Urgent issue with coach house owner and insurance

G_M

wantedtoomuch wrote: »

To clarify, we own and our selling a freehold home, which has a leasehold garage under a coach house, our house is owned by us. The coach house as with any coach house HAS to insure the garages that it stands on as they form part of their home. The people buying our home - their solicitor requires us to get off the coach house owner, the documentation to prove the garage is insured and as their actual policy doesn't actually state this want us to get them to amend their policy to reflect their insurance covers the garage. The coach house owner is responsible for all the garages and their repair and are liable to insure them.
To further add, we have never had an issue with the neighbours at all and the lady owner seemed to come across as being scared to ask her partner who allegedly deals with the paperwork.
The problem we have, is without the coach house proving they have the garages insured we are stuck! We are supposed to pay them £10 a year to cover an amount towards their insurance.

In that case, yes you have rights, and you do what any leaseholder does when their freeholder is apparently not complying with the terms of the lease.

1) you write, in your capacity as leaseholder, to the freeholder
a) enclosing a copy of the lease and highlighting the relevant (insurance) clause
b) you remind them of your last payment (£10 or whatever) which covers your share of the insurance
c) ask for a complete copy of the policy showing compliance with the lease

Do it formally in writing to the named freeholder and request a response within, say, 3 working days (though you may not get this!). You could send it Recorded Delivery as this makes people take a bit more notice, but there is always the risk they don't sign for/accept the letter, either because they are away, or deliberately.

2) if you get no satisfactory response, you use the courts to enforce the lease

More here:

http://www.lease-advice.org/

ging84

almost zero chance of getting it resolved by doing it formally in writing in time to complete by friday
only way it can really get resolved in time is for the buyer to insure it himself

G_M

ging84 wrote: »

almost zero chance of getting it resolved by doing it formally in writing in time to complete by friday
only way it can really get resolved in time is for the buyer to insure it himself

True.



:T

Georgia400

Hi, have you resolved this? I am in a similar situation where the coach house owner has been told that he has the right insurance but my solicitor says he hasn't. I am going nowhere fast and this is so frustrating

griffi137a

Lets try and clear this up.....

I own a coach house with 3 garages underneath...
1.I am the freeholder for the complete building.1 flat.3 garages
2.When I insure the building I insure it as a WHOLE building not individual units (1 x flat . 3 x garages)
3.I have the dimensions of flat and garages on freehold so work out how much insurance per sq.metre costs.and this is how I charge the leaseholders of the other 2 garages.
4.It does NOT mention anywhere on the buildings policy or schedule about the garages being leased to anyone else or there actually being 3 garages.

Hope this helps..

growler22

If the other garages are "owned by the freeholder" and leased out for a small sum (I presume) + a percentage of the insurance.....what is to stop the freeholder from NOT leasing the garages out? Or is it simply that they form part of the properties (those owned by the users of these garages)?

ging84

once the lease is granted, it can't be ungranted, without a serious breach of the lease.
These are often 999 year leases, so not much chance to wait it out

doubt the op cares now, he was meant to complete last year

G_M

I suspect wantedtoomuch does not care much one way or the other......