Cellar, Loft and home insurance

ejv

Found a 100 year old recently renovated house in market.
It has loft (storage)and cellar (boiler and storage)
How would these affect home insurance?(the main home is 5 bed only)
Thanks

eddddy

You would just take out a normal home insurance policy.

Some policies are based on the rebuild cost - which your valuer/ surveyor should tell you.

Other policies are based on the number of bedrooms - make sure that you read the definition of 'bedroom' carefully, and answer accurately.

As gocompare says:

A bedroom is generally defined as a room either originally designed for sleeping in (even if now used for other purposes), or later converted for sleeping in. For example, a house extended by loft conversion into a bedroom would increase its total number of bedrooms.

Link: https://www.gocompare.com/insurance/insurance-jargon-buster/

Edit to add...

You can try putting the house details into insurance comparison sites, to get an idea of likely premiums.

da_rule

If the cellar was dug out as part of the renovations (unlikely but you never know) or the loft was made habitable then you would want to see the relevant building regs certificates.

If it is an old cellar and the loft just has some loft boards down so you can store things up there then it won’t make a difference.

I’ve never seen a specialist insurance product for cellars (or habitable loft spaces). As eddddy says, you just include them in the relevant questions regarding number of rooms/floors etc.

davidmcn

They wouldn't.

SmashedAvacado

one of the questions the insurers will ask you is how many floors does the house have. I would say that the cellar counts but the loft doesn't if its via a loft hatch. i would get the insurers to confirm so you dont get issues should you have to claim.

davidmcn

da_rule wrote: »

If the cellar was dug out as part of the renovations (unlikely but you never know) or the loft was made habitable then you would want to see the relevant building regs certificates.

You would, though it's got nothing to do with buildings insurance.

SmashedAvacado wrote: »

one of the questions the insurers will ask you is how many floors does the house have. I would say that the cellar counts

I wouldn't, assuming we're talking about something which isn't habitable space (restricted headroom, no windows/ventilation, damp etc).

OP, if you want to know what sort of things do affect buildings insurance, just go onto one of the comparison sites and answer the questions to get a quote.

ejv

Thanks to all who responded.
The loft is accessed by a proper door and steep stairs from the first floor(not a flap door)
The cellar is unlikely a newly dug out, as it has a massive cast iron heating tank (antique piece)which surely looks a century old.There is no way to get it in or out through the present cellar entrance.

:A