Home Buildings Insurance Advice

cogibear

Hi,

My wife and I live in a property bought and let privately to us by a family friend who lives in Holland. We have had problems getting buildings insurance for our Dutch friend because we don't have a tenancy agreement set up between us with a management company acting as a middle man. We did have a landlord insurance policy and had explained the arrangement but renewal time came and they decided to end it. We are trying to find out if you can insure the building if you don't own it outright i.e. if my wife is put on the deeds and given a share of the property 10% to 50% can we insure all of the property in her name etc or will the fact that the other owner lives in Holland still be a problem?

We cant seem to get a straight answer from call centre staff who don't really deal with the 'out of the ordinary' situations.

Thanks Alan.

hugoshavez

cogibear wrote: »

Hi,

My wife and I live in a property bought and let privately to us by a family friend who lives in Holland. We have had problems getting buildings insurance for our Dutch friend because we don't have a tenancy agreement set up between us with a management company acting as a middle man. We did have a landlord insurance policy and had explained the arrangement but renewal time came and they decided to end it. We are trying to find out if you can insure the building if you don't own it outright i.e. if my wife is put on the deeds and given a share of the property 10% to 50% can we insure all of the property in her name etc or will the fact that the other owner lives in Holland still be a problem?

We cant seem to get a straight answer from call centre staff who don't really deal with the 'out of the ordinary' situations.

Thanks Alan.

No need for a middle man in a tenancy agreement, but a good idea to knock one up between you and the owner. There are plenty of free examples online.

If your wife owns a share, then yes she could insure it.

This will be much more costly and time consuming than the owner simply insuring it. Why doesn't he/she just get a policy?

cogibear

We are thinking the cost of insuring directly will save money over landlords insurance costs which offset the cost of changing the deeds (over time). We found that trying to get landlords insurance without a UK address was the problem and the fact that the owner has never lived in the UK.

rs65

You don't need to be on the deeds to insure it but you do need to have an insurable interest.

A tenancy agreement could have a clause stating that the tenant must arrange insurance.

Rules out using comparison sites as most require the property to be owned and occupied by the insured. Try a local broker.

dacouch

If the landlord lives abroad and I assume pays tax abroad, are you aware that you should be deducting income tax (for your landlord) from your rent payment which you should pass onto HMRC.

If you don't then it's you the HMRC will come after.