No. of rooms for house insurance

[Perlats]

We have been with our present insurers for well over a decade but decided recently to get a quote from another. We are insured for a three bed-roomed house but the insurer giving the quote looked round our house and disputes this. He claims we must count our landing as a further bedroom. This seems far fetched to me. It is a reasonable space for a landing, enough for a small sofa, desk and bookcase but is open to the stairwell and four other doorways so affords no privacy for a bedroom and has never been used as such.

Similarly, downstairs we have one main room which we use as kitchen, dining and sitting room. Behind this is an outhouse kind of room where we keep the washing machine, another fridge etc. It is a little over 3m x 3m. This particular insurer says we must count it as another "piece". He says we cannot count it as a kitchen as the main room is this but we can't discount the main room (as a kitchen) because it is lived in as well. Fair enough but there is no way we would ever "live" in the utility room which is in a very rough state and has only a tiny opaque window.

Our current insurers never inspected the property but we gave them what we thought was an honest decription. Do landings and utility rooms really have to count as seperate rooms? We don't want to be underinsured but neither do we want to have to pay more than neccessary and we feel this second insurer is rather over-zealous.

Please give me your thoughts on this.

[Théière]

We have just arranged our new insurance and they didn't count kitchens, landings, bathrooms or indeed our store room which is 6mx3m but not habitable (yet). They only wanted the rooms that were main habitable rooms, two bedrooms and the lounge but did make note of the cave. Although your description of the landing sounds plausible (the French frequently only use a curtain to provide privacy) as another living space our's isn't.

To my mind if they are proving tricky to deal with now, what would they be like in the event of a claim?

Adding another room, how much does that actually increase your insurance by, might only be a few euros?

[Anton Redman II]

We a short 'phone call to insure current house. About 9 months latter moved to a local broker and they did count a landing as a room but said if we had had no furniture on it it would not have counted.  

[Chancer]

If it is less than 9m2 then they should not really count it as a bedroom.

Any rooms of more than 40m2 are counted as two pieces.

[mint]

[quote user="Chancer"]

If it is less than 9m2 then they should not really count it as a bedroom.

Any rooms of more than 40m2 are counted as two pieces.

[/quote]

Chance, please put me straight on this one:  I thought it was more than 46 sq m?

[pachapapa]

It is a contractual thing subject to the terms&conditions of each insurer.

http://www.assurone.com/lexique-assurance-habitation/pieces-principales.php
http://www.assuremieux.com/assurance-habitation/devis/nombre-de-pieces-habitation

The comparateur takes in to account the idiosyncrasies of participating insurers.

[Chancer]

It was AXA sleazebagman that thought up that one Sweet 17, if ever one day I have a property to live in even approaching 40m2 then it will have some relevance to me!

[Perlats]

Thank you for all your replies. From them I can see that I will probably have to concede on the landing as its total area is more than 9m2 despite being long and narrow and full of doors. Still not sure about the utility room but the web sites are very interesting for comparisons - thank you.