Your home insurance policy may not be at the forefront of your mind when you are considering making home improvements. However, some home improvements could invalidate your policy if you do not tell your insurer. A study in 2017 suggested that 43% of homeowners had carried out major work on their property in the past five years – but that a similar proportion had not told their insurance company.

So which home improvements could impact your insurance policy?

Home Improvements That Could Affect Your Policy

1. Building work

You should aim to give your insurer at least three weeks’ notice before you undertake any large building improvements. This includes extensions and loft conversions.

If you do not alert your insurer, they may amend the terms of your home insurance policy, or even cancel your cover. This depends solely on the type of home improvement you are making. The things your insurer may consider include the cost of the work, the duration it will take and whether your contractors have adequate public liability insurance.

home improvements

Once your building work is complete and you have furnished the new space, you should consider the benefits of increasing your contents cover. This will mean that your new extension is fully covered should the worst happen.

2. New bathroom or kitchen

Buildings insurance will cover fitted units in bathrooms and kitchens. As a general rule, if you are fitting a new bathroom or kitchen your home insurance provider shouldn’t need to know. However, our advice is to always double-check to make sure you are covered.

Kitchen fitter

It is also essential to point out that the number of bathrooms your home has is used as a factor to calculate your premium. So, if you are adding a new bathroom, en-suite or wet room, some insurers would need to be informed.

3. Garden

Out building

You’ll only need to inform your insurance company if you are carrying out significant work on your garden. This includes adding a summer house or outbuilding.

4. Double Glazing

Window fitter

If you are replacing every window in your house, you should inform your insurance provider. This is because if your property suffers damage, the cost it would take to rebuild your home would increase significantly.

How Property Claim Assist Can Help

What happens when disaster strikes at your home – a flood, fire, storm impact, escape of water or water leak, vehicle collision or other form of damage? If insured, you will make an insurance claim. That will alert your insurer – and they will typically send out their representative, the loss adjuster, to inspect the property damage.

When a Loss Adjuster attends your property, they will survey the damage, photograph the property, and analyse your coverage. That’s why alerting your insurance company of any home improvements you are due to make is so important. Without doing so, you may find it challenging to gain the full and fair settlement you deserve. If you find yourself in this position, our expert Loss Assessors are on hand to help.

Our homeowner insurance claim experts work to protect your interests. We negotiate with your insurance company and their adjusters. Ensuring you receive nothing less than full compensation according to your policy.

Accessing support with your own property insurance claim, or that of a loved one, is extremely simple. Just call Property Claim Assist on 0333 577 2720 or gain more information at www.propertyclaimassist.co.uk

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After a traumatic accidental house fire I was a little lost on how to deal with the insurance and the claim. I reached out to these guys and thank god I did! Simon and everyone else at Property Claim Assist were invaluable and I honestly don’t know if I could have got through it all without them. Handling a big and complex insurance claim is very stressful and complicated. The guys at PCA explained how everything worked and guided me through it all and took up a lot of slack and a lot of the work. Thank goodness I had these guys to depend on.

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Professional, timely, efficient and effective handling of a massive Escape of Water Claim in a Grade II listed cottage. Gary knows the process, has the contacts and gets things done. I was having to deal with this loss while overseas, so having the Property Claim Assist interfacing with the insurance company, surveyor and contractors was a godsend. Would not have had such a fabulous remediation without Property Claim Assist.

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Where do I start…Property Claim Assist took our case on when no one else would. They have been brilliant from day 1. We were fighting a loosing battle with the insurance company. They were 100% professional and adept from start to finish. They have been patient and empathetic and got the job done. We will be forever grateful to PCA. The experience has been life changing in many ways but we are in a massively better off position than we were before we contacted them. I cannot recommend PC Assist highly enough.

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