Home insurance

ericbateson

Hi all
I'm in the middle of buying a house. The surveyor has come back to say the kitchen extension had no planning permission and doesn't meet the building regulations (lack of insulation).

However, the extension was done a fair while ago (perhaps 15 years?) so my main issue is insurance. Will the lack of regulation invalidate any home insurance policy? I asked DirectLine and they said they wouldn't insure a home which didn't have the right planning permission, or that it might invalidate a claim. Obviously if a dodgily-build wall falls down, the insurance wouldn't cover that dodgy wall, but would the whole policy be invalidated if part of the building didn't meet regulations?

I can't seem to find any other details online from other providers and their call centres are, as ever, understaffed.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!
Eric

davidmcn

As I said on your other thread, the trouble is you're asking call centre staff who are clueless about this sort of thing. It doesn't matter. If it mattered, they'd ask about it on their proposal form. They don't.

ericbateson

davidmcn said:

As I said on your other thread, the trouble is you're asking call centre staff who are clueless about this sort of thing. It doesn't matter. If it mattered, they'd ask about it on their proposal form. They don't.

Thanks for your replies. Would it affect whether they paid out in the even of some disaster though? If they later found out that the building didn't meet regulations surely that would be grounds for them not to pay out?

davidmcn

ericbateson said:

davidmcn said:

As I said on your other thread, the trouble is you're asking call centre staff who are clueless about this sort of thing. It doesn't matter. If it mattered, they'd ask about it on their proposal form. They don't.

Thanks for your replies. Would it affect whether they paid out in the even of some disaster though? If they later found out that the building didn't meet regulations surely that would be grounds for them not to pay out?

Why "surely"? Why do you think it would be relevant? Have you ever seen any policy which had conditions along those lines, or seen examples of insurers not paying out using such an excuse?

Consider that a huge proportion of buildings have never complied with building regulations, because they were built before building regulations existed. Do you think they're uninsured?