RAAC Property Insurance UK | Cover for Concrete-Cancer Buildings
If you own or let a property built with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete — RAAC, the material the press calls "concrete cancer" — you may be finding that insurers no longer want it. What made headlines as a schools-and-hospitals crisis in 2023 has since reached private housing, and by 2026 a confirmed RAAC roof can mean a declined renewal, an excluded structure, or a demand for a structural engineer's report before any insurer will engage.
This guide is for landlords, portfolio owners and commercial property owners dealing with RAAC in a building they need to keep insured — not a technical manual on the concrete itself. It explains why standard buildings insurers back away, what the Insurance Act 2015 requires you to disclose, and how a specialist broker places cover a comparison site cannot. RAAC sits in the same non-standard-construction lane as our spray foam property insurance guide — a keyword that stops standard underwriters reading, until the risk is presented properly.
Why does a property with RAAC need specialist insurance treatment?
RAAC is a lightweight form of concrete used widely across the UK from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s, mainly in flat roof, floor and wall panels. It was cheap and quick, but it has a finite life — roughly 40 to 50 years — and, crucially, it can fail with little or no visible warning. That last point is what changes the insurance calculation entirely. An underwriter can price a roof that ages predictably; a roof that may deflect or collapse suddenly, without the cracks and sagging that normally precede failure, is a different kind of risk.
By 2026 the concern has moved firmly into private property. The Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) published guidance on RAAC in domestic properties in January 2026, and RAAC in housing — particularly former council homes bought under Right to Buy — was debated in Parliament the same month. For an insurer, a confirmed RAAC panel roof raises three questions at once: what is its remaining life, could it fail catastrophically, and what would reinstatement actually cost once removal and structural work are added. Absent good answers, many standard markets simply decline. RICS is careful to say a RAAC property is not automatically uninsurable or unmortgageable — but it is almost never a standard, automated placement.
For a landlord, that is more than an inconvenience. A let building that loses cover breaches most mortgage conditions and undermines the duty to keep a home free from serious hazards. Keeping continuous, properly-disclosed insurance in force is part of managing a RAAC property responsibly — and it is exactly the adverse-risk work Miller & Partner does.
The Insurability Framework™
A RAAC building is a textbook case for the Insurability Framework. Where a standard insurer reads "RAAC" and stops, our task is to convert a one-word decline into a properly documented, defensible risk. We apply four pillars to every placement of this kind.
Underwriter Intelligence
We know which markets will underwrite RAAC and what they need — a structural engineer's assessment, condition grading, remaining-life estimate and a monitoring plan. Presenting those up front turns a decline into a quote.
Difficult Risk Expertise
RAAC is non-standard construction that generalist insurers avoid on the keyword alone. We place it through specialist schemes and Lloyd's-backed markets that assess the panels on their engineering merits.
Risk Assessment
We identify the exposures a RAAC roof creates — sudden-collapse liability, gradual-deterioration exclusions, and underinsurance on a rebuild that now includes panel removal and structural replacement.
Claims Advocacy
If a RAAC building suffers a loss, you get a named broker arguing your corner with the underwriter — not a call centre. On a risk this contested, that advocacy is often what gets a claim paid.
Key facts at a glance
- RAAC was used from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s, mostly in flat roof, floor and wall panels — pitched-roof family houses rarely contain it.
- Around 3.5 million RAAC panels were sold in the UK; the material has a finite life of roughly 40–50 years.
- RAAC can fail with little or no warning, which is why insurers treat it as a fundamentally different risk to ordinary concrete.
- A structural engineer's assessment — grading condition and remaining life — is the single document that unlocks insurers and lenders.
- Under the Insurance Act 2015, RAAC is a material fact you must disclose; failing to can make a policy voidable and a claim refused.
- A specialist RAAC survey typically costs £500–£1,500 for a small property — modest against the cover and mortgage it protects.
- Most latent-defect liability periods have already expired for RAAC installed decades ago, so remediation usually falls on the owner — making insurance and planning essential.
What is RAAC, and which buildings are most likely to contain it?
Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete is made by adding aluminium powder to a cement mix, which creates hydrogen bubbles as it cures, giving a lightweight, bubbly concrete very different from the dense material most people picture. It was manufactured in precast panels, and its use clusters in specific building types and eras. Knowing whether your property is even a candidate is the first step — the table below shows where the risk concentrates.
| Feature | Higher RAAC likelihood | Lower RAAC likelihood |
|---|---|---|
| Era of build | Mid-1950s to mid-1980s | Pre-1950 or post-1990 |
| Roof type | Flat or shallow-pitch panel roof | Traditional pitched, timber-framed roof |
| Property type | Post-war estates, maisonettes, ex-council/Right to Buy | Conventional brick-and-tile family houses |
| Construction | Precast panel / system-built | Traditional masonry |
| Confirmation | Requires specialist survey to confirm | Often ruled out on age/roof type alone |
| Insurer treatment | Specialist/adverse placement | Standard market |
"The RAAC calls that worry me most are the portfolio landlords with ex-local-authority stock who had no idea. One survey on a block flags panels, and suddenly the whole schedule is a problem — the insurer wants to non-renew the lot, and they're staring at remediation costs no one budgeted for."
"What we've found is that the engineer's report changes everything. A block that gets an instant decline as 'RAAC — no appetite' becomes a real conversation once we can show the underwriter a condition grade, a remaining-life view and a monitoring plan. Insurers aren't refusing RAAC because it exists; they're refusing it because they've been handed nothing to price."
How does a structural engineer grade a RAAC roof, and why does the insurer care?
A structural engineer's RAAC assessment does three things an insurer needs. It confirms the panels are actually RAAC, it grades their current condition (from sound through to at-risk), and it gives a view on remaining life together with any propping, monitoring or remediation required. This is the difference between a risk an underwriter can price and one they can only refuse.
Where the engineer identifies immediate concerns, interim measures — propping, restricted use, or a monitoring regime with defined inspection intervals — can keep a building safe and, just as importantly, keep it insurable while a longer-term plan is put in place. A property with a graded assessment and an active management plan presents completely differently to market than one with a bare "RAAC present" flag. Because most latent-defect claims against original builders are long time-barred, this planning usually falls to the current owner — so getting the assessment done is both a safety and an insurance priority.
Cover Checker: what does your RAAC property actually need?
Pick the property type closest to yours to see the cover a specialist builds around a RAAC risk. Indicative only — your placement is built around your actual building and engineer's assessment.
Underwriter readiness checklist
Tick each item you can already evidence. The more you tick, the closer your RAAC building is to a clean specialist placement. Blanks are what to resolve before going to market.
- A structural engineer has confirmed whether RAAC is present
- I hold a condition grading for the panels
- I have a remaining-life estimate from the engineer
- A monitoring or inspection regime is in place
- Any interim measures (propping / restricted use) are documented
- My rebuild sum insured reflects panel removal and structural replacement
- I have disclosed the RAAC to my current insurer
- I have a remediation or replacement plan (even if phased)
How insurable is your RAAC property right now?
Two questions give an indicative insurability tier. Guidance only — not a quote or a survey.
What drives the premium on a RAAC property?
Once a specialist market agrees to look at a RAAC building, the premium turns on a familiar set of rating factors, each sharpened by the concrete. Most owners focus on price; the better use of your energy is the mitigation column, because that is what moves a decline to a quote and a heavy loading to a fair one.
| Rating factor | Why it raises the premium | How to mitigate it |
|---|---|---|
| Confirmation status | Unconfirmed RAAC = the insurer prices blind | Get a structural engineer to confirm presence |
| Condition grade | Deteriorated panels carry higher failure risk | Provide the engineer's condition grading |
| Remaining life | Short remaining life shortens the risk horizon | Evidence remaining-life estimate + plan |
| Monitoring regime | No inspection = uncontrolled risk | Put a documented monitoring schedule in place |
| Interim measures | Unpropped at-risk panels raise concern | Document propping / restricted-use measures |
| Rebuild sum insured | Must include removal + structural replacement | Commission a current reinstatement assessment |
| Occupancy | Occupied at-risk building raises liability | Match cover to use; evidence safety steps |
| Property type | Block/communal RAAC spreads exposure | Provide full building and tenure detail |
| Claims history | Prior structural/water claims compound concern | Present context and remedial work done |
| Remediation plan | No plan = open-ended risk | Provide a phased replacement/remediation plan |
| Disclosure quality | Vague proposals get declined or loaded | Full fair presentation via a broker |
| Location risk | Standard flood/subsidence loadings still apply | Provide postcode-level risk data |
How do landlord and owner duties interact with a RAAC building?
