Buildings Insurance for a leasehold flat

JennyW_2

This is the situ. My father-in-law is the freeholder of a detached house which has been converted into 2 flats. He owns and lives in the top flat and me and my husband own and live in the bottom flat (we have the leasehold)

Being old-school and not computer/internet minded, he always renews insurances with the same companies, therefore not sourcing good deals. The renewal for the buildings insurance has come through and for our flat it's quite expensive. He will probably pay his but can I take out my own buildings insurance for the flat with another company if I'm not the freeholder of the building or the flat? thanks.

courtjester

It sounds like you already do this - you refer to 'his' premium and 'our' premium', or are you merely referring to 50% of the total on the main policy...???

In general, you are insuring your *interest* in the property - which is governed by the terms of your lease. If the lease says that the freeeholder agrees to insure the building as a whole and then source a proportion of the cost from the leaseholders pro rata, it may be difficult or awkward to take out a policy covering something different from your legal liability defined under the lease.

As a leaseholder, you are generally not directly responsible for maintaining or insuring the structure or common parts, only for paying your share of the costs... if you take out a policy covering 50% of the building value, you would be insuring something not owned by you and the policy may not pay out.

You need to reconcile what you want to do regarding policies with the terms of the lease and make sure you are only insuring what the lease says is yours to insure.