Home Insurance when you have a lodger - experiences/advice please

chicadeeme

Hi everyone,

I am just looking for any advice or experience anyone has with insuring their home (both contents and buildings) if they have a lodger.

I know that not many insurers will offer cover for this, so I am just wondering which ones people have had good experiences with?
Or is specialist insurance the best way to go?

I am not looking to cover my lodger's contents, just my own property and buildings, but I am wondering whether certain types of cover is still worth it; as how do you prove things like accidental damage was by you and not your tenant, so do they fob you off with this if you make a claim?

Unfortunately I have a medical condition which means that I am not well enough to spend hours calling companies to see which over cover, etc so any advice or help would be really be most welcome.

Many thanks

InsideInsurance

There are many insurers that are happy for you to have a single lodger it is just if you have multiple that it becomes more of a problem.

Unless it is malicious damage then there is no issues with lodger caused damage. Theft is the one where the problems are introduced as many policies require any house with non-family members residing in it to have signs of forced or violent entry for a theft claim to be considered.

butler_helen

More than provided our insurance but we bought it before lodger moved in and merely informed them when lodger arrived/left.

It was the same as a standard policy just for buildings and our contents. However they would not cover accidental damage as there was no way to "prove" who had caused damage. We couldn't find any insurance which wod provide accidental damage and so we moved the lodger on (and for other reasons). There must be insurance out there though but I can't help with who.

HappyMJ

If you have a lodger you would generally lock away anything valuable by storing it in a safe. If any damage is caused to something like a TV and it is the lodgers fault then it is the lodgers responsibility to replace the item so make sure any deposit you take is sufficient but not too high to deter a lodger. i.e don't have expensive stuff about.