Granny annexe & home insurance

lil-lepo

Hello,

Looking for some advice on Home Insurance relating to a Granny Annexe.

We have built a Self-contained granny annexe in our garden for use by family only (it will never be let due to the planning permission given and it is classed as part of our property), it is separate from the main house with its own front door, but does not have its own separate driveway from the road and is not allowed a separate address.

Current home insurance provider classes this as an 'outbuilding', but concerned this may come back to bite us if anything happened; does anyone have any advice on an companies that may provide insurance for this?

Would like to compare now we are coming up for renewal - it has been built in the last year.

Thanks for your help.

Reardoa

Id expect them to class it as an outbuilding unless it was attached or had its own separate address. The main issue is how much you are insured for. Just make sure the sums insured are ok for both buildings and contents. Particularly contents as insurers usually set a very low limit not designed to cover an annex. Buildings should be ok as that should be included within the sum insured for your home anyway.

System

We have a similar situation and our insurer (Aviva at the time) said it was an outbuilding if used as an annexe to the house, but if someone (a granny, as it happened) lived in it then it needed its own insurance.

As the occupier was not the owner they couldn't offer such insurance, and said it needed landlord insurance. We did this while my mother was alive, and continued when our daughter lived there, but when she left home it reverted to being an annexe again.

lil-lepo

Thank you, we are currently with AXA who class it as an outbuilding if though we have family living there, but this is what worries me.

Wasn't sure if landlord insurance would cover as we are not allowed to actually 'rent' it out.

Think I will have to spend some time calling around.

PatMac

A self-contained annexe like yours will always be classed as ancillary to the main property. So, from an insurance perspective, it needs covering as an outbuilding (landlord insurance isn’t applicable). This can affect your premiums, particularly if the annexe was expensive.

Some insurers have specific policies, which provide additional ‘holiday let’ or ‘granny annexe’ cover, so it’s worth shopping around.