Insurance

Gill77

I moved into my partner's house, so just in case we quarreled or he died I bought a flat, which I let out, this was in 2015.  Out of the blue I received from my tenants, an invoice, for £1098.69 going back to 2015.  It is for Assign Property Insurance £147.31 every year, also Assign Terrorism for £8.00 all totaling to over £1000. It is from a company called HomeGround.  Please, could anybody put any light on this?  It goes back for nearly 6years.

eddddy

When you say you received an invoice from your tenants - I guess you mean your tenants forwarded a letter with a service charge demand from HomeGround.

HomeGround are a large property management company. I assume they manage the building that your flat is in.

But it's very surprising that you don't seem to know who your management company is. Haven't you paid any service charges at all since 2015?

If HomeGround is your management company, it's very likely that your lease says that HomeGround will arrange insurance and you will pay your share of the cost. So you owe HomeGround the money.


But...
If you don't know who HomeGround is... who did you apply to, for consent to let your flat?


Edit to add...
And you should give HomeGround your current correspondence address - so that you don't have to rely on your tenants forwarding you important, time-critical letters.
 

user1977

And how did you think the buildings insurance would be arranged? Have you been paying somebody else for similar invoices?

dimbo61

Well the good news is that this Invoice is a Tax deductible expense which you can put against the profit you make from running a business.

Gill77

I paid the service charge to a company called Centro. twice a year £750 in March then again in November. Once a year, we are invited to an AGM with Centro. I have never ever heard of HomeGround, do all the other flat owners paid for this HomeGround insurance?  Why did they wait 6 years before contacting me via my tenants? 

eddddy

Gill77 said:

I paid the service charge to a company called Centro. twice a year £750 in March then again in November. Once a year, we are invited to an AGM with Centro. I have never ever heard of HomeGround, do all the other flat owners paid for this HomeGround insurance?  Why did they wait 6 years before contacting me via my tenants? 

So ask Centro why HomeGuard are billing you for insurance.

Do you have service charge summaries for any of the last 6 years? Do they include the cost of buildings insurance?

If you haven't been billed for insurance for the last 6 years, it would be because somebody made a mistake and forgot to add it to your service charge bill..

What do you mean by "contacting you via your tenants"? Has somebody spoken to your tenants? Have your tenants received letters with the tenants' names and address on them, relating to the insurance?

It all sounds a bit strange - maybe somebody has made a mistake (it may even be a weird scam) - but Centro are probably the best people to ask.