Insurance

Has anyone ever managed to get Public Liability building site insurance for a short term building project of a shed? This is for a Men in Sheds project. The shed insurance only comes into force after the shed is built.

I have only been able to find self build that is long term, professional that is all year for one person or lots of employees, events that are for one day with thousands of people looking not doing etc.

Generally nobody seems to think of it so no insurance companies cover it. There are lots of policies that I never dreamed of there being a need for but just not little sheds. It's not the same as if you are doing it in your own garden or as part of your house.

Speak to NFU Mutual.

They helped me with a similar problem. At the time I had public liability insurance for my business (with another company) and needed a "top up" for a specific requirement.

They were both really helpful and £'s was reasonable.

Grum

Thanks, will try them

A bit off topic but still insurance!

I have long been wondering what the exact situation is for a young driver who buys something like an old Subaru or some such fast car. He somehow manages to get insurance then spends every spare penny he can on making it go faster, lowering it so that an ant has to duck, putting on an exhaust that makes Concorde sound quiet etc etc , you get my drift?

Now, God forbid he knocks someone down or crashes and maims his girlfriend, my thinking is that he is not covered as it is a penny to a pound of horse crap that he has not notifed the insurance of the 'modifications'

When I used to have 'hot' Cooper S Minis my dad used to make me notify the insurance company and I had to pay higher premiums even back then.

What do the plod do when they pull one of these that notionally is insured but has obviosly been 'hotted up'?

Martin

A shed going up in a day isn't really a building site.

You need volunteer insurance, or if your club already has it just notify your insurers that the volunteers will be erecting (not building) a shed using appropriate hand tools.

Neil

It is going to take more than a day as the youngest of us is 58 and I think one of the guys is pushing 80. So there have been a few quips when cutting the first sod about 6ft long 6ft deep and can we fit two in that hole.

I tried Volunteer type but they don't do short term as they expect you to keep volunteering I guess for a whole year. The group is not a ME club but a CIC and the existing insurance specifically told us they wouldn't cover the build stage. You might be right about not using the word 'build' so I must start 'erecting' this nail into this bit of wood.

In the end we were not able to get suitable insurance for the build phase and went ahead at risk but fortunately without serious mishaps.
For our regular running we have got a good deal from Walker Midgley who were the most cooperative and responsive of the companies I approached who also insure both the Model Engineering clubs I belong to. (Paul Chambers is my contact there)

Last weekend we were able to introduce the shed to the community with a waterproof roof, glass windows, and thanks to a last morning barrow session moving a ton of stones a ramp up to the door. We held a BBQ in the afternoon which thanks to the weather was much enjoyed. We even got our photo on the front page of the local paper.
I only got round to taking my on pictures at the end as we were sitting around avoiding the clearing up,


Yes, I'd like to build another in my garden but with a solid floor for the lathe but it would be tempting to sit on the veranda a lot looking at the view.

I think you'll find the guy simply isn't insured. He may be able to tax the car etc but if plod pulls him and gives him a "producer", he will have to show he has notified the insurance company of the changes. Then he'll get done for having no insurance. Even worse if this happens as a result of a prang, as he will get hammered for dangerous / wreckless driving etc as well.

Cheapest insurance is third party only. But even so, he'd probably need to produce an engineer's report if the mods are much more than just wide wheels and listen to me exhaust. Driving a vehicle like that without correct insurance is just asking to get pulled - a sort of Darwinian driving tendency.

Murray

Blimey! Can I bring my telescope to your shed? What a great spot for astronomy!

Neil

Of late I have found fully comp to be no more expensive or slightly cheaper than TPFT. That's with a 'vanilla' car of course. Perhaps 'fully comp' drivers are considered to spend more on looking after their cars, rather than on go-faster stripes?

Neil

For fun I looked up go-faster stripes on Wikipedia.

Apparently you can buy Dodge cars with a 'scat pack' - sounds like a pile of poo to me.

Neil

On one of those 'Police, Crash, Bang, Wallop' TV Programmes, they arrested the chap, put his car on a low-loader, and, after the insurer had confirmed the policy was invalid, they crushed it.

Dave

And "modification" can mean ANY departure from what came out of the showroom.

A while ago, a clergywoman had the sump stolen from the car. The story is that the Insurers refused to pay out because the the car had been "modified" - a sticker to the effect that "Jesus loves you".

Well done the "Avoid Paying Dept"

They even have to check after i fitted louder horns to mine and wife's!

Howard

It isn't just the obvious modifications. If you own a car with a claimed top speed of 113 mph and only fit S (112 mph) tyres, your vehicle may be considered unroadworthy and your insurance invalid, despite both speeds being more than 40mph over the speed limit.

Brian

Heres a funny one two years I could not believe my ears when youngest son then 24 was about to buy another car. On speaker phone they gave him a price £1200 Fully Comp £1600 where he used to live 5 mile away. What about if I tint the windows, lower it, change the exhaust and air filter, insurance came back with £600 declared.
Above car written off and they paid out market value, same scenario replacement car much faster price drops as owner mods it as deemed to look after the car.
Was with the sister company 20 yrs ago insured for unlimited HP, Hockenheim R's etc, Fully Comp £270 but paid more than that for a slow XR2 std.

My insurance last 6 years I declared wheels off another standard issue VAG car cost me £40 per year extra but whole car equivalent exactly the same price! Now swapped over after a week in to renewal for a diesel that costs me an extra £375 over a hot car, work that out. Will shop around again next renewal if still got the motor.