Buildings Insurance Neighbour

kennedymatt

Hi

Im purchasing a 1st floor flat, leasehold. The lease says both that each leasehold is responsible for their own buildings insurance, not the freeholder. His responsibility is to enforce.

The seller can prove the flat is insured however we have requested proof that the owner downstairs has insured her flat. She isnt providing this information at the moment and I wanted to understand what the situation is if the ground floor flat does not have building insurance (or maybe it does but we cant prove it)?

Does this mean if the building were to burn down our insurance would be invalid?

Help needed! Really dont want to pull out.

Thanks
Matt

G_M

No. Your insurance would pay out and cover the cost of rebuilding half the property.

The other half cost would have to come from downstairs.

In reality of course, a nightmare scenario if they have neither insurance nor cash.

That's why the better leases specify the freeholder insures the entire building and the leaseholders pay the freeholder for the premium.

kennedymatt

ok thanks.

so say the gf doesnt have insurance and cant afford to rebuild, what happens?

Yes I agree. It does say freeholder should enforce so we are going down that route, that she legally has to show the freeholder her insurance documents.

chris_m

kennedymatt wrote: »

ok thanks.

so say the gf doesnt have insurance and cant afford to rebuild, what happens?

You end up with a bungalow?

kennedymatt

haha. I dont mind that! As long as we get a house.

I havent added the neighbor is also schizophrenic!

Dan-Dan

kennedymatt wrote: »

haha. I dont mind that! As long as we get a house.

I havent added the neighbor is also schizophrenic!

You need any more reasons to pull out?

eddddy

kennedymatt wrote: »

so say the gf doesnt have insurance and cant afford to rebuild, what happens?

You and the freeholder sue the other leaseholder - he goes bankrupt, because he has no money.

You end up with a worthless lease, and a bit of a legal mess.

kennedymatt

oh god. do we not then have a right to the land and some insurance pay out?

kennedymatt

Dan-Dan wrote: »

You need any more reasons to pull out?

we've got a good deal! and london prices have gone up too much now. If we pulled out we wouldnt get anywhere!

kennedymatt

can the freeholder insure the ground floor flat as a precaution even though the lease doesn't say he should?

moneyistooshorttomention

kennedymatt wrote: »

ok thanks.

so say the gf doesnt have insurance and cant afford to rebuild, what happens?

Yes I agree. It does say freeholder should enforce so we are going down that route, that she legally has to show the freeholder her insurance documents.

That's one form of protection - ie asking her to provide proof (via the freeholder) that she DOES have insurance cover.

However, that would only establish that she does have that as at right NOW. What would happen about her providing proof subsequently? Would you be getting the freeholder to get her to provide proof every year that she has just renewed the insurance?