claims handler wherever possible, who is there to take care of your case quickly, efficiently and fairly.

Once you've notified us that your project is complete, we'll remove the cover and your home insurance policy with us will continue without interruption.

What should you do if you're a current Hiscox customer and are planning building works?

If you're planning to extend, renovate, build or demolish any part of your property to a value below £250,000 you don't need to contact us. Hiscox Home Insurance includes cover for renovation and extension projects up to £250,000 as standard.

If the estimated cost of the works is more than £250,000, you must contact our insurance experts to notify us before the works begin. We can talk about your needs and add Renovation and Extension cover to your policy.

We recommend that all of our customers purchase a joint name JCT construction contract as part of their building works process. This is a separate contract to your insurance policy, however we will still provide a quotation for your works if you do not have one. Watch our short video about the benefits of a JCT contract.