house insurance & broker

Josh_Milner

Hi All,

We’ve currently let our house insurance lapse due to having home improvements done and wanted to make sure at the end of them we got the correct insurance at a fair price rather than changing our details mid part through a policy and be stung.

So here is our dilemma ... “house insurance” we currently have had a loft conversion adding a large dorma, all building regs have been followed and it’s been inspected as two extra bedrooms so when we sell the house we have been advised by both the specialist loft conversion company and the independent building inspector that it will be listed on the market as a 4 bed property and that for the new owners the council tax band would change.

Now that’s out of the way our last insurance was for a 2 bed property with no flat roof but now I estimate the roof is around 40% flat meaning our new insurance is going to be for a 4 bed property with 40% flat roof. Could this effect a claim in future if they looked at how it was insured before and am I better off staying away from comparence sites and going direct to a local broker so this can be explained face to face also I would insure with a flat roof of around 40-50% to make sure it’s covered. The price this year as more or less doubled to what we paid last year.

Also moving forward with other insurance in the future am I better off with a broker rather than a internet based quote ? My friend uses a broker and recently had his car wrote off they paid him out £4100 for a old discovery where a cheap online company would of most likely paid out around £700 granted he pays around £100 extra a year to insure his car than I do.

But what’s you thoughts on brokers over picking the cheapest quote off line ?

Thanks
Josh

ACG

Most policies now a days are bedroom rated policies as far as I am aware.
Providing you declare it as a 4 bedroom property it should be fine. In terms of the flat roof, I am not 100% sure but assuming it is within the insurers criteria it should be fine.

paddyandstumpy

As above regarding bedroom rated. You’ve added 2 beds, these houses cost more to rebuild and the insurance costs more as a result.

Only thing to add is 40% flat roof may mean you’ll fall outside of some insurers ‘computer says no’ approach.

If you want to try a local broker, avoid Swinton.

Josh_Milner

paddyandstumpy wrote: »

As above regarding bedroom rated. You’ve added 2 beds, these houses cost more to rebuild and the insurance costs more as a result.

Only thing to add is 40% flat roof may mean you’ll fall outside of some insurers ‘computer says no’ approach.

If you want to try a local broker, avoid Swinton.

Thanks to you both, right that’s cleared it up a little bit another concern is regarding the roof you only have one option and now our roof is mainly tile but the flat bit is rubber and it doesn’t allow two options.... I’m on my last night shift tonight so tomorrow I’ll pop in the brokers. One I’ve thought of going to is a independent and it’s in a village a guy at work lives in so I’ve asked him questions regarding them but unfortunately he’s never used them but has told me his friend has been going there for around 5 years and it’s been there around 30 years so they must be doing something right.

Thanks