Conversion of integral garage - do i need to tell my home insurance provider?

MoneySavingMission

Hi
As title suggests, we have recently converted our integral garage into a playroom. Do i have to inform my house insurance provider of this? Will they increase premium? I know they ask for number of bedrooms but unsure if downstairs living accomodation matters. Please help if you can.

InsideInsurance

It is worth informing them, presumably it will have had an impact on what you insure/ your rebuild cost anyway.

What impact it will have will depend on the type of rating your insurers use. There are a fair number that have blanket policies and rating is done on room counts rather than rebuild costs. This can be just bedrooms but more commonly now its bedrooms, bathrooms and all other rooms. A rebuild based policy is less likely to be impacted, especially if you claim your rebuild cost hasnt gone up.

rs65

There should be a paragraph in your policy about ‘changes’. It is usually any changes to the information shown on your schedule that have to be notified.

Mine also says to notify anything such as criminal convictions that have changed since the policy started. As II has said it is wise to notify them of anything that is a rating factor. If in doubt .....

I would imagine the rebuild cost will have increased as it will be more expensive to reinstate interior wall finishes, floor, electrics, decoration etc than it would for a garage which is likely brick or block walls with a concrete floor.

On a side note, is your car insurance based on your car being garaged at night.