Benefits of using LABC Warranty’s service for Housing Associations & Local Authorities

Early Engagement

  • Pre-empting risks and de-risking projects at design stage.
  • Avoiding complications, delays, and defects on site.
  • Protecting your bottom line and delivering to your schedule & standards.
Read more >

Technical Support

  • Collaborative approach to working on site, supporting you in delivering quality homes.
  • Access to an online portal to keep track of the progress and performance on site as well as the quality of workmanship.
Read more >

Warranty Coverage

  • Structural warranty underwritten by A-rated global insurers
  • Insolvency, loss of rent, and mechanical and electrical cover
  • One-year defects period - competitive in the industry.
Read more >

"Cricketer’s Hill is a great example of innovation and collaboration delivering high-quality homes in a challenging location."

Watch our video to find out how Gentoo, RE:GEN, LABC Warranty and Local Authority Building Control combined to overcome the challenges presented when building Cricketers Hill.

Read more about Cricketers Hill

Gentoo - Cricketers Hill - Showhome

Working with LABC Warranty – the benefits housing associations enjoy

Working with LABC Warranty gets you much more than just an insurance provider. You gain a trustworthy, engaged partner that starts working for you as early as the design stage.

Early engagement

LABC Warranty joins you as early as RIBA Design Stage 2 to offer input on your plans, making sure the final design is warranty-compliant and upholds all the features that define your housing.

 
De-risking Design certainty
Early engagement means your build team, warranty provider, and stakeholders can go on to site with a clear and harmonious vision. This means smoother work on site, and better collaboration when there are issues to solve.
Agreeing a design with the main parties well in advance gives housing associations the best chance to secure labour and materials at advantageous prices, locking those costs in at the start of a development.
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Working together on site

LABC Warranty’s risk management surveyors work alongside your build teams and building control provider to spot defects emerging early, and ensure as much work as possible is warranty-compliant.

While a surveyor will never compromise on delivering the highest quality of homes possible, they will collaborate with your teams to reduce defects, address them early, and make the solutions repeatable across your sites. 

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Support beyond the building site

Housing associations that work with LABC Warranty will never wonder who to call when they need to talk about their site.

On top of the assigned risk management surveyor who will regularly visit and inspect your site, LABC Warranty customers enjoy access to an assigned account manager and customer experience specialist.

 
Account manager

LABC Warranty operates a nationwide network of account managers, offering you a business development manager who lives in and works in your area. These specialists are available to discuss the progress on your sites, put you in touch with our technical experts, and talk about developing future projects.


Customer experience specialist

LABC Warranty’s customer experience specialists are available every working day to assist your staff with queries around administration, payment, certificate issuance, and our online portal.

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Drive quality on site with additional services

While the work that our design consultants and risk management surveyors perform is vital to the LABC Warranty service, what we offer a housing association goes beyond that with the Site Quality Review and Good Practice Guide:

Site Quality review

Across one site, twenty or more, the Site Quality Review is a detailed audit of your site and produces an 11-point review of key construction stages, grading them from Very Poor to Very Good. Use the Site Quality Review to identify areas to improve, benchmark sites and regions against each other, and highlight where your site teams excel. 

Learn more about Site Quality reviews >

 

Good Practice Guide

The LABC Warranty Good Practice Guide is the how-to guide to achieving top-quality site management across areas like health and safety, workmanship, site tidiness and general cooperation with your warranty provider. Free to download, it’s the playbook for site managers to win awards like The Bricks and Site Manager of the Year.

