Building your dream home: Do you need a self-build structural warranty?

Thinking of renovating an existing property, having a new extension or building your dream home? ABC+ Warranty provides the perfect self-build structural warranty

Whether you are at the planning stage or are halfway through the build, planning beforehand is crucial to ensure you’re not tripped up by material shortages or price increases. If you’re a self-builder, the CLC advises liaising with your suppliers, distributors and builders’ merchants early to avoid disappointment.

Although renovating or building your dream home can be a remarkable experience, it can also be extremely costly. With inflation rising at its fastest rate for 30 years, energy prices rising (average energy bills rose by 54% in April 2022) and the Ukraine conflict affecting economies around the world, the construction industry is feeling the effects. The rapidly increasing prices of timber, roof tiles, steel, wooden cladding, bricks, cement and concrete are having a domino effect on the industry.

Even more worrying is the significantly increased cost of skilled labour, with 244,000 fewer workers in the construction sector compared with three years ago, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Long-term issues surrounding the labour shortage are arguably “a bigger problem” than actual materials, according to Andrew Carpenter, chief executive at the Structural Timber Association. In a December 2021 Homebuilding & Renovating poll, 96% of respondents said that they’d struggled to afford the cost of materials in 2021.

The resulting uncertainty is leading some contractors to pause before entering fixed-price or long-term contracts.

Rising material costs (rising by more than 10% between March and June, according to pricing data monitored by Buildiro.com) are forcing small, local builders to put their prices up but customers are tightening their belts because of the cost-of-living crisis.

Building Regulations are tightening the rules regarding energy efficiency standards for homes

All new build homes are to attain a 30% reduction in carbon emissions through improved energy efficiency from 2022, and a 75% reduction from 2025.

Approved Document O 

The government published Approved Document O, which took effect on 15 June 2022 for all new builds (including self-build homes) to alleviate the risk of overheating. Any development that is subject to a building notice, has made a full plans application or submitted an initial notice before this date will not have to comply with the overheating regulations, provided that the work is started on site before 15 June 2023.

Figures from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities states that the UK suffers about 2,000 heat-related deaths every year – a figure that is expected to triple by 2050 due to climate change.

With killer heatwaves set to soar in the UK during July, exceeding 30C in some locations, this is of great significance as the two issues that are associated with document O are:

• How to limit unwanted solar gains in summer.
• How to remove excess heat from the indoor environment.

ABC+ Warranty will be one of the first to offer a 15-year structural warranty

Pending government approval, all developers will need to provide, prior to sale, a minimum 15-year warranty for all new build homes, and existing properties that have building work done that creates a new dwelling (such as converting offices or a large house into flats). A warranty will be required by law for the first time and the current usual warranty period will be extended from 10 years to 15 years. This change will apply prospectively only.

Award-winning ABC+ Warranty will be one of the first warranty providers to offer a 15-year structural warranty as soon as this becomes a legal requirement.

NB – It is important that a structural warranty provider is appointed before works start on any new build project.

Many mortgage lenders will not accept a structural warranty unless the building works have been monitored by the structural warranty surveyor. This could make it extremely difficult for you to sell your new property to a potential purchaser.

By appointing a warranty provider at the beginning, you could be saving thousands of pounds. This is because if a warranty provider is appointed midway through or at the end of the project, there are many important elements of the property that have now been concealed and so this places more unknown risk to insurers for future claims.

ABC+ Warranty & Architects Certificate are trading names of Professional Consultants Certificate Ltd, registration number 07763351. Trading address, 1 Anchorage Court, Caspian Road, Altrincham. WA14 5HH.

Professional Consultants Certificate Ltd is an Appointed Representative of Ten Insurance Services Ltd , which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.