If we can insure a
finished house, it may be worth insuring a house under construction. After all, there may also be
situations that cause losses for which we will have to pay.
Many insurance companies
have construction insurance in their offers. Before
we decide to buy them, we should first consider whether we need such protection
and whether we can afford it. Later,
the insurers' offers have to be carefully compared, focusing on checking the
scope of protection that the policy covers. The
insurance price will depend largely on the amount of property to be insured. Often, construction insurance is
required by the lender.
When to sign a contract
with the insurer
The contract with the
insurer is signed when the house is already being built. The superstructure or extension of an
existing house can also be considered a house under construction. The policy, traditionally, is valid
for a period of 12 months from the date of its purchase. Let us not be surprised if the insurer
mentions the so-called own contribution amount in the policy. This is our contribution to the cost
of damage, deducted from the sum of compensation paid.
What will it be about
Insurance covers the
house, but not only. Often
includes other buildings on the property, elements of small architecture
permanently connected to the ground, cesspool and plot fencing. On the other hand, the area on which
we build the house will not be protected.
The construction
insurance guarantees us compensation in the event of a fire, lightning,
explosion, or even an airplane or ground vehicle crash, hail or an earthquake. This is the basic scope, which can be
extended with a flood, hurricane, landslides, etc.
Typically, the scope of
protection does not include flooding, flooding as a result of raising the level
of groundwater, overvoltages. Unfortunately,
houses under construction are too often exposed to it and insurers know this
very well, so they do not want to risk financially. The companies also exclude from
construction protection construction errors that occurred at the building
design stage. They will also not
pay a penny for damages resulting from construction works. Excluded are also damage caused as a
result of acts of terrorism, hostilities or social unrest.
Until the house has no
windows, doors and a garage door, we will not insure it against theft
(additional fee for the basic policy).The insurance companies do not want to
insure equipment, materials and construction tools stored in any cell on the
construction site, let alone those left under the cloud.
Agreements with insurers
are worth reading with a magnifying glass in hand, because the most interesting
fragments of them are specified in a microscopic font. One can read, for example, that we
will be entitled to compensation for the theft, but only if we have a contract
with a security company and the house is connected to the monitoring system.
Insurers, as a rule, do
not want to protect those buildings that are to stand in particularly
endangered areas - flood plains ormining damage areas, and if they do, they set
very high prices in these cases for buying a policy.
Finally, it's worth
adding that home insurance under construction will be more expensive than home
insurance.
