Building work at home, why your insurer needs to know first

The builders arrived in March. The fire came in April. The insurer only heard about the work after the fire, and the claim was gone.

That case, reported by Insurance Business on 15 October, involved £39,160 of building work. The Financial Ombudsman Service found the insurer acted fairly in declining the claim and cancelling the policy back to the date the work began, because it said it would not have continued cover on any terms. It did not matter whether the work caused the fire. The homeowner had assumed someone else would tell the insurer.

Nobody else is going to tell your insurer, so it has to be you.

The same report cites the 2026 UK Houzz and Home Report, which found 49 per cent of UK homeowners renovated in the last 12 months. Most of those projects will not start on a renewal date.

Here is the detail worth sitting with. Under the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012, you must take reasonable care not to misrepresent your home when you buy or renew. Mid-term, it is usually your policy wording that requires you to report changes such as major works, and many policies restrict cover while a property is unoccupied, structurally altered or left unsecured overnight.

The practical steps are simple. Tell your insurer roughly a month before work starts, with the scope, value, dates and contractor details. Ask in writing whether cover continues, and on what conditions. Check the builder carries its own liability insurance, and if your insurer will not continue, arrange specialist renovation cover before work begins.

A phone call at the planning stage costs nothing. Finding the gap at claim stage can cost you the house you were improving.