Dommage-ouvrage assurance and architects

[Hegs]

Our architects have just asked us to get dommage-ouvrage assurance for works due to start imminently but planned for a very, very long time.

I had thought this was the architects responsibility, can anyone advise either way how it worked for them.

Secondly can anyone give any contacts for providing this insurance, and an idea of how long it took to obtain - did it require site visits etc?

Thanks for any help!

[Teamedup]

We took this out in spite of the fact that a building company was building our property for us, plans done by their architect.

Our normal house insurance covers a lot of things, ie damaging rented accommodation when holidaying etc etc. BUT it doesn't cover any problems we may have incurred whilst our building project was under way. Hence we needed this. It isn't cheap, and I asked about gettting this before we were asked to.

Another poster said that it wasn't necessary as when the work is done then one can get the guarantees from all the artisans to cover their work.

For me what was important was that as we were renting an appt quite some distance from our land we were covered if materials were delivered and consequently stolen. If kids, or anyone else went onto our site and were hurt or vandalised any work that had already been done.

 

Sorry I can't remember where we got it from, but I do remember that our normal insurer didn't do it at all.

[BJSLIV]

Problems.

1-The the law makes it obligatory to take out this policy, but nobody checks that you have done so. It is estimated that 50% of properties are built without DO insurance. However if you need to sell within ten years of completion, and haven't got the cover then the buyer will knock you down on the price, as you have an "illegal" house.

In addition they may come back to you to pay for any work that may need to be done which would otherwise have been covered by the DO.

2- From a practical point of view if is very hard for a self-builder to obtain cover, as there is no track record on which the insurer can assess the risk. Nowadays it is the builder / developer who normally arranges the insurance and then adds it to the cost of the house.

3- It isn't that expensive a reputable builder would normally be able to get cover for his customers at about 2% of the total project cost.  If you can find a company prepared to cover self-build it may well cost 5% of total project cost.

I suggest that you ask the architect for his suggestions as to where you should get this cover, names of insurers etc.