Structural warranties for social and affordable housing
Latent defects insurance for housing associations, councils, the contractors building for them and developers delivering affordable homes - arranged by specialists who understand funders, tenures and section 106.
- Instant response
- Insurer quotes usually within one working day of your proposal
- UK FCA Regulated Broker
- No broker fee to pay
- Rent, shared ownership and sale
Fast answers
No more waiting weeks for a warranty quote
A slow broker holds up your site, your sales and your funding. We work to clear timescales.
1
Instant response
Send us your details and you get an instant reply by email with your reference and what we need next.
2
A call the same working day
We usually contact you the same working day to talk through your scheme and the providers likely to cover it.
3
Insurer quotes usually within one working day
Once we have your completed proposal and drawings, insurer quotes usually come back within one working day. Retrospective cover and unusual sites can take longer.
Who we help
Structural warranty cover across the affordable housing sector
Affordable homes are delivered in many ways - built directly, through a contractor, bought from a developer or secured through a planning obligation. Choose the route that fits your scheme.
Housing associations
Homes registered providers develop directly, commission through design and build contracts or buy from developers.
Housing association warranties
Section 106 homes
Affordable homes delivered through planning obligations, from the developer's side and the housing provider's.
Section 106 warranties
Councils and housing companies
Council house building, wholly owned housing companies and other local authority delivery vehicles.
Council housing warranties
Shared ownership
Cover that suits the lenders shared owners rely on - at the first sale, through staircasing and on resale.
Shared ownership warranties
Estate regeneration
Phased demolition and rebuild with mixed tenure blocks, registered and certificated phase by phase.
Regeneration warranties
Modular and MMC homes
Volumetric, panelised and other offsite systems, and what warranty providers ask to see before they cover them.
Modular housing warrantiesWhy a specialist
Affordable homes answer to more people than most
The structural warranties we arrange for social and affordable homes cover the owners of each home, and anyone lending against it, for the cost of putting right certain structural defects for 12 years after completion. On an affordable housing scheme that circle is wider than usual - the housing provider, its funders, shared owners and their lenders, and often a developer or contractor who hands the homes over at the end.
- Funders have their own expectations. Grant funders and private lenders may set out what they expect from a warranty. We help you check the cover fits before you commit.
- Homes change hands. Section 106 sales, acquisitions and transfers between landlords all mean the warranty has to pass cleanly to the new owner.
- Tenures are mixed. Social rent, affordable rent, shared ownership and outright sale can share one site, so the provider has to suit every buyer's lender as well as the landlord.
- Stewardship is long term. Housing providers keep homes for decades. Certificates and policy records need to be easy to find long after the builder has left.
Social housing warranty cover at a glance
How it works
From first enquiry to a certificate for every home
Tell us about the scheme
Who is building it, who will own the homes, the tenure mix and where you are up to.
Initial assessment
We approach providers with an appetite for affordable housing of this kind.
Your quote
The provider named, with the premium and each fee set out separately.
Inspections
The provider's surveyor checks the work at key stages of the build.
Certificates issued
A final certificate for each home as it completes, ready for its owner.
Already on site?
Work started before the warranty was in place?
It happens - especially when a housing provider takes on homes part way through a build, or when affordable homes are added to a site late. Some providers will still consider homes that are under way, although they will want evidence of the work already done and the price is usually higher.
Talk to us as soon as you can. Where the homes are further along or finished, our sister brand Retrospective Warranties specialises in cover after work has started.
Questions
Common questions from housing providers
Does social housing need a structural warranty?
Usually no law says it must have one. In practice funders, lenders and the buyers of shared ownership and sale homes often expect one from a provider they accept, and for homes you keep and let it gives protection against serious hidden defects that come to light years after handover. Whether a particular scheme needs one is a decision for you and your advisers.
How much does a social housing warranty cost?
As a rough guide, around 1% of the rebuild cost for new homes registered before work starts, and around 1.25% for conversions or schemes already under way (with no broker fee on top - we are paid by commission from the provider). See affordable housing warranty cost.
Can rented and shared ownership homes on one site share a warranty?
Usually a site is registered with one provider and each home gets its own certificate, whatever its tenure. What matters is that the cover suits how each home will be held and that the provider is acceptable to the lenders your shared owners and buyers will use. We check both.
Are you an insurer?
No. We are an insurance broker. We find and arrange cover for you, and the warranty is provided by the warranty provider or insurer named in your quotation. There is no broker fee to pay. We are paid by commission from the warranty provider, which is included in the premium.
WARRANTYWIZARD
Got a quick question first?
Ask our Exclusive AI Powered WARRANTYWIZARD - how structural warranties work, what lenders usually expect or what documents to get ready.
WARRANTYWIZARD is AI powered and answers straight away, day or night. Like any AI it can occasionally make mistakes, and it gives general information about structural warranties, not advice or a price - so check anything important with our team, and for a quote use the project form or call us.
Warranty with WhatsApp
Do the whole thing on WhatsApp
You can handle the whole process on WhatsApp - questions, photos and drawings, your proposal, your quotes and arranging your cover.
A person on our team replies in UK working hours. Message us any time and we will pick it up as soon as we are back.
Tell us about your scheme
Share the basics - where it is, how many homes and the tenure mix - and we will tell you which providers are likely to cover it and roughly what it will cost.
- Takes under a minute
- Instant reply by email with your reference
- Insurer quotes usually within one working day of your completed proposal
- Schemes anywhere in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
- Free and no obligation
Already filled in a proposal form? Email it to us or send it on WhatsApp with any drawings you have and we will take it from there.