Do I Need Insurance for My Home Renovation? What Every Homeowner Should Know

One homeowner's £250,000 loss shows exactly what is at stake when the right cover is not in place before works begin.

The question most clients ask too late

Most homeowners planning a renovation think about insurance at some point. The question is whether they think about it before work starts, or after something goes wrong.

James Hobby found out the hard way. His home collapsed during a renovation project, and without the right policies in place, he was left to foot a bill of up to £250,000. The works were underway. The contractor was on site. But the cover that should have protected him simply was not there.

It is two minutes that could save you from a very expensive lesson.

James Hobby speaks about the moment his home collapsed during renovation works and the financial consequences of not having the right insurance in place.

Why we are talking about this

Last week, the RISE Design Studio team attended a CPD session delivered by TL Dallas, specialist construction and professional indemnity insurance brokers. Insurance in construction is genuinely complex, and it is one of the areas where clients, contractors, and experienced professionals alike can find themselves exposed without realising it.

The session gave us an excellent opportunity to sharpen our own understanding and think carefully about how we communicate the risks to the people who matter most: our clients.

Note: We are not insurance brokers, and we do not receive any payment or benefit from recommending specialist insurers. We share this information purely to help our clients make better-informed decisions before work begins.

The nine policies that matter on a renovation project

Here is what you need to understand before your contractor sets foot on site.

1. Contract works insurance This covers the works themselves during construction, including materials on site, partial structures, and work in progress. Who arranges it is set out in your building contract. Both parties assuming the other has it in place is a real-world failure mode.

2. Public liability Your contractor must carry this as a baseline. But the level of cover matters. A £1m policy on a £500,000 project may not be adequate if something goes seriously wrong. We always check policy schedules, not just the certificates.

3. Professional indemnity for the design team This covers architects and designers for errors and professional negligence. PI insurance is written on a claims-made basis, meaning the policy in force when the claim is made is the one that responds. Continuity of cover is critical. Lapses matter.

4. Contractor PI for contractor-designed portions Where the contractor is responsible for designing elements of the works, they need their own PI cover for those portions. This is a specific requirement on projects with contractor-designed elements and one that is easy to overlook. The gap it creates is significant.

5. Non-negligent damage This is the cover most people do not know they need until it is too late. It covers damage to existing structures and neighbouring properties caused not by negligence, but simply as a consequence of the works: subsidence, vibration, structural weakening. On a constrained urban site, this is not a theoretical risk.

6. Employer's liability Required by law where contractors have employees on site. Certificates should be sight-checked before works commence.

7. Buildings insurance during works Most standard home insurance policies contain exclusions for properties undergoing structural works. Before works begin, confirm with your insurer whether your buildings policy remains valid. If it does not, a specialist works policy can fill the gap. Do not assume your existing cover continues.

8. Contents insurance during works Contents policies are frequently restricted or voided during a major renovation. If you are remaining in the property, or if valuables are being stored on site, check whether your contents cover is still active. A specialist works policy can incorporate this cover.

9. Property owners liability This is one many homeowners overlook entirely. If someone is injured or suffers a loss in connection with the works, a claim may be directed at you as the property owner, not just the contractor. Property owners liability protects you in that scenario. It is distinct from your contractor's public liability and should not be confused with it.

The gap between having a policy and having the right one

James Hobby's story is not unusual. The problem in most renovation insurance failures is rarely a complete absence of cover. It is cover that does not match the specific risk on that specific project.

Standard home insurance is written for an occupied, static property. The moment a contractor breaks ground, your risk profile changes fundamentally. Exposed structure. Neighbouring properties at risk. Materials on site. Partial works that cannot simply be rebuilt from scratch. None of that sits within the scope of a policy designed for everyday domestic life.

Specialist renovation insurance is available across a wide range of project scales, from smaller domestic works through to contract values of £150m or more, including up to £100m on existing structure. Relative to the contract sum, the cost is modest. On a £500,000 project, the premium is a fraction of what a single uninsured incident could cost. There is no good reason not to have it in place before works begin.

What this means when you work with RISE

When RISE Design Studio is appointed as architect, part of our role is to help you understand the insurance landscape as it applies to your project. We do not act as insurance brokers and we do not receive any financial benefit from referring you to specific providers. But we do raise the questions, flag the requirements in the building contract, and make sure the right conversations happen before work starts.

That means checking the contractor's certificates before works start on site. It means raising the contractor PI requirement where there are contractor-designed elements. And it means recommending you speak to a specialist broker on higher-value or structurally complex projects.

A free check on your existing policies

Kirstie Farquharson, Private Clients Account Handler at TL Dallas, has offered a free document review for any homeowner who is unsure whether their existing household policy continues to protect them whilst works are being carried out.

If that is your situation, we are happy to make the introduction. Please do get in touch with the studio and we will point you in the right direction.

TL Dallas are specialist construction insurance brokers. RISE Design Studio has no financial relationship with TL Dallas and does not receive any referral fee or other benefit. We share this offer because we believe it is genuinely useful to our clients.

Protecting what you are building

At RISE, we believe a well-run project is about more than good design. It is about making sure every decision, from the contract to the cover, is in place before a single wall comes down.

When we are appointed as your architect, insurance is one of the first conversations we have. Not because it is a box to tick, but because we have seen what happens when it is left too late. We check contractor certificates. We raise the PI requirement where contractor-designed elements are involved. And on more complex or higher-value projects, we recommend speaking to a specialist broker before work starts.

If you are planning a renovation and want an architect who takes the whole project seriously, not just the design, we would be glad to talk.

→ Email us at architects@risedesignstudio.co.uk
→ Or call the studio on 020 3947 5886

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