Home owner’s insurance for a property under repair no mortgage

[Jeff Cliff]

Hello,

End of last year I bought a severely distressed property IN CASH. When I bought the property I was able to get insurance from an insurance company with some conditions, which I had to fulfill or they would cancel my insurance.

From the beginning I have been running into several roadblocks, pandemic being primary and I am no where near completion of the project, still working with the city for plan approval. I have demolished quite a few unpermitted structures and currently a lot of places the house is boarded.

Since I couldn’t fulfill the condition of the first insurance company, I went ahead and cancelled that and purchased policy from another insurance company. However, after drive by inspection they are cancelling my insurance as well.

My guess is, it might take at least a year or so before I will be done with the project.

My questions are:

1) Considering the property is completely paid, should I get home owners insurance before completing the project?

2) If I should have insurance, most insurance companies I talked to don’t seem to be covering property under renovation, are there other avenues to get insurance? Are they worth?

Thanks in advance for your response.