When does self-build insurance become home insurance?

How it works in Ireland

Contract works insurance is built for a site. It stops when the house stops being a site, and home insurance is built for a lived-in house. The danger is the gap between them.

One published self-build wording shows the pattern. It excludes loss of or damage to any part of the project after that part has been completed and delivered up to the owner, or after it has been taken into use by the owner or occupier. For a private dwelling that is completed pending sale, it allows ninety days from completion, or until sale if earlier. It also defines a maintenance period, up to twelve months after a completion certificate, for the contractor’s defect-fixing, with limited cover for that work. So the wording ends cover at several possible moments, and it is the wording on your policy that decides which one applies to you.

Do three things well before the date. First, find the end trigger in your policy and write the date beside the build programme. Second, get quotes for home insurance and agree a start date that is no later than that trigger. Tell the home insurer that the house is newly built, the build method and if any work remains, such as landscaping or an unfinished room. Third, ask your lender what it needs and by when. Some want proof of home cover before the final stage payment, which may fall before completion.

The sum for home insurance is a rebuild cost, not what the build cost you or what the house is worth. The Central Bank’s explainer on under-insurance sets out how to avoid insuring too little, and the sum insured page applies that to a self-build.

If you move in early, or live in part while the rest is finished, the contract works policy may end on occupation. Ordinary home cover may not cover a house with unfinished building work. Agree in writing what applies and who insures what.

A common mistake

Assuming cover continues until the keys are handed over, or that the home policy will simply take over. Neither is automatic. Check the exact end trigger, start home insurance for the same day and keep the written confirmation from both insurers.