Buildings Insurance for Unplanned Loft Conversion

Steph1690

Hi. 
I bought my home last year. It's now coming up for me to renew my buildings insurance.

The property is 2 bedrooms (sold and valued at 2 bedroom).
20+ years ago the previous owners had the loft converted into another bedroom (fitted staircase, windows, doors etc). 
They never got planning permission for this.
I asked them to get indemnity insurance, which they did.

We lived next door to the property in the 90s, we know the previous family and the builder that done the renovations.

My question is, when getting my home insurance do I say this is a 2 or 3 bedroom? I previously said 2 bedroom and now I'm thinking maybe my insurance would be invalid.
If I call the insurance and explain the situation, can this cause me any problems with getting insurance?

Ideally I would like to get the correct permissions etc to check everything is upto standard but I don't know who to contact without opening up a can of worms. And I can't contact the council as this would invalidate the indemnity insurance.

Can anyone whos had a similar situation shed any light on whats best to do?
Thanks 

Sandtree

Insurers typically want to know the "legal" number of bedrooms it has and so if you've a box room that you are using as a study but its on the upper floor with all the other bedrooms they'd count it as such even if its not being used as such. That would imply its a 2 bed.

For safety, I'd double check with the insurer before you purchase as to see how they consider a room used as a bedroom but not legally classified as one. Direct Line for example talk about rooms that have permanently been converted for sleeping should be counted as a bedroom even if not originally one (though how you "permanently convert a room for sleeping" is another question)

Most insurers use either bedroom rating or sum insured rating... the other way to avoid the issue is to pick an insurer that doesnt ask how many bedrooms you have and therefore its a moot point  

TELLIT01

Sandtree said:

Insurers typically want to know the "legal" number of bedrooms it has and so if you've a box room that you are using as a study but its on the upper floor with all the other bedrooms they'd count it as such even if its not being used as such. That would imply its a 2 bed.

For safety, I'd double check with the insurer before you purchase as to see how they consider a room used as a bedroom but not legally classified as one. Direct Line for example talk about rooms that have permanently been converted for sleeping should be counted as a bedroom even if not originally one (though how you "permanently convert a room for sleeping" is another question)

Most insurers use either bedroom rating or sum insured rating... the other way to avoid the issue is to pick an insurer that doesnt ask how many bedrooms you have and therefore its a moot point  

Not very practical for the OP as they purchased the house last year.

davidmcn

Just treat it as a bedroom. It is a bedroom. Lack of building regulations doesn't magically make it a non-bedroom. (let's not go into what consents the remainder of the house has!)

Sandtree

TELLIT01 said:

Sandtree said:

Insurers typically want to know the "legal" number of bedrooms it has and so if you've a box room that you are using as a study but its on the upper floor with all the other bedrooms they'd count it as such even if its not being used as such. That would imply its a 2 bed.

For safety, I'd double check with the insurer before you purchase as to see how they consider a room used as a bedroom but not legally classified as one. Direct Line for example talk about rooms that have permanently been converted for sleeping should be counted as a bedroom even if not originally one (though how you "permanently convert a room for sleeping" is another question)

Most insurers use either bedroom rating or sum insured rating... the other way to avoid the issue is to pick an insurer that doesnt ask how many bedrooms you have and therefore its a moot point  

Not very practical for the OP as they purchased the house last year.

Before buying the insurance not the house... it will be practical each year unless they choose to auto renew with the same insurer every year

Steph1690

Thank you for the advice 

I called 2 different insurance companies to enquire.
They both told me different information.

The 1st said they would class it as having 3 bedrooms and to insure it as having 3.

The other said the house legally has 2 bedrooms so I should insure it as having 2. 
 
So I'm guessing each company has their own policy on what they class as a bedroom.

I still feel uneasy with this information. I feel like they can tell me anything and I just need to trust they would pay if I ever need to make a claim .
I couldn't find anything in my current insurance T&Cs to give me reassurance either.

davidmcn

Surely larger number of bedrooms = greater risk to insurer, so it's safer from your point of view to overestimate the number of bedrooms? I don't see an argument for them rejecting a claim because you told them it was 3 bedrooms and they think it's actually 2?

And what does a house "legally having" a certain number of bedrooms even mean? There isn't some sort of official register of bedrooms.

Sandtree

davidmcn said:

Surely larger number of bedrooms = greater risk to insurer, so it's safer from your point of view to overestimate the number of bedrooms? I don't see an argument for them rejecting a claim because you told them it was 3 bedrooms and they think it's actually 2?

And what does a house "legally having" a certain number of bedrooms even mean? There isn't some sort of official register of bedrooms.

Having an extra bedroom doesnt make a property more risky, not sure what you do in your bedrooms that makes you think it does 

Those that ask how many bedrooms a property has are typically offering blanket limits and so for pricing purposes its used as a proxy for the traditional sum insured.  Therefore more bedrooms probably means more stuff and so higher premiums and so I would agree that the safer answer is to count it as a bedroom as there arent consequences for marginal over insurance however given this is a money saving site if an insurers policy is that they wouldnt count it as a bedroom then no need to pay the extra premium.

Most insurers will ask what it would be advertised by an estate agent as having... whilst there is no legal register of bedrooms there are general principles of not misrepresenting whats being sold and so multiple estate agents presented with the same information would almost always agree on the number of bedrooms it should be advertised as having and a loft conversion without permission normally wont be counted as a bedroom.

davidmcn

Sandtree said:

davidmcn said:

Surely larger number of bedrooms = greater risk to insurer, so it's safer from your point of view to overestimate the number of bedrooms? I don't see an argument for them rejecting a claim because you told them it was 3 bedrooms and they think it's actually 2?

And what does a house "legally having" a certain number of bedrooms even mean? There isn't some sort of official register of bedrooms.

Having an extra bedroom doesnt make a property more risky, not sure what you do in your bedrooms that makes you think it does 

...more bedrooms probably means more stuff and so higher premiums 

Well, that's what I meant. Larger potential cost for the insurers.

multiple estate agents presented with the same information would almost always agree on the number of bedrooms it should be advertised as having and a loft conversion without permission normally wont be counted as a bedroom.

Based, for the avoidance of doubt, on rather mythological legal principles. As I alluded to above, does the original construction of the house (including the two "proper" bedrooms) have relevant building regulations approval? If not, are they allowed to call it a house at all?! If it's a loft conversion as historic as the one here, it is what it is. And if it looks like a bedroom and it's got a bed in it, it's a bedroom.