Part owned retirement property contents insurance problems

HushPLC

My parents have bought a self contained flat in an ExtraCare retirement village. I am trying to organise some contents insurance for them but I'm running into issues. They have purchased 70% of the flat and are renting the remaining 30% from ExtraCare. I've tried a few insurance agents but I can't get a quote because of this part ownership ( and don't get me started on the flat roof discussion!!) Has anyone come across this problem before? Are there insurance companies that specialise in this type of insurance? Any advice would be gratefully received!!

TELLIT01

Have you spoken to the management at the retirement village.  Your parents can't be the only ones to have hit problems.  They may be able to point you in the direction of insurers but will possibly also be on commission with them thereby inflating the costs.

HushPLC

Thanks for answering Tellit01, I tried their moving in team but they said that they weren't able to help. I'm sure others have had issues so I guess it's worth pushing a bit harder with them!

davidmcn

This is generally called "shared ownership" - is that a term you're looking for? It's fairly commonplace so I'd be surprised if there was a problem finding cover. 

TELLIT01

I don't understand why the form of occupancy, be it shared ownership, owner or renting should affect the availability of contents insurance.  I can see why some companies wouldn't want to get involved in building insurance for shared ownership.

Rodders53

TELLIT01 said:

I don't understand why the form of occupancy, be it shared ownership, owner or renting should affect the availability of contents insurance.  I can see why some companies wouldn't want to get involved in building insurance for shared ownership.

Me neither but I'm not an Insurance Company or Underwriter. 

https://www.extracare.org.uk/living-with-extracare/costs-and-charges-in-extracare-locations/costs-and-charges-in-extracare-communities/  Buildings is included/charged by ExtraCare / Management Co... so that's just Contents Cover required, then.

Insurance Broker will be the way to go if no other?  But it's really no different from any rented or leasehold property where Buildings cover is under a Landlord's master policy.

PolyannaYorks

Does anyone know if you're better to purchase full costs of property in retirement villages/communities.  Or to 100% rent?? As you're parents are having insurance problems . 

Sandtree

It really shouldnt be a problem.... if you look at Direct Line for example they say if you part own and part rent then you should simply choose Mortgaged from their drop down... if you had no mortgage then may be worth asking them but suspect it would be "owned".

I suspect the agents spoken to so far were probably over thinking things.

eddddy

PolyannaYorks said:

Does anyone know if you're better to purchase full costs of property in retirement villages/communities.  Or to 100% rent?? As you're parents are having insurance problems . 

Apparently, there are 157,000 Shared Ownership (part owned,part rented) properties in the UK (https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8828/) which isn't a huge amount, but it should be enough for regular insurance companies to be aware of them.

I'd be surprised if all their owners are having problems getting contents insurance.

I suspect that either the agents the OP spoke to were a bit 'dopey', or maybe the OP described 'Shared Ownership' in a rather convoluted way, which confused the agents.

Sea_Shell

Do they own all the contents, or did the flat come furnished?

Is this where the confusion lies?