YOUR builder’s risk POLICY

Builders risk insurance is effectively a form of property insurance that covers the period while the property is still under construction. It’s possible for the property owners to take out such a policy, though more commonly it’ll be a policy they insist the contractors take out.

The key areas of coverage are damage caused by events such as fire and hail storms. You’ll also normally be covered for theft and vandalism (though not by your employees) and damage caused by vehicles or aircraft hitting the building. To make sure coverage levels are adequate, policies are often set at a fixed percentage of the total construction budget. You’ll need to check how long the policy runs as it typically won’t allow repeated extensions of the construction timeline.