Advice needed - Freeholder charging too much

D_Man_3

As a leaseholder, I live in a block of four maisonettes. I know there have been no claims on any of these in the past five years but our insurance premium that they're making us pay is well over the odds.

For a two bed maisonette, each of us are being charged £350, I know for a fact I can get this for almost a quarter of the premium as a friend of mine is a broker. However, the terms of our lease state that the freeholder sorts out the insurance. They obviously haven't searched around though or have a nice cosy deal in place with their broker, and we're paying over the odds as a result. They also never send us a schedule with the premium on it, all we get is a 'sample document' which doesn't even state the sum insured.

Is there anything I can do to force their hand into getting us a better deal, or do we just have to lump it and pay up?

dacouch

Hi d_man

It does look a lot, can you give us a bit more info so we can make an educated "guess" whether it is very over the odds.

Does it have a flat? and if so roughly what percentage of the roof is flat

Fo you live in a city eg London

How old is the property and is it a listed building

Are the mainsonette 1 or 2 bedroom

D_Man_3

dacouch wrote: »

Hi d_man

It does look a lot, can you give us a bit more info so we can make an educated "guess" whether it is very over the odds.

Does it have a flat? and if so roughly what percentage of the roof is flat

Fo you live in a city eg London

How old is the property and is it a listed building

Are the mainsonette 1 or 2 bedroom

No flat roof, 2 bed maisonette, 1962 build in the KT area. As I said, a broker friend of mine got me a quote and for the whole block of four maisonettes it came out at £430, so I know for a fact we're paying well over the odds. All four leaseholders feel aggrieved about it but it appears there's not a lot we can do.

dacouch

It does seem a lot, the quote your friend got looks to be about the mark for the premium.

You can challenge the Free Holder at a Lease Holder Valuation Tribunial.

What I would recommend you do first is get your friend the broker to get a quote with the same Insurer you are already with and get him to do the building sum insured for a bit more than he expects (As the freeholder willl almost certainly have over insured the property as its not his money). This often demonstrates how much the freeholders quote is above the going rate and if they particularly want to use that Insurer you have a cheaper quote than his currrent one.

You can then use the above quotation along with perhaps another quotation eg the £430 quote to explain to him you feel the cost is unreasonable. I would suggest you draft a letter to this effect and get all of the other lease holders to sign it and then send it to him and ask for his reply within 21 days. If you are not satisfied with his answer then contact the tribunial.

It may be worth the residents forming a residents group and buying the freehold off of him so you can run the property yourselves

D_Man_3

Great idea, thanks!