Buildings insurance in an apartment block

ianbeale_steeplecocque

I own and live in one apartment in a block of 9, and I just had my buildings insurance invoice for 2021 from the management company, totaling £347 which to me seems excessive.

I've done a quote online and I'm getting around £70 per year, which was for a flat but for the value of rebuilding just my apartment. I don't know if I need to insure for the value of all 9 flats, I'd assume not since every apartment is required to have insurance through the management company, each for their own value.

Does anyone know the average cost for buildings insurance in this situation? Each flat is worth £80-105k, no flood risk, subsidence etc. I doubt I can question the cost but still, what they're charging seems way too high.

eddddy

From a legal perspective, your lease probably states that the freeholder (or their management company) must insure the block, and you must pay a share of the premium - and you chose to buy the lease on that basis. So you cannot object to that.


But leasehold law says that the cost of the insurance must be 'reasonable'. So if, for example, you're able to get alternative quotes for insuring the entire block which are much cheaper than your freeholder is paying, that's an indication that the freeholder isn't paying a 'reasonable' price.


One thing to consider when getting quotes is the 'claims history'. Blocks of flats are notorious for 'escape of water' claims. An upstairs flat has a leak, and the flats below are damaged. A few of those claims will make premiums sky-rocket. (Plus any other claims like storm, flood, fire, burglary etc.)

Sandtree

What rebuild cost did you put in?

The management company will be buying Block Insurance which is a commercial product. The dynamics of commercial insurance is slightly different to personal line products and it is no surprise that insuring a block of 9 flats will cost notably more than 9 flats trying to buy buildings insurance each but try to deal with the mess if you go down that route and you get things like storm damage to the roof or subsidence.