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Recently I had Jim Power from Power Insurances to talk to us about building insurance and home insurance. You can see a sample of the questions I asked Jim below. Please listen to the podcast to hear the answers. If you have any questions or comments feel free to add them below:-
Insurance for Building or Renovating a Home
- Most people will have some sort of insurance cover in their home but if they are carrying out building or renovation works is this insurance enough?
- What would home insurance typically cover?
- Does a tradesman have to have insurance or is it possible for him to operate without insurance?
- If a tradesman doesn’t have his own insurance can the home owner insure themselves adequately to cover the tradesman?
- Why would it be a good idea for the home owner to have their own insurance even if they are using insured tradesmen?
- What type of insurance should the tradesman have to cover normal everyday type of work such as hanging a picture on the wall or assembling a ready made kitchen?
- Would the tradesman need any additional type of insurance if he had employees or subcontractors?
- Is there any additional insurance required for working at greater heights? For example would you need additional insurance for working on the roof of a house as compared to fitting flooring which hopefully should be a lot safer?:-)
- Should the home owner look for visual site of the tradesman’s insurance before works are started?
- Let’s say a tradesman has taken out a policy with an expiry date of November 30th 2014. He pays the first premium, gets the certificate but fails to pay the subsequent premiums. Is it possible that he could still be showing that insurance certificate to his customers with the expiry date of November 30th 2014 after several months although the insurance is not still valid?
- Is it a good idea in that case to check with the tradesman’s broker to make sure the policy has been paid up to date?
- Would you recommend that the customer check with their own broker before embarking on any building or renovation project to make sure that they and/or the building contractor is adequately covered by the insurance.
- Could the tradesman or customer have any extra insurance that would provide a structural warranty, cover against poor workmanship or an accident caused by the building works leading to damage of the contents of the home?
- If so what are the advantages and disadvantages of this type of insurance?
- Are there any circumstances where a fully insured house or tradesman may not be covered because proper safety procedures were not followed such as wearing proper safety hats or gloves or having kick boards on scaffolding?
- Do the insurance companies offer a safety advisory or inspection service that can help the home owner to identify the important safety measures to put in place before and during their building project?
- Is there anything else a home owner should know about in relation to insurance when planning their home building or renovation project?
This was part one of a two part podcast. In the second podcast we will be asking Jim about general home insurance which would cover public liability and fire and theft so if you come back next week you can hear what Jim had to say about that.
Thanks to Jim for taking the time to help us with this podcast. You can contact Jim for more information on home and building insurance at www.powerinsurances.ie or by phone at 061 226722.
Cheers
Oliver Dempsey
Tradesmen.ie
P.S. Please note that the information provided in these podcasts is for general guidance only and you should seek the advice of an insurance broker before deciding on the appropriate insurance for your own home or building project.
Here are some other articles that you might be interested in below:-
http://blog.tradesmen.ie/2012/04/do-i-need-planning-permission
http://blog.tradesmen.ie/2012/04/certifying-my-building-or-renovation
http://blog.tradesmen.ie/2013/01/construction-contracts-why-are-they-needed
