Buildings Insurance

ejs89

Hi

I am seeking some advice around buildings insurance. My property is a flat within a four flat building, each of the four flats owns an equal share of the freehold.

Over the last year we had a collective buildings insurance policy, but this was particularly costly so I wanted to look at alternative options. All of the comparison websites seem to want to look at individual policies rather than another collective one. So my question is - what is the best way to get a cheap collective policy? Or is it worth each flat purchasing their own individual buildings insurance?

Thanks in advance!

Quentin

ejs89 wrote: »

So my question is - what is the best way to get a cheap collective policy?

See if a local broker (not Swinton) can help

mattk_180

Quentin - out of interest can I ask why not Swinton? I haven't had any dealings with them so have no opinion either way but I just noticed you usually say not them and I'm curious as to what has made you do that?

Quentin

Read their reviews here and online.

Plus although they have a presence in many localities they are not the same as a " local broker"

ejs89

Is it going to be better from a policy protection perspective to have a collective policy?

The freehold is very amicable and we have recently invested money into renovating communal areas within the house.

It seems a lot more cost effective to have individual policies per flat though.

eddddy

ejs89 wrote: »

All of the comparison websites seem to want to look at individual policies rather than another collective one. So my question is - what is the best way to get a cheap collective policy? Or is it worth each flat purchasing their own individual buildings insurance?

The quotes you get on comparison sites won't be suitable for flats.

Buildings insurance for individual flats is very specialist, very rare, and best avoided whenever possible.


The biggest risk is that the guy on the 1st floor insures his flat adequately, but the guy on the ground floor doesn't - and the building burns down. The guy on the first floor gets a payout to rebuild his flat - but there's no longer a ground floor flat to build it on!


So if you really want to go down that route you would also need to buy "Contingent Building Indemnity Insurance" - which is essentially insurance against the risk that another leaseholder doesn't have buildings insurance.


The bottom line - it's much better to insure the whole block on a single policy. Shop around to find a better deal.

ejs89

Thanks for your responses on this.

I've found a broker called Lark Insurances who appear to be able to facilitate a collective quote - hopefully this will be competitive!

This seems to fall into the category of a 'specialist insurance' as it needs to accommodate all 4 members of the Freehold when a Management Company hasn't been established. As mentioned previously, the strongest/clearest position to be in is to have a policy to cover the entire building rather than 4 individual policies that might contradict or undermine one another.