Self Build Insurance Question

tracy20

After fighting with planners for over 18 months we finally got our planning permission. Does anyone know who I should go to or what companies will quote for site insurance for a self build?? Or what would we be looking at paying for a house 2300 sq feet??

hiscan

paid 360 for a 3000 sq ft house through my bank

kkelliher

check out www.selfbuildinireland.com there are links and information on insurance

regards

kkelliher

Jollyman

As a general rule its about €1.00 per square foot for insurance, this covers public and employers liability it also includes for fire theft and storm damage, you would generally need this insurance for a self build where you dont have a main contractor whos insurance would cover the site and subcontractors that may be coming on to site.
FBD do a good policy as do campion insurance and self build direct they all come in around the same price.
Hiscan, id say your policy only covers fire and theft and that you would be liable for any one on site, my bank offered me the same but its not worth much when you are going direct labour.

De_man

Jollyman wrote: »

FBD do a good policy as do campion insurance and self build direct they all come in around the same price.
Hiscan, id say your policy only covers fire and theft and that you would be liable for any one on site, my bank offered me the same but its not worth much when you are going direct labour.

i searched around the marketplace prior to commencing the build, campion insurance, portlaoise, came in with the best price and conditions, ensure you have your build insured prior to starting otherwise they won't touch your project once it has commenced work.

you also get all the relevant h&S documents you require


unfortunately, this is a must have if going down the direct labour route

Villain

I have to say I think some people may be misleading others here, just because you are going direct labour doesn't mean you need to get insurance for everyone that enters the site at the cost of thousands. I know all my contractors have their own insurance as should any professional contractor.

I'm not saying you shouldn't get proper insurance but you may not need the most expensive cover if you are using contractors that have their own insurance.

sunnysoutheast

Hi irish1

Whilst it is an option for you to stipulate that all sub-contractors on your build must have their own insurance this would not cover YOU, the land and/or building owner, for public liability or theft.

Unfortunately the market isn't very granular in the risks which you can insure so you are effectively stuck with selecting one of the "predefined" selfbuild policies which usually come in at approx. €1 per sq. ft for a two year period, this covers public liability, theft, fire, damage and employer's liability.

It is always worth remembering that you can be sued, for example, by a person who trespasses on your site and injures him/herself trying to steal your property or by a worker, even if insured by their employer, because they injure themselves on a ladder on the site which fell - because you are responsible for overall health and safety.

An exception to this rule is when you have a building contractor who will insure the site etc. on your behalf whilst they are building - the trouble is that these self-build policies are very difficult to get after buildng work has commenced and the site is handed over (although we got our Hibernian policy after our builder left site). As they run for a fixed two year period this was great for us.

SSE

De_man

De_man wrote: »

ensure you have your build insured prior to starting otherwise they won't touch your project once it has commenced work.

Yes, I was a bit slow in getting my site insurance and had the foundations poured by the time it was agreed, I had an exclusion clause, excluding failure of the foundations in the policy.

I paid €2000 for two years, direct labour.

De_man

Deleted User wrote: »

I paid €2000 for two years, direct labour.

hi dolanbaker, you did a lot better than me, it cost me 4200 yoyo (house & garage) whilst i did my best to ensure all subbies etc were insured you can never be sure.

that cost included everything including health and safety documentation to ensure all contractors / subbies etc must read and sign etc etc.

imho the cost was well worth it for peace of mind

what do you do if a friend comes over to help to move blocks or to sweep up and gets injured???

There's so many variables out there regarding legal liabilities and only the homeowner can select the level of exposure to risk,
the solicitor architect & engineer can advise but there's only a very limited amount of products on the market for self build insurance.


Quote a recent subbie on site (put on your bestest cork accent)

(me) "are you insured?" err sure i am bouy, okay here's my H&S manual i'll show you where the first aid kits are, you then read and sign the manual and i'll answer any questions you may have, okay?

what's this bouy i ain't signing nawthing......go 'way and f*** off


i could go on:rolleyes:

dcom

Im sorry if this question has already been posted....

We are about to start a self build of an almost 4000sq ft dormer including an integrated garage in Kildare, the site is 1.2 acres.

A contractor will complete most of the house but a couple of things we are going direct ie electrics, pile driven foundations and all lanscaping.

Our contractor will obviously have his own insurance but should I also take out insurance (public liability, employers liability etc)????

If so how much should this cost?

DA-LAD

Hey dcom. Spent last week shopping around for insurance. Rates based on a 3000 sq ft house with a rebuild cost of 300,000euro with all risks covered ie public liability, theft, fire, flooding etc. The best rate I got was 1700 euro for two years.Most expensive was 3000 euro so it pays to shop around.
I'm going direct labour so insurance, for me, was a bit of a no brainer.

sinnerboy

you HAVE to have insurance

you are an employer and your activities will pose a risk also to the public
so EL/PL insurance

and - the works
what if they are destroyed by accident half way through ? CAR insurance ( contractors all risks )

dcom

Thanks 'DA-LAD', can I ask who you got that quote from???

Sinnerboy, I will take your advice and get insurancei just wasnt sure if it was the responsibility of our contractor to have it, most of the books I read say he should have PL and EL.

DA-LAD

Sent you PM dcom.

dcom

Just a quick question. We are just about to start our self build, and have foundations set to start monday week, our martgage company have now told us that we cant start without furnishing proof that either a homebond or premier guarantee is in place.

Is this normal?

