A homeowners guide.
If you live in a home that was built within the last 10-years, you likely have a Structural Insurance Policy on the property, these are also called Latent Defect Insurance Policies, or in some cases; Home Warranty’s. You will also have a home insurance policy which covers a variety of things, but if you have a problem with your home and you need to make a claim, what policy should you claim on?
Structural Insurance typically covers three main areas: –
1. Defects in design and workmanship
2. Major Structural Damage;
3. Water Ingress.
Given that these defects are ‘latent’, they are caused by issues during the construction process, but would not have been evident at the time of the build, and have presented during the term of the policy.
Water Ingress, as an example, could have been caused by a failure with, or the installation of the waterproof membrane which sits within the outside walls of your home. If water started penetrating the property, you could have a valid claim under your Structural Warranty policy. If however there was a large storm which resulted in flooding, and that water penetrated your property in a way that it would be unreasonable to assume the property should have defended against it, this would be a claim under your home insurance.
Home insurance is usually sold as a combined Building and Contents Policy, and is typically designed to protect your property from damage or destruction from large events such as storms, fires, damage from high winds, etc. Cover can also include accidental damage as a bolt-on and as the name implies, would cover accidental damage to the property, for example, putting your foot through the floor in the roof space.
It is important to know how your property is covered, and what level of cover is in place for those unfortunate instances which may occur, and you should check your cover and speak to your insurance broker to make sure you have adequate protection.
Compariqo is a leading distributor of Structural and construction insurances in the UK. We are also a Trading Standards approved Code User and operate a dispute resolution service for homeowners having issues with making claims on their policy.
Ask your builder if they are working with Compariqo, or contact us directly to see how we may be able to help you
Need cover on a project?
As an independent broking business, Compariqo is focused on arranging structural warranty and insurance cover for residential developments for our customers. As well as a suite of complementary insurance products to meet the demands of developers and SME builders, we can also source a wide range of finance solutions through our relationship with one of the UK’s top business finance specialists and their extensive panel of lenders, meaning we can cover all of your construction insurance and property finance needs.