For a landlord, losing cover on a RAAC property is not just a mortgage issue. The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 and the Housing Health and Safety Rating System expect a let home to be free from serious hazards, and a roof that can fail without warning is a serious hazard by any measure. Where the building contains flats or communal areas, fire and structural safety duties add further weight. Because the original builders are almost always beyond the reach of a latent-defect claim, the practical burden of assessing, monitoring, remediating — and insuring — a RAAC building sits with the current owner. Keeping continuous, properly-disclosed cover in force, alongside a live remediation plan, is central to discharging those duties responsibly rather than discovering the gap after a loss.
Three real-world claim scenarios RAAC owners should learn from
These are fictionalised composites of the placements and claims we see, with realistic figures. Two show the ways RAAC cover goes wrong; the third shows it going right. Note especially the first — a point owners routinely misunderstand.
The gradual failure that insurance never covered
A landlord had properly disclosed RAAC and held buildings cover. Over time, a section of panel deteriorated and sagged, and part of the roof had to be taken out of use. The owner claimed — and was declined. Not because of the RAAC disclosure, but because the loss was gradual deterioration and wear, not a sudden, accidental insured event. The policy did what buildings policies do; it simply was never designed to fund the ageing of the material itself.
The cover stayed in place at renewal precisely because everything had been disclosed — but the remediation fell to the owner, as RAAC remediation almost always does.
The undisclosed survey
An owner had commissioned a survey two years earlier that flagged probable RAAC in a flat-roofed maisonette. At the next renewal, that survey was never mentioned. When storm damage triggered a claim, the insurer's investigation surfaced the earlier report — establishing that the owner knew and had not disclosed it.
Treated as a reckless breach of the duty of fair presentation under the Insurance Act 2015, the policy was avoided from inception and the claim refused. Cover then had to be re-placed through a specialist market at a heavily loaded rate.
The properly-placed block
A block of RAAC maisonettes was placed through a specialist market with a graded engineer's assessment, a monitoring regime and a phased remediation plan on file. When a burst storage tank soaked several panels and the flats beneath, the claim was straightforward.
The full £48,000 was met without dispute — a sudden, accidental insured peril, on a building the insurer had priced knowing exactly what it was covering.
How to insure a property with RAAC: a step-by-step approach
If you own or let a RAAC building, work through these eight steps in order. Done properly, they turn a risk that standard markets decline into one a specialist can quote — and separate the parts insurance can solve from the parts it cannot.
- Check whether RAAC is even plausible. The risk concentrates in flat or shallow-pitch panel roofs built between the mid-1950s and mid-1980s. If your building doesn't fit that profile, it can often be ruled out on age and roof type.
- Commission a structural engineer's assessment. This confirms whether RAAC is present, grades the panels' condition and estimates remaining life. It is the single document that unlocks insurers and lenders.
- Put interim measures and monitoring in place. If the engineer advises propping, restricted use or an inspection regime, implement and document it. A managed risk is an insurable risk.
- Recalculate your rebuild sum insured. Include the cost of removing RAAC panels and replacing the structure. An out-of-date figure invites the condition of average on a claim.
- Disclose fully. Make a fair presentation under the Insurance Act 2015 — the RAAC, the assessment, the grading, the plan, and any earlier surveys you hold. Never rely on a form not asking.
- Instruct a specialist broker. Ask a broker with non-standard and Lloyd's market access to present the risk to insurers who underwrite RAAC on its condition.
- Compare terms, not just price. Understand what each quote covers — and what it excludes. A policy that carves out structural or gradual-deterioration losses may leave your core concern uninsured.
- Keep evidence and progress the plan. Retain reports, re-inspect on schedule, advance remediation, and review cover at each renewal — a completed replacement can move you back toward standard markets.
John Miller
John has 13+ years placing commercial and property risks that standard markets decline, with direct access to Lloyd's and specialist MGA schemes. Non-standard construction — including RAAC, spray foam and other concrete-defect properties — is a core part of Miller & Partner's adverse-risk practice. If your RAAC building has been refused or non-renewed, John's team presents it, with the engineering evidence, to the markets that will actually underwrite it. More about John.
RAAC property insurance glossary
- RAAC
- Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete — a lightweight, bubbly precast concrete used in UK panels from the mid-1950s to mid-1980s.
- Concrete cancer
- The popular term for RAAC deterioration, reflecting how the material can weaken and fail as it ages.
- Rebar
- The steel reinforcement bar inside RAAC panels, whose corrosion and limited anchorage contribute to sudden failure risk.
