CRL/Alpha insurance for flats

maxineL

It was a company called compariqo. There was a letter that arrived for me from CRL recommending them. It’s for a PCC which stands for a professional consultants certificate apparently?
To clarify they quoted £2000 not £200, typo error there.
I’m so confused by the whole process

SallyDucati

maxineL wrote: »

It was a company called compariqo. There was a letter that arrived for me from CRL recommending them. It’s for a PCC which stands for a professional consultants certificate apparently?
To clarify they quoted £2000 not £200, typo error there.
I’m so confused by the whole process

Compariqo are linked to CRL ,which is why they are recommending them. I would avoid knowing all that has gone on with CRL. There are other providers out there and the CRL issue is well known by them.

maxineL

Thanks sally, thats a valid point, have you any names of other companies that are reputable?

SallyDucati

maxineL wrote: »

Thanks sally, thats a valid point, have you any names of other companies that are reputable?

Sorry I actually have no experience/knowledge as I refused to exchange on my house until the developers got a replacement warranty. I would do a quick google or whatever search engine you use and check reviews.

Burton2018

Hi, I purchased my property at the end of July, a few weeks after moving in we received a letter that many others received stating that the warranty insurance was no longer valid due to alpha going bust in 2018 and the proposed replacement policy had fallen through.

This obviously come as a surprise to me given how recent our property was completed and that alpha did in fact go bust in 2018. My question is wouldn’t this have been the responsibility of my solicitor to check the Warrenty insurance we was being provided was valid ? I would have been surprised if lenders were accepting warranty policies from alpha in July as I’m sure they would have been aware they went bust.

Therefore we have now been left with no insurance in place and our property was only built 3 years ago so I will be looking to sell this property within the next 10 years.

Would be greatful for any help.

Burton2018

Hi, I purchased my property at the end of July, a few weeks after moving in we received a letter that many others received stating that the warranty insurance was no longer valid due to alpha going bust in 2018 and the proposed replacement policy had fallen through.

This obviously come as a surprise to me given how recent our property was completed and that alpha did in fact go bust in 2018. My question is wouldn’t this have been the responsibility of my solicitor to check the Warrenty insurance we was being provided was valid ? I would have been surprised if lenders were accepting warranty policies from alpha in July as I’m sure they would have been aware they went bust.

Therefore we have now been left with no insurance in place and our property was only built 3 years ago so I will be looking to sell this property within the next 10 years.

Would be greatful for any help.

Ayla_093

You might want to try talking to Advantage, they’ve been very helpful. I’m in a different situation to you (house vs flat) but they seem to understand about insuring the whole structure (house isn’t detached).

01925 563180
I can’t post a link but look up ahci and advantage.

taddo12

I’m in the same boat here, have you found a resolution yet?

Messybiz

This relates to flats. My flat is 3 years' old and was insured with CRL/Alpha. After 6 months of hard work, my flat (and all the other flats in the block) has been successfully reinsured with ICW. Note that while there may be insurers out there who will insure a single flat, ICW will only insure the block as a whole. So if you want to follow a similar path, and in the quite probable event that neither the freeholder nor the Management Co will take responsibility, then one of the flatowners will need to take the lead for ALL flats. It will involve a lot of stamina and time and information gathering (property plans, lots of other documents etc) and a lot of liaison with flatowners and others. In my case, the original architects were really helpful in supplying plans and other documents (planning and building approval certificates, gas and electrical certificates etc) and the company who did the piling provided piling logs and the like. The cost worked out at about £1400 per flat on average. For anti-money laundering reasons, ICW said that payment HAD TO COME from the Management Company; in my case, it was fortunate that they agreed to carry out this formal role. ICW were, on the whole, OK to deal with and the costs seemed reasonable compared to rough estimates given by other insurers. But (with ICW at least) it will only work if ALL flats agree to participate and agree to pay their share of the premium when it arrives. I think it's probably helpful to say the process comes in several stages. (1) Talking to ICW at the outset (2) getting the flats and the management company on board and liaising regularly with them (3) collecting plans and drawings and all other documents requested by ICW (4) hopefully then getting a quote for reinsurance (5) dividing up this cost on an equitable basis between the flats, with the funds being forwarded to the Management Co and then from them to ICW. The final stage (and I don't understand why this comes AFTER the funds have been provided) is that an inspection is carried out of the block - the communal areas and EVERY individual flat. If the inspection is successful, each flat will get an insurance certificate (covering 10 years from the original CRL/Alpha start date) and a certificate will also be issued for the communal areas. I hope this helps others in a similar position. 

Burton2018

Messybiz said:

This relates to flats. My flat is 3 years' old and was insured with CRL/Alpha. After 6 months of hard work, my flat (and all the other flats in the block) has been successfully reinsured with ICW. Note that while there may be insurers out there who will insure a single flat, ICW will only insure the block as a whole. So if you want to follow a similar path, and in the quite probable event that neither the freeholder nor the Management Co will take responsibility, then one of the flatowners will need to take the lead for ALL flats. It will involve a lot of stamina and time and information gathering (property plans, lots of other documents etc) and a lot of liaison with flatowners and others. In my case, the original architects were really helpful in supplying plans and other documents (planning and building approval certificates, gas and electrical certificates etc) and the company who did the piling provided piling logs and the like. The cost worked out at about £1400 per flat on average. For anti-money laundering reasons, ICW said that payment HAD TO COME from the Management Company; in my case, it was fortunate that they agreed to carry out this formal role. ICW were, on the whole, OK to deal with and the costs seemed reasonable compared to rough estimates given by other insurers. But (with ICW at least) it will only work if ALL flats agree to participate and agree to pay their share of the premium when it arrives. I think it's probably helpful to say the process comes in several stages. (1) Talking to ICW at the outset (2) getting the flats and the management company on board and liaising regularly with them (3) collecting plans and drawings and all other documents requested by ICW (4) hopefully then getting a quote for reinsurance (5) dividing up this cost on an equitable basis between the flats, with the funds being forwarded to the Management Co and then from them to ICW. The final stage (and I don't understand why this comes AFTER the funds have been provided) is that an inspection is carried out of the block - the communal areas and EVERY individual flat. If the inspection is successful, each flat will get an insurance certificate (covering 10 years from the original CRL/Alpha start date) and a certificate will also be issued for the communal areas. I hope this helps others in a similar position. 

Hi. This was really helpful to read and I will look into this however the falling point for my group of flats may be getting everyone to do this. Out of interest which other companies did you contact and how much were the estimated costs if we were to do one individual flat.