About 43% of Britain’s homeowners have carried out extensive work in their homes since 2012 with improvements made to kitchens and new heating systems topping the list.
New research from GoCompare Home Insurance showed that at 39% most home renovators installed a new bathroom, followed closely by 38% getting a new kitchen and 34% exchanging their boiler or central heating system.
Other big winners for home improvement over the last couple of years were garden makeovers and installing double glazing each at 26%, 17% added extensions, 12% had solar panels put on their homes, 10% converted their attic and 9% added a spare bedroom.
Out of all participants, 41% also stated that they decided to go through with their renovations without notifying their insurer, possibly making their insurance invalid.
Matt Sanders from GoCompare said:
“While you don’t need to inform your insurer about routine decorating or maintenance, you should inform your provider if you’re planning on carrying out any major building or renovation work, otherwise you could risk invalidating your policy.”
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“When planning a major renovation project, one of the first things you should do is to review your buildings and contents insurance to make sure that you have adequate cover both during and after the work has been completed,” he then added.
Once all the renovation work is done it might be a smart move for any homeowner to check whether they need to increase the amount they have insured as the value may have increased alongside any work being done.
