Building insurance for loft room

mochi310

Hi, I am close to exchange on my first home, and started enquiring building insurance. The house is sold to be as 2 bedrooms plus a loft. The loft is original but my surveyor said it’s not meeting the current regulations for a bedroom, although it is currently used as a bedroom and I plan to continue using it as a guest room. The question is: do I insure the house as a 2 bedrooms or 3 bedrooms? An insurer I spoke to today said 2 bedrooms, but I’m just a bit uneasy and don’t want to be under-insured. Also noted the premium difference between 2 and 3 bedrooms is only 30 pound/year so not a big deal, but unclear whether there is any other downsides? 

Any advice, please? 

user1977

When you say "the loft is original", do you mean the house was originally built with the loft as a habitable room? If so then all it needed to do was meet building regulations (if any!) which applied when it was built. You don't need to constantly update buildings to meet current building regulations. I would treat it as a bedroom (assuming it's otherwise suitable to be used as one) for insurance purposes anyway.

DullGreyGuy

What was it marketed as? If it was marketed as a 2 bed then the fitting out of the loft doesn't sound as if it was original. 

Most insurers would state that its what a estate agent would market it as but no one is going to have issues with you paying the extra £30 if you want to avoid the risk of a fight in the future. 

mochi310

user1977 said:

When you say "the loft is original", do you mean the house was originally built with the loft as a habitable room? If so then all it needed to do was meet building regulations (if any!) which applied when it was built. You don't need to constantly update buildings to meet current building regulations. I would treat it as a bedroom (assuming it's otherwise suitable to be used as one) for insurance purposes anyway.

Yes it was originally built when the house was built- not sure whether it’s for habitable though! The surveyor told me that the key problem is not having fire escape (need to install a door etc. to meet today’s requirements. The seller said they brought this house 20 years ago as a 3 bed then the legal process revealed it, his seller back then needed to get an indemnity insurance blah. Thank you, I will treat it as a 3 bedroom to have a peace of mind. 

mochi310

DullGreyGuy said:

What was it marketed as? If it was marketed as a 2 bed then the fitting out of the loft doesn't sound as if it was original. 

Most insurers would state that its what a estate agent would market it as but no one is going to have issues with you paying the extra £30 if you want to avoid the risk of a fight in the future. 

It’s marketed as 2 bedrooms plus loft - with bracket the owner currently use it as a bedroom … yea sounds like safer to just pay a small extra to have a peace of mind… thank you!!