Renting a room to a friend: insurance?

clockworkpurple

Hi all,

I'm in the process of buying my first home, and intend to rent the spare room to my best friend who's also been my housemate for the past seven years.

Looking at combined buildings/contents insurance, adding a lodger seems to increase the policy cost by about £100 per year. My brother (who rented his spare room to friends for many years) say I don't need to declare my friend as a lodger as we have a relationship (his argument being that if we were a couple it wouldn't be necessary, and it's not like he's a stranger).

I suspect that the insurance companies won't see it like this, and certainly don't want to get into the situation whereby I might not be insured. Can anyone clarify the situation?

Manchee

I would suggest looking at the paperwork for your insurance or talking to your insurance provider.

Although I would think if you didn't declare your friend as a lodger and needed to claim, it would be pretty obvious you weren't in a relationship / living as partners as you each have a separate room.

Why not just ask your friend to pay the additional? After all, his stuff would be covered too.

sandsni

TBH £100 per year isn't a lot when compared to the complications of not having the right insurance if you ever need to claim.

AFK_Matrix

Yeah its a pain with the insurance as mine went up by about that much when i go my lodger. But that's not much per month and surely you can factor that into the amount the Lodger is paying you?

But do be aware that all the insurance companies I talked to said that if the tenant deliberately breaks something etc in the house or nicks something then this is not covered!! Rather annoying really.

G_M

My own insurer did not charge extra when I got in a lodger, so shop around.

You will normally only be covered for theft if there is a break in, so if the lodger nicks your stereo you can't claim, but that is hardly a surprise.

(The same is obviously true if you don't use the locks and a burglar just walks in - no claim).

clockworkpurple

Thanks all for the advice. I suspected that my brother had chosen to be less than careful with disclosures when buying his insurance (not something I'm prepared to be!). £100 isn't a lot of money, but as a FTB I didn't want to have to pay it if I didn't need to...£100 can buy a lot of household goods!

Will double check when I buy my insurance.

dacouch

Manchee wrote: »

I would suggest looking at the paperwork for your insurance or talking to your insurance provider.

Although I would think if you didn't declare your friend as a lodger and needed to claim, it would be pretty obvious you weren't in a relationship / living as partners as you each have a separate room.

Why not just ask your friend to pay the additional? After all, his stuff would be covered too.

The OP's own building and contents policy is unlikely to cover the lodger's contents

ultrarunner

dacouch wrote: »

The OP's own building and contents policy is unlikely to cover the lodger's contents

This is the case with my insurance policy, essentially I am insured against a lodger nicking my stuff, but it's down to the lodger to arrange their own insurance for their own possessions.

Yorkie1

Someone mentioned "tenant" above. Make sure you do not use this word when discussing with your insurance company as they may assume you're letting out the full property and not just getting a lodger.

Also, remember you need to get a LL's gas safety certificate if you do rent out a room.