What happens to self-build insurance if the build stops?

How it works in Ireland

Self-builds stop. A grant is delayed, a stage payment is late, the weather turns, a trade does not turn up, or money runs short. A policy priced for a continuous build can treat a long pause as a change in risk, and that is what a stoppage of work clause is for.

One published self-build wording sets it out. If work stops at the site from any cause for three consecutive months, cover on the works is suspended unless the insurer agrees in writing to continue it. The same clause says that during a total or partial stoppage you must take all practical steps to protect the property insured. If you do not, the insurer has no liability unless you can show that the failure could not have increased the risk of the loss that actually happened.

Three points follow. First, the time limit is in the wording, so check your own: it may be shorter or longer, and “stopped” may be defined. Second, “partial” stoppage is mentioned, so a slow site with one trade doing a day a week may or may not count. Ask how the insurer reads it. Third, a suspended policy means an uninsured house shell, with a lender’s conditions possibly broken as well.

What to do: put the date work last happened in your diary. If a stoppage looks likely to pass two months, ask your broker for written agreement to continue, and ask what it costs and what conditions come with it. Keep the site secure: lock up materials, fence the site, switch off and drain what a frost could damage, and photograph the state of things. Those steps are the “practical steps” the clause asks for, and the photographs are your proof.

If the build restarts, tell the insurer. The self-build insurance guide covers how to handle a long pause, and materials on site and theft explains security conditions that apply while the site is idle.

A common mistake

Letting the three months pass without asking. Suspension is automatic under this kind of wording, and the claim you most need to make, after a break-in or a storm on an idle site, is the one the clause can defeat. Ask for written agreement early and keep the reply with the policy.