One challenge about living in a “cutting edge” eco house is that insurers, who generally seem to like to avoid risk and charge you for it where unavoidable simply wont cover you.
The houses are timber frame, which in the UK, and in this day and age, can still narrow your insurers.
Then they’re clad not in timber, brick, or any other common material, but Trespa panels, which seems to seriously reduce your chances of getting insured.
The real killer, however, appears to be the partially flat PVC clad roofs. Almost every insurer has a “standard roof construction” clause, which these eco homes simply don’t fall into.
Last year we went with our mortgage provider, Halifax, for our insurance simply because they would cover the house and nobody else I got hold of would. This time around I’ve decided to try and shop around and see what I can manage.
Being open and honest you have to mention all the above, try to explain that despite the fact the glazed areas of the windows don’t open, and there’s no keys for the windows, they only open from inside and are multi-point deadlocked. The “secure by design” certification doesn’t always seem to offer much assurance to slightly confused insurance salespeople either.
So, I’ve been on the phone for a few hours and I’m awaiting a call back from various insurers to see what they can come up with. Fingers crossed it costs less than last years, which was painfully expensive!
I found your blog through your post on The Good Human site.
It’s a very unfortunate situation you’re in, it seems like a case of shoddy workmanship on top of unrealistic design expectations. In the part of the world I hail from (the wet west coast of Canada) we are still recovering from a ’90′s building fiasco now called the ‘leaky condo syndrome’. It involved cheap building practices using code guidelines based on California’s much drier climate.
Your advantage is that you’ve seen the problem in the beginning, stick to your guns, you’re in the right. As I said before there are only two reasons for a building to leak, poor craftsmanship or poor design. Neither are your fault.
Here in BC, Canada our building code now requires ‘rainscreen’, basically elevated siding. The building is papered, then strapped with pressure-treated lumber, then sided. This creates a gap for water to drain down if it passes the siding.
Builders here are also required to provide new home insurance on a 2-5-10 year graduated plan.
Keep up the pressure, you shouldn’t be punished for the builders mistakes. Neither is it good publicity for modern design to fail, sometimes architects give themselves a bad name by forgetting what happens in the real world.
Good Luck
Greg