SCOTLAND has many beautiful and listed buildings, and owning one can be a source of joy. However, when it comes to insuring a listed property, cover will be more hard to come by and the price significantly higher than for a standard modern home.

Insurers claim the reason for this is that the cost of repairing a historic property, and putting it back in exactly the same condition, after a fire for example, can be expensive.

This is because there are stringent planning rules which must be met when repairing or altering a listed building, which can result in a jail sentence if flouted.

For this reason the repairs that need to be made after a claim are likely to be complicated and as such often involve huge expense and delays. Indeed, parts of Edinburgh's Old Town are still to be rebuilt following the Cowgate fire of 2002.

As such, buying insurance for a listed building involves greater care and research than for an ordinary home and is likely to cost much more, according to the AA's Ian Crowder. "The principal concern of insurers if the building is listed is that it may be difficult to exactly replicate the architectural or other features that led to the building's listing in the first place – hence premiums would be higher than in a conventional building," he says.

Furthermore, the scarcity of materials and skills, once so readily available, can add to the delays and cost.

Nina Clancy, a spokeswoman for NFU Mutual in the Scottish Borders, says: "If you look at some of the old buildings, they have balustrades and ornate eagles and so forth. There are very few qualified stone masons capable of conducting such work today and the cost can be phenomenal.

"Many properties have very large windows, and there are few sash window companies that make windows that big any more. You have to go to a specialist.

"Then, once you get inside, there is the cornicing, which also requires specialists, although fortunately, these do exist and are not so hard to get hold of.

"More problematic though is replacing items such as oak panelling which, again, requires specialist joiners. The scarcity of these craftsmen pushes up the price."

Finding materials can be a nightmare, particularly when stone is no longer quarried, and tiles cannot be sourced.

Clancy adds: "Many of the old country houses in the Borders are made from sandstone, but you can't get the stone any more. The quarries have closed. This problem exists in many areas. The local stone can be very different from the stone in Aberdeen, for example.

"So it can take time to source the material we need to repair the home, and when we do find it, it can be expensive."

Finally, Morethan's Carmel McCarthy warns listed home owners that they cannot afford to cut corners: "When buying a listed property it is important to take time to research the property and make sure that any alterations or building works have been carried out to the highest specification and been approved by the relevant planning authorities."

If you fail to do this, she warns, you run the risk of having inadequate insurance and your claim could be refused.

When buying insurance you must specify that the building is listed, and disclose its category of listing. Scotland currently lists homes under A, B, or C categories, depending on their historic value and the rarity of their special architectural features. Premiums may differ for these different categories.

This may preclude simply buying off the internet via a comparison sites, as these are primarily aimed at customers with homes of standard construction.

Crowder says the AA's website has a drop-down menu that includes 'listed', although at the moment it is oddly lumped in with 'mobile home'. But many websites will not include listed options. If you have not given full details of the listing you will not be covered.

Insurers will also want an accurate rebuild valuation. This is likely to be significantly higher than for a normal property, and is not an easy figure to guess. The various rebuilding calculators available in the market will not be appropriate.

Hiscox's Sebastian Pryke says: "For listed buildings the importance of specialist valuation cannot be overemphasised."

Clancy adds: "We always advise our clients to have a professional valuer assess the rebuild costs. This does cost money, but we pledge to rebate the fee back to customers over about three to five years."

Whereas the rebuild costs of a modern home can be a fraction of the property price, with a four-bedroom home costing between £100,000 and £200,000 to reinstate, a listed home is likely to cost two or three times that or more.

The more unusual the construction the higher the premium. Brick or stone buildings with slate or tiled roofs should be straightforward.

Not all insurers look sympathetically towards a listing, and some may not cover them at all. Big home insurers, such as Norwich Union, the AA, Morethan and Saga will cover listed buildings, however others, such as NFU Mutual, Hiscox and Ecclesiastical, specialise in this cover. Tesco will cover in certain circumstances but has a £50,000 ceiling on contents insurance unless you have a burglar alarm.

High premiums almost a bridge too far
LISA Dransfield fell in love with her flat in Bridge House overlooking the Firth of the Forth the minute she stepped over the threshold, writes Teresa Hunter.

The mother of two, who works for a charity, says: "I've read somewhere that most people make up their mind on a house within seven seconds of going inside. I made up my mind in a fraction of that time. I just loved it."

Bridge House was built to house the engineers working on the building of the Forth Rail Bridge, and as such is an important part of our cultural heritage. So Lisa was not surprised to discover it was listed, nor was she deterred by the extra complications this would involve, including insurance to maintenance.

When it came to buying insurance, Lisa searched exhaustively. "The children were young when we bought, and I wasn't working so cost was an absolute priority. I used the online comparison sites to narrow it down to half-a-dozen possible insurers. But when I contacted them to go through the detailed application process, they all fell by the wayside. Either they refused cover, or their premiums were so prohibitively expensive that they were effectively doing so."

As the search continued, Lisa, who is married to Matthew, and has a daughter Eve, seven, and son Oliver, 10, discovered she faced two hurdles. Not only was Bridge House listed, but it was close to water.

Finally, she settled on a quote from Tesco, which had a 50% discount offer at the time. "This offer cut the bills substantially, but we have stayed with Tesco because they have consistently come out cheapest for us," says Lisa.