Download the Good Practice Guide >
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What the warranty covers

 

Social Housing Warranty - Summary of cover

  Cover Period: 10/12 Years
Defects Insurance Period: 1 year
Structural Insurance Period: up to 11 years

  Single Unit
New build: £500,000
Conversions: £250,000

  Continuous Structure
New Build: £25,000,000
Conversions: £5,000,000

  High Value Scheme
    £25,000,000 policy limit
    (Higher limit available on request)

  Excess
    Defects Insurance Period: £100
    Structural Insurance Period: £1,500

 

 

 Cover Included

  Cover Period

  Mechanical and Electrical Inherent Defects ***

 For 5 years completion

  "Right to acquire" warranty extension***

  

  Contaminated land
   During the Structural Insurance Period
   (up to 11 years)

  Additional costs / fees
   For the policy duration (10/12 years)

  Alternative accommodation
   For the policy duration (10/12 years)
  Removal of debris
   For the policy duration (10/12 years)

 

Optional Extensions:

  • Builder insolvency during the building period (subject to approval)
  • Loss of rent (extension to standard)

*** Does not apply to High Value Scheme

Policy details correct at time of publication (January 2025).
Please check any quotation and policy documents for terms applicable to your application.

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Earn CPD and cement your knowledge around warranty

Our piece gives you a need-to-know tour of how warranty fits into the building process, what constitutes a defect, and how a warranty is activated when a defect is found. As a bonus, there’s some information around where the most common defects are found and how they can be avoided.

This is essential knowledge for those in procurement, building, contract management, and any other role related to the building process. Understanding the function of warranty, and what to expect before, during and after a build, helps you deliver smoother developments for your stakeholders and residents.

On top of being invaluable information for anyone involved with building new homes, it’s free to read and counts towards your CPD.

 

Read the article and earn CPD points

More than the warranty – interested and involved in the industry

By now we’ve shown clearly there’s more to the LABC Warranty service than a certificate for the mortgage companies, and there’s more to our company than inspection and technical standards.

Take a look below for a flavour of what we’re up to away from the worksite.

Whitepaper- Experts weigh up impact of 15-year warranties

 

Building Safety Act 15-year warranty

In 2023 LABC Warranty spoke to a wealth of experts about the potential legislative introduction of minimum 15-year warranties, which could be activated through the Building Safety Act.
Our subsequent whitepaper explored the impacts of that change, from builders and buyers through to manufacturers and insurers.
Read the whitepaper here

Housing and the net-zero challenge – obstacles and opportunities

 

Social landlord net-zero survey

Before the government upheaved their near-term plans for net-zero in the social housing sector, LABC Warranty interviewed social housing landlords to find out what they were planning to do to hit net-zero, how their progress was going so far, and what their biggest obstacles were to hitting their targets.
Read the report here

Customer Case Studies

L&Q case study HA Image

L&Q | The Chain

  • 519 units

  • New Homes & Social Housing mix

  • 12 storeys

How we added value:

Support with technical issues e.g. fire stopping, roofs and balconies - ponding.

Brought the project over the line 3 months early.

Hill case study HA image

The Hill Group & Hightown Housing Association | The Heart of Maylands

  • 161 units

  • New Homes, Social Housing & Commercial mix

  • 9 storeys

How we added value:

Support with difficult design detail and working to a tight completion schedule.

Southern Housing

Southern Housing & Thakeham | Holmhurst St Mary

  • 208 units

  • Social Housing

  • 2 & 3 storeys

How we added value:

Cover on mechanical and electrical units such as ground source heat pumps & solar panels. Managing and understanding tricky ground conditions. 

Paragon Asra HA | Hill Partnerships | Park Avenue

Paragon Asra HA | Hill Partnerships | Park Avenue

  • 95 units

  • Social Housing & Commercial Mix

  • 16 storeys

How we added value:

Early engagement with the contractor and the wider design team along with Paragon Asra HA.

GET IN TOUCH

 

We’ve been working with some of the largest housing associations in the country to deliver homes of the highest standards. So if you have any social housing developments coming up, let's find a suitable date and time to have a chat.

Fill out the form, and one of our team will be in touch to start the conversation about your next development and see how we can support your project.

 
MD Insurance Services Ltd. is the scheme administrator for LABC Warranty and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England No: 3642459 | Website by Prodo.