Share of freehold Buildings Insurance

dur77

We have a share of freehold situation, with our flat being the upper floor maisonette and our neighbours having the ground floor maisonette - to date, we have had one buildings insurance policy with one premium, but that specifies the two flats individually with their own reinstatement values (which have been equal). The ground floor maisonette was recently sold and the requirements for the new owners' lender was apparently that their reinstatement value needs to be a lot higher - this affected the premium during the year and the previous owners agreed to pay the uplift to facilitate the sale. However, we have now come to the renewal and of course, we have 2 flats with different reinstatement values and a significant hike to the premium - the only change being the increased reinstatement value for the ground floor maisonette - is it even possible for 2 flats on top of each other in the same building to have different reinstatement values e.g in a fire, how would that work - would they sum the individual reinstatement values as being the total reinstatement value of the whole building? Of course I am also trying to see whether we can apportion the premