Leasehold & buildings insurance

piccalilli82

Sounds like that's the rule generally but my freeholders insurance only covers the main shared parts of the building and my lease states that I must buy insurance for the rest of my demised premises. This Ocaso company 'recommended' in the leasehold handbook seem to be the only ones I've spoken to that will insure the specific parts of the internal flat, feels like a bit of a rip off!

my_names_dave

A grey area indeed. Ocaso are not the only insurers to offer this cover, but you will need to phone a local broker to get a quote and make sure you have the right policy. Essentially you need to cover the internal 'shell' of the flat, so the kitchen, toilet, boiler etc. Stress your point and make sure they understand.

piccalilli82

Just updating this for the benefit of anyone who stumbles across this future. It seems Lewisham's policy on this is extremely unusual if not unique, even their insurance department have admitted its a huge headache for leaseholders (and themselves!) the broker I spoke to could only find one alternative provider who would cover this (at a very high premium) - this is partly because I plan to take on a lodger in future, the 2 other insurers he found refused to cover this and the one remaining provider would double the (already expensive!) premium if I took on even a working professional lodger. Given this I am going to fall back on the insurer recommended by the council as at least I know this meets the lease requirements. Good luck to anyone else dealing with this!

Ps - a final question, after an informal chat with a surveyor I have gone for a rebuild value of £70,000 for the parts of the flat I'm responsible for. Even this seems like a gross overestimate given the cost of the main and shared structure is the freeholder's responsibility but does that seem reasonable? (It's a 54sqm flat)