Fix and Flip Insurance — House Flipping Insurance for the Work, Not the Finished House

Often not once the work starts. A standard dwelling form is written for a house that is finished and occupied, and most carry provisions that narrow or suspend coverage while the building is under renovation or sitting empty. The policy is not wrong — it is answering a different question than the one an active rehab asks.

It comes down to the scope of work. A cosmetic rehab — paint, flooring, fixtures, a kitchen swap with the structure untouched — can usually stay on a dwelling form with the right endorsement. Once the work is structural, a gut rehab that opens walls, moves load or replaces systems, builders risk is the form built for it, because it insures the work in progress rather than a finished building.

Tools and equipment are a separate question from the structure, and the answer depends on how the policy is written. Some builders risk placements extend to materials and equipment at the site, some cover materials but not tools, and some cover neither without being asked to. It is worth settling explicitly rather than assuming, because tools on an unoccupied jobsite are among the most commonly taken things on a project.

Vacancy is its own exposure and most property forms address it directly through a vacancy clause. A building that is empty past whatever period the policy names can see coverage narrowed for certain causes of loss — often the ones most likely to happen to an empty house. A gap between closing and the start of work, or a pause waiting on a permit, is where this usually bites.

Listing is not the same event as selling, and coverage is usually needed through the holding period until the sale closes. A policy written to the construction schedule can expire while the house is still on the market — finished, empty and unsold is a real and uninsured position if the term was set to the end of the work rather than to the exit.

A contractor policy answers for the contractor. It covers their operations and their liability, not the building you own or the money you have put into it, and it can lapse, exclude the work being done, or simply not respond to a loss to the structure. Certificates are worth collecting and are not a substitute for a policy in your own name.

That is premises liability, and it sits with the owner of the property rather than with the trades working on it. An active rehab draws people who are not tradespeople — a buyer, an inspector, an appraiser, a neighbor — onto a site with open floors and missing rails. General liability is the coverage written for that exposure.