- Structural engineer's assessment
- An expert inspection confirming RAAC presence, grading condition and estimating remaining life — the key document for insurers.
- Condition grading
- A classification of panel condition from sound to at-risk, used to prioritise monitoring and remediation.
- Remaining life
- The estimated period a RAAC element can remain in service before replacement, given its condition and maintenance.
- Interim measures
- Short-term steps such as propping or restricting use that keep an at-risk building safe and insurable pending works.
- Monitoring regime
- A scheduled programme of inspections that tracks panel condition over time.
- Latent defect
- A hidden construction fault; for decades-old RAAC, claims against original builders are usually time-barred.
- Gradual deterioration exclusion
- A standard policy exclusion for wear, ageing and gradual failure — why insurance does not fund RAAC wear-out.
- Non-standard construction
- Any building outside conventional brick-and-tile methods — a category RAAC falls squarely within.
- Buildings insurance
- Cover for physical damage to the structure of a property from insured perils.
- Property owners' liability
- Cover for an owner's legal liability to third parties injured, or whose property is damaged, in connection with the building.
- Fair presentation of risk
- The Insurance Act 2015 duty to disclose all material circumstances, or enough to prompt a prudent underwriter to ask.
- Material fact
- Information that would influence an insurer's decision to accept a risk or set terms — RAAC almost always qualifies.
- Condition of average
- A clause that reduces a claim proportionately where the sum insured is below the true value at risk.
- IStructE
- The Institution of Structural Engineers, which publishes guidance on assessing RAAC, including in domestic property.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, in most cases — but rarely through a price-comparison site. A RAAC building usually needs a specialist or non-standard market that will underwrite it on its condition. The outcome depends heavily on whether you hold a structural engineer's assessment grading the panels and estimating remaining life.
Almost always, yes. RAAC is a material fact under the Insurance Act 2015, so you must disclose it as part of a fair presentation of the risk — including any survey you already hold that flags it. Not disclosing it can make your policy voidable and any claim refused.
A standard, automated insurer often will, because it cannot price a roof that may fail without warning and has no engineering data to work from. A specialist market is different: given a graded assessment and a monitoring plan, it can offer terms. Watch, though, for exclusions on structural or gradual-deterioration losses in any quote.
Flat or shallow-pitch panel roofs on buildings constructed between the mid-1950s and mid-1980s — post-war estates, maisonettes and many ex-council and Right to Buy homes. Conventional pitched, timber-framed family houses rarely contain it.
You cannot confirm it by eye, because RAAC is usually hidden above ceilings or beneath roof coverings. If your building fits the higher-risk profile, commission a specialist survey — often a Level 3 RICS building survey supported by a structural engineer — to establish the facts.
Not automatically. RICS is explicit that a RAAC property is not necessarily unsuitable for a mortgage or cover. What it is, though, is a specialist placement rather than a standard one — and both insurers and lenders will usually want a structural engineer's report confirming condition and remaining life before they engage.
It is an expert report confirming whether RAAC is present, grading the panels' condition and estimating remaining life, together with any monitoring or remediation needed. It is not always mandatory, but it is the single most useful document for securing cover, because it lets an underwriter price a risk they otherwise can only refuse.
It depends on the cause. A sudden, accidental collapse from an insured peril may be covered on a properly-disclosed policy. But gradual deterioration and wear — the RAAC simply reaching the end of its life — is excluded by standard policies. That is why insurance and a funded remediation plan are two separate necessities, not one.
Yes. Reinstating a RAAC roof means removing the panels and replacing the structure, which adds cost. A sum insured set before this was understood — or never reviewed — is likely too low, exposing you to the condition of average on a claim. Have the rebuild figure reassessed.
A non-renewal from a standard insurer is common and does not mean the property is uninsurable. A specialist broker can re-present the risk with a structural engineer's assessment and a monitoring plan to markets that underwrite RAAC on its condition. The problem is usually the market it was presented to, not the building itself.
They can be. RAAC was used widely in post-war social housing, so former council homes bought under Right to Buy are over-represented among affected private properties — which is partly why RAAC in housing was debated in Parliament in January 2026. If you own such a property, checking for RAAC is a sensible first step.
For a confirmed RAAC building, almost certainly. A specialist broker makes the difference between a decline and a workable quote. Miller & Partner places RAAC and non-standard properties through Lloyd's-backed and specialist markets, and approaches every case through The Insurability Framework — underwriter intelligence, difficult-risk expertise, risk assessment and claims advocacy.
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