Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 28, 2010 5:48 pm Hi all =) I was wondering if anyone had done their own third party works to their home (ie, having the sparky install a few extra lights or different fittings, the kitchen people do an outdoor kitchen, anything that your builder's insurance won't cover), and have gotten their own insurance to cover those items? Our builder refused to deal with our complicated CBUS system and instead made us do our electrical upgrades directly through THEIR contractor. It has been a major win so far as they are awesome, but it is just now proving to be really painful. The sparkies are still great, but we can't insure the works that they are doing, so we may have to hold off until handover to even get simple things like our lights working. They're all controlled by the CBUS, so it will take a reasonable amount of time to get any lighting into our house post-handover as they need to install it and program it (and the programming will take a while). This is a major PITA. It means that we have to accept the house with some potentially major defects because even the builder's part of the electricals cannot be tested. Good luck getting the builder to pay for any defects after handover (ie, if one of their plasterers put nails through the wiring and we need to rewire a section or three that otherwise would have been found at PCI). Since we can't insure the CBUS as it is not in our builders contract, we either can't install it earlier OR we take the change that someone breaks in and it walks. The costs to replace the system itself would be pretty high, but the electrician tells me that the costs to repair the rest of the damage done in stealing the box frequently puts the repair and replace cost at double what we originally paid due to how difficult it is to recable the house now that all the plastering and insulation has been done). So for us it's obviously a matter of find SOMEONE to insure us, or wait until handover and potentially be waiting weeks before we even have lights and even longer to have any damage repaired. Given our relationship with our builder, we don't feel that we can trust them to do the right thing by us once they have all of our money. I want to be sure that my house is right before I hand them the last cheque. I'm pretty sure that we're not unique. Has anyone been here before? I know that a lot of people have addon components done during the build, and many do their own cabling or hire their own electricians. How have you gone about getting someone to provide you with insurance for these works? Any advice appreciated! Re: Insurance of own work to house under construction 2May 28, 2010 6:13 pm We did our own kitchen, provided all the toilets plus spa bath as well as tap fittings for our main ensuite. We just had to basically suck it up and hope that no damage / stealing occurred as from our investigations no-one would provide 3rd party insurance on just those items. We were pretty lucky in that the only items that got flogged were some paint and some spare tiles - both of which we understand were one of the painter's staff. We just went to the site each morning and each afternoon to make sure it was secure and our items were still in place. Then again our builder went bust before the home was completed (about 95% finished) and we took ownership prior to them going bankrupt - at which stage we put locks on each door / window and had home and contents insurance taken out on the same day. Some things are worth waiting for. Re: Insurance of own work to house under construction 3May 28, 2010 7:42 pm Another one here who had 3rd party work during the build - we got air con installed by 3rd party, much cheaper to do it during construction rather than after and obviously avoided builder's mark up on it; builder was very good about allowing access but it was not covered by builders insurance - Im afraid Im no help to you either though as we just took our chances with it being uninsured and accepted if anything happened we would have to pay out of our own pocket (fortunately it didn't). Re: Insurance of own work to house under construction 4Aug 21, 2011 6:23 pm Has anybody succeeded in obtaining some contents insurance for owner supplied kitchen appliances prior to handover? Slab poured 21/04/2011 Frame finished 27/05/2011 Moved in 07/11/2011 Re: Insurance of own work to house under construction 5Aug 21, 2011 11:47 pm recently had a client supply 250k worth of equipment in a project. builder just increased that value of his contract works insurance and had the client pay the difference in cost. maybe ask your builders if they can do the same for you. I thought this would be a popular question but I haven't been able to find any similar posts. Perhaps I'm wording my searches wrong? When you have car insurance and the… 0 6615 I posted the floorplan on Houzz.com forum and got some really good ideas and advice from people there. Then we reached out to a couple of renovation companies and one… 5 10093 Yeah my reasoning is just that those house posts are designed for vertical load not lateral. I just didnt want to risk interfering with the existing house… 4 11540 |