Buildings insurance within a block of flats

CanarySimon

I own a flat within a block (and a share of the freehold). The building is insured for normal building insurance. The lease states that I am responsible for any fittings (such as pipes and partitions) from the concrete slab below to the same above and between external and party walls (basically anything within the perimeter of the flat). I have my contents insured but can't seem to find how I can insure the walls, pipes, flooring and anything else that would normally be covered under buildings insurance but would not be covered by contents insurance. Therefore, at the moment, I'm exposed to the cost of replacing any damage within my flat if say a washing machine leaked causing damaged to any fixtures, fittings, flooring, partitions, etc. Please can some one advise if I can get cover for this of it the freeholders' buildings insurance should cover this.

phill99

I thnk you may be getting confused between what is your responsibility and what is insured. The 'responsibility' for certain parts is exactly that: you have to look after them. However, the insurance will cover the whole of the building including the bits you arer responsible for. Check the buildings insurance policy to check this.

southcoastrgi

I doubt it phill, most flats run by a mangegement co will only have insurance for the block & communial area's, which won't cover leaks in the flats & any damaged caused to your flat or you're neighbours, in that respect flats are no diff to houses you should have your own buildings insurance

phill99

southcoastrgi wrote: »

I doubt it phill, most flats run by a mangegement co will only have insurance for the block & communial area's, which won't cover leaks in the flats & any damaged caused to your flat or you're neighbours, in that respect flats are no diff to houses you should have your own buildings insurance

I really beg to differ. I do a lot of reinstatement work for insurance companies and block managing agents. The vast majority of purpose built blocks have what are deemed 'block policies' or 'service charge policies'. They cover buildings insurance for the whole block, including individual flats. The cost is then recovered via the service charge. If you have a fire or flood in your individual flat (even if a leak affects another flat) you make a claim via the block policy.

Individuals simply have to take out separate policies for contents.

southcoastrgi

when I had a flat we ran our own management co of which i was chairman, the block insurance we had was exactly as i said, the OP def needs to do as you suggested & check the block insurance

phill99

southcoastrgi wrote: »

when I had a flat we ran our own management co of which i was chairman, the block insurance we had was exactly as i said, the OP def needs to do as you suggested & check the block insurance

I wasn't suggesting all blocks have block policies. But most do. Certainly those built in the last 30 years or so.

dacouch

southcoastrgi wrote: »

I doubt it phill, most flats run by a mangegement co will only have insurance for the block & communial area's, which won't cover leaks in the flats & any damaged caused to your flat or you're neighbours, in that respect flats are no diff to houses you should have your own buildings insurance

You must have been miss interpreting the block building policy.

How do you propose your block policy covering block and communial areas but not the internals of each flat would deal with a total loss eg a major fire or even a fire affecting half the building?

If you throw into the mix that each flat owner was also carrying their own building policy for their own flat (Assuming they all bothered to do this) and that each policy was with a different Insurer. How long do you think it would take to rebuild the property.

Granted some Insurers may exclude escape of water claims for flats due to the frequency of the claims but they would not expect the leaseholders to carry their own building insurance

southcoastrgi

dacouch wrote: »

You must have been miss interpreting the block building policy.

How do you propose your block policy covering block and communial areas but not the internals of each flat would deal with a total loss eg a major fire or even a fire affecting half the building?

If you throw into the mix that each flat owner was also carrying their own building policy for their own flat (Assuming they all bothered to do this) and that each policy was with a different Insurer. How long do you think it would take to rebuild the property.

Granted some Insurers may exclude escape of water claims for flats due to the frequency of the claims but they would not expect the leaseholders to carry their own building insurance

no missinterpretation at all, the policy we had covered the block & any damage caused to it so with your fire situ yes it would have been covered, however it didn't cover damage to individual flats caused by another flat ie leaks etc, this damage would either have to be paid by the flat owner or if they had insurance their insurance co.

they are hundreds of thousands of houses in this country that are leasehold do you expect the freeholder to take out a buildings insurance policy ?

the maintenance charge you pay every month covers the block insurance, general up-keep ie painting of communial areas, cleaning, up-keep of the grounds etc, it doesn't cover major repairs, ie if the block had a flat roof & this had worn out, the cost of this would be split between however many flats there were, ie new roof £200k / 20 flats each flat would get a bill for £10k

dacouch

southcoastrgi wrote: »

no missinterpretation at all, the policy we had covered the block & any damage caused to it so with your fire situ yes it would have been covered, however it didn't cover damage to individual flats caused by another flat ie leaks etc, this damage would either have to be paid by the flat owner or if they had insurance their insurance co.

they are hundreds of thousands of houses in this country that are leasehold do you expect the freeholder to take out a buildings insurance policy ?

the maintenance charge you pay every month covers the block insurance, general up-keep ie painting of communial areas, cleaning, up-keep of the grounds etc, it doesn't cover major repairs, ie if the block had a flat roof & this had worn out, the cost of this would be split between however many flats there were, ie new roof £200k / 20 flats each flat would get a bill for £10k

You had a policy covering the entire building with a restriction to exclude claims for e.o.w or more likely a very large excess for e.o.w claims.

The freeholder takes out a policy for leasehold properties in England and Wales and spilts the premiums between each of the leaseholders or freeholders. That's how these properties are covered.

The block policy would have also included cover for the internal parts of the individual flats that are defined as being part of the building eg the tiles floors and bathroom suites etc etc.

If a flat owner took out their own building insurance on their own flat in the event of a claim their building insurer would ask them if the flat also had it's own block policy and are likely to treat it as dual insurance eg each pay 50% of the claim. Or it may be a case of their building policy being superceeded by the block policy * and their premiums refunded for the policy with the claim being paid by block policy (Assuming it's something covered by the block policy).

* Their own building policy may be deemed to be so worthless as the building part of the block policy overlaps so much that it may be just cancelled from inception and the premiums refunded.

CanarySimon

Thanks everyone one for your replies and help.