Help! Could my household insurance be invalidated?

[annavc]

Not sure this is the right section but maybe someone can help. I live in a rented shared house and the 3 of us that live in the main house have a standard household contents insurance policy. The attic of the house is a seperate bedsit except for access which is through the main front door and up our stairs. We have just discovered that the woman who lives up there has given her mother a key to her flat but also to our front door and she uses this regularly to let herself in whether the woman upstairs is in or not. We can't lock our bedroom doors and our posessions are all over the main house anyway. We are now wondering whether our insurance would be invalidated by someone who is a total stranger to us having free access to the house and therefore all our belongings. We're really angry about this but want to get our facts straight before confronting her about it and then possibly involving the landlord.

I'd be really grateful for any help anyone can give on this. Thank you.

Also posted in Home & Garden.

[Postdog]

The simple answer is yes - an insurance company will use any excuse not to pay out if it is good enough, and such a thing as this is a good excuse.

Quite aside from the insurance aspect, surely you have a right to some privacy anyway. I daresay you knew about the arrangement with someone living in the attic anyway, but do you know I think that too may be an excuse to invalidate your insurance if it came to it.

[Bob A Job]

I would have thought that with 4 different people renting a house you would need more than just 'standard household insurance'

I remember trying to get insurance when i lived in a pub and they told me that more than 2 unrelated people sharing would make any normal policy void, and that i would have to pay a ridiculous sum to cover my stuff.
I would suggest getting locks for your rooms anyway, sounds like you get no privacy at all.

[Postdog]

That last answer has a good point actually - it's not like it was an ordinary family. You could be paying for insurance that's irrelevent anyway.

[annavc]

Thanks for your answers. The policy we have is totally sufficient for the 3 of us in the main house - i made sure of that when the policy was taken out so I have no concerns there. Lack of privacy isn't a problem between us 3 as we are friends and rent the main house together. Putting locks on our bedrooms would create problems as it would officially mean we were all seperate tenants which in turn would mean getting individual tv licences among other things which is not necessary as we have a communal living room. The problem is with the seperate flat - she has her own insurance, her own tv licence etc and her contract states that access to the rest of the house is restricted to the front door and stairs. We don't have a problem with her as we now know and trust her but we are extremely uncomfortable with the fact that she has given a key to someone else - someone who is basically a complete stranger to us.

I have now spoken to the insurance company who interestingly couldn't give me a definitive answer - they had never encountered this before. I shall have to think how best to tackle this one!

Thank you for your help.

[lady_p_gold]

I would get onto the landlord right away, it is totally unacceptable to have someone wandering through the house and if you have a Contract then I think that would be breaking it. If not, then I would ask for a rent reduction or move out.