Liability/Builders Risk insurance?

Your contractor is supposed to provide you with Liability insurance while doing renovation, you don't pay for it. Not sure if that is the same thing or you need an additional.

The insurance company (who I originally called in order to get homeowner's insurance, but was told should get this instead since we weren't initially occupying the space) said that this was something in addition to the insurance that the contractor already has... Is that not correct?

You definitely need builder's risk insurance. This is in place of homeowners' insurance while the construction is underway, usually until a C of O issues, for liability and the structure. I got this when building a weekend house. Don't know about NYC markets -- I think my policy was with Zurich. But, at least in my case, it was materially more than ordinary homeowners' insurance.

Okay thanks. I wasn't sure how much more expensive this type of policy would be. I've heard that the fact we won't be occupying the place at the time makes the situation seem riskier to the insurance company..

I know the answer is probably no, but are either of these types of insurances tax deductible?