Owner Builder Insurance
SeanRyan
| Posted in General Questions on
Hey All,
A similar question was asked a few years ago, but I know the insurance landscape is constantly changing. With so many folks on this forum building their own home as an owner-builder, I’m wondering if anyone can make recommendations on where they’ve found successful coverage for general liability and builders risk. I know this is one of this many hurdles of acting as your own GC.
Project is in Idaho
Appreciate the time–
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Perhaps not of great help, but we just reached out to our homeowners insurance company, USAA, and inquired. They were able to issue a "builders risk" policy that had quite reasonable premiums, ~$50/month.
The other concern we had was that several of our tradesmen are "moonlighting" on our project. The corollary being that I'm confident they are not carrying any special insurance of their own. As a result, we verified that our umbrella policy would cover the new home build as well.
To the extent it's relevant, our project is in Utah.
I just inquired with State Farm (MD area), and we are covered for everything. They just took my plans of what the existing + proposed would be, ran it through their system, came out with a new replacement value, and we set the insurance at that level. Any building materials I buy are covered, etc. Medical and liability was already pretty high on our policy, for the uninsured worker.
Thanks Mikeljon -- is this for renovation then? Seems like it might be easier vs new construction. I'm going to chat with someone from State Farm today
+1 on State Farm (New Hampshire). They understood the idea of an owner builder.
Our normal insurance agent who can reach out to various companies for quotes was quite tiresome to work with. They didn't get the idea someone who is not paid contractor could build anything. Many, many questions about licensure, etc. And in a state where owner builder can do their own elec/plumbing as well. We pretty much gave up on that agency, reached out to an owner/builder friend, and he steered us to State Farm.
Getting back into the weeds here and thanks for the response. State farm is able to manage builders risk for me, but curious how you managed general liability? State farm is able to give me some personal liability, but there seems to be some murky grounds on a commercial GL policy
One caveat - be sure the insurance company providing the "builder's risk" policy is willing to renew the policy if the building is not completed within the typical one-year policy period. The original company we went with (based on recommendations of the lender) would NOT renew the policy when it became clear we would not be able to complete the build within twelve months due to supply (and trade) delays. Fortunately, the agent with whom we worked was able to secure a new builder's risk policy through SafeCo.
American Family Insurance may also offer what you need.
I am with Erie and my local agent knew exactly what I needed when I told them I was doing owner builder. My builder risk was $1100 for about a $600k build and I already had a umbrella for liability policy prior and they said this would cover my me also.
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