House and Annex Insurance

Otis23

We are trying to insure our mum's annexe that she lives in on our land. It is a separate dwelling for her. It has a council tax band but she is exempt due to her age and being a dependent. For the last few years our insurance company insisted that her property is definitely insured and that by us adding up the total amount of rooms between our house and hers then we have our quote and are covered. However, after switching to another company and doing this and phoning to check we were then told that we need to insure both properties separately. Our problem now is who do we believe? In the event of having to claim we don't want it dismissed due to 'false' information.

Please can you advise which is the correct option? If we try to insure as a separate dwelling it needs a house value which of course we do not have as it is an 'outbuilding' on our land. Do we need specialist insurance? Are we likely to pay ridiculous premiums just because of this situation? Maybe landlord insurance, even though we take no rent from our mum?

If you have any knowledge of this situation we would be so grateful.

Thank you so much. 

DullGreyGuy

You dont need a house value, you need a rebuild value which any free standing structure can have.

Does it have its own title and postal address?

dunstonh

However, after switching to another company and doing this and phoning to check we were then told that we need to insure both properties separately. 

Different companies will view this differently.   Some companies won't cover annexes at all on a single plan and will only offer cover if each is a distinct property (postal address, Land registry etc) but you need a policy for each.   Others will include the annexe (and any other buildings on site).

From what you have said, it appears that you have bought a policy that doesn't cover annexes.

You may need a policy that doesn't appear on a comparison site or doesn't appear at the budget end of the comparison site list.

I personally use NFU as we have many external buildings, and they cover annexes, barns etc, that belong to the property.  You just need to make sure that the building sum insured is sufficient to cover the lot.  I could easily go to a comparison site and still buy cover within their definitions but none of the external buildings would be covered.