Insurers classify before they price, and every awkward question is about which category the building falls into. Answering them clearly is most of the work.
Movable or immovable is the first fork
A house on a permanent foundation, connected to services, is insured as a building. The same house on wheels, unconnected, is closer to a leisure vehicle policy. The premium, the cover and the claims process all differ.
Say which you are before asking for a quote. A policy taken out under the wrong description is a policy that may not pay.
Occupation type changes everything
Permanent residence, holiday use, short-term letting and unoccupied for months are four different risks. Unoccupancy in particular has clauses — many policies reduce cover after thirty or sixty days empty.
If you let the house, you need a policy that covers paying guests. A domestic policy usually excludes them entirely, and that exclusion surfaces only at claim time.
What they will ask about the construction
Frame material, cladding material, whether there is a wood-burning stove, how the house is anchored, and whether the electrical installation has a certificate. Each answer moves the price, and a certificate you already have moves it downward.
Keep the build documentation. Photographs of the frame and the vapour layer, the electrical certificate, the flue installation record — these are the difference between a straightforward claim and an argument.
Anchoring and wind
A lightweight building has a wind uplift question that a masonry house does not. Insurers ask how it is held down, and on exposed coastal plots they ask precisely. A designed anchoring detail with a calculation answers it.
This is also worth having for your own sake. Uplift is the failure mode that damages a compact building most severely and most suddenly.
Contents, liability and the terrace
Contents cover in a small house is easy to underestimate — a fitted interior means much of what you would call contents elsewhere is part of the building here. Ask which side of the line the fitted furniture sits on.
Public liability matters if anyone else uses the terrace, and it is usually cheap. It is also usually absent from the first quote unless you ask.