Lodgers 'could alter home insurance cover'
Personal insurance
24th September 2009
Home insurance customers have been warned that their policies may be affected if they take in a lodger or sublet a property.
Malcolm Tarling, a spokesman for the Association of British Insurers (ABI), explained that customers should advise their insurer under such circumstances whether they have a lodger when they take out a policy or later rent rooms or sublet the property out to others under an existing policy.
In order to ensure that cover is not invalidated, he advised: "What you always should do is to make sure the insurer knows about any change to the risk."
Mr Tarling explained that the terms under which insurance was provided may be altered by such circumstances and his comments follow remarks made earlier this week by Matt Hutchinson, the director of Spareroom.com, who claimed that the number of people letting out spare rooms has risen sharply during the recession.
Mr Hutchinson estimated that the figure has leapt from approximately 477,000 12 months ago to around 720,000.
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