We did have a 10 year guarantee as part of our contract with the builder this obviously isnt sufficient...:o

I know homebond and premier are possibly the most recognised and best available but to go for the homebond we have to submit application 3 weeks before work commences which is going to delay us Im sure premier is something similar.

sas

dcom wrote: »

Just a quick question, We are just about to start our self build, and have foundations set to start monday week.

Our martgage company have now told us that we cant start without furnishing proof that either a homebond or premier guarantee is in place.
Is this normal?

We did have a 10 year guarantee as part of our contract with the builder this obviously isnt sufficient...:o

I know homebond and premier are possibly the most recognised and best available but to go for the homebond we have to submit application 3 weeks before work commences which is going to delay us Im sure premier is something similar.

In the absence of Homebond\Premier guarantee it is the PI insurance of the certifying engineer\architect that usually satisfies this. The number of 1 off houses that have homebond or premier guarantee will be very few indeed.

A guarantee from your builder is worthless, he (most likely) has no architectural\engineering qualification and therefore is not acceptable. The mortgage institution can provide information about what is acceptable in terms of qualifications.

I assume you have a supervising engineer? If they are suitably qualified they will be able to tell you how this works i.e they will have done this before.

dcom

Thanks SAS....

We do have a supervising engineer, two in fact..... dont ask its a long story.

Both of them have PI copies of which I has already submitted to the lender. Maybe the requirement for Homebond or premier is just a clerical error????:rolleyes:

Our bulder is not registered with homebond but he says he will register if we want him to, im not sure about this as even if he is with homebond we are going direct with our foundations (specialist pile driven) so I cant see his homebond covering something which we get direct especially not foundations....

sydthebeat

Homebond will not insure a self build... they will only insure if the building contractor is registered, and in a self build there is no building contractor. Homebond are crap anyway.

Im not sure about the premier situation, they are a little bit more flexible, but also may not insure a self build.

If your mortgage company is giving you gip, threathen to switch financial institutions and see how quick they are to accomodate you.

What the other posters have aid above is correct, you certifiers PI insurance should suffice.

sinnerboy

sydthebeat wrote: »

Homebond will not insure a self build... they will only insure if the building contractor is registered, and in a self build there is no building contractor. Homebond are crap anyway.

Im not sure about the premier situation, they are a little bit more flexible, but also may not insure a self build.

If your mortgage company is giving you gip, threathen to switch financial institutions and see how quick they are to accomodate you.

What the other posters have aid above is correct, you certifiers PI insurance should suffice.

... may be a symptom of change due to fallout from US sub prime mortgages / Northrern Rock and the French bank ( can't reacall name ) .... i.e.credit sqeeze

dcom

Thanks SYD,
I will ring them monday morning.

cwboy

Any chance I could get the details of the insurer too?

Thanks

DA-LAD

check yer pm cwboy

eire1977

DA-LAD,
Me too if you don't mind!!!
Thanks.

dcom

Just to update the post, I spoke to the Mortgage Broker today and he says it was a 'typo' and I should ignore that condition.

So no need to chase HB or Premier if I dont want to.

Thanks to all who posted advice

dcom

mudz

DA-LAD
me too on that pm about insurance.
thanks

paulocon

Hi,

Good article on self-build insurance here..
http://www.selfbuildinireland.com/article.php?start=0&articleId=10

Not sure of the costs - there are a number of self build insurance companies on the market and I'd advise shopping around.

Purple Rain

We just started a Self build. We go a good quote from Hooper Dolan for 24 Months. I think it was about 1800 Euro All in. Got much cheeper in the end from Frost in Dublin . They tailor the quote to suit us we only wanted the cover for a year so they had it discounted. It came out at 1200. They give me an option for Liability for Labourers and the Public on its own for 950. Policy was posted very quickly also.

dcom

Thanks Purple Rain, your quote sounds good.
It seems they all quote based upon the size of your build, could I ask what size your house will be?

Also does anybody know are you supposed to give them the internal sq foot measurement or the external??

Purple Rain

Our house is 2400 Sq Feet. They just want the internal sq footage. Not attic space.
Their Internet site is http://www.frostinsurances.com/. We had the policy 2 days later.. Very helpful person. Cant remember his name though Sorry!!

Purple Rain

I am almost sure a Friend of mine got his through Coyle Hamilton Insurance . They call it a Laten Defects policy. They are based in Dublin 2 .

Purple Rain

We got our with Frost for alot less. Liability was 950 and Cover to the Buldings etc was abour 300 Our square foot is 2400 so its a good bit less than 1€ a SQ foot. Anyway hope this likk is of help http://www.frostinsurances.com/

muffler

Im merging this with another identical thread so if the posts are all mixed up blame smashey

GoOnTaigh

DA-LAD wrote: »

Hey dcom. Spent last week shopping around for insurance. Rates based on a 3000 sq ft house with a rebuild cost of 300,000euro with all risks covered ie public liability, theft, fire, flooding etc. The best rate I got was 1700 euro for two years.Most expensive was 3000 euro so it pays to shop around.
I'm going direct labour so insurance, for me, was a bit of a no brainer.

Hello, dcom

I am also shopping around for insrance cover for self build. any chance you could pm my the name of the insurer you for that quote for?

Thanking you in Advance

rayjdav

I know this thread is a bit old, sorry.
Hoping to start a self builf in 2 mths. SE region.
Can anyone PM me on self-build insurance companies to get quotes from?
Cheers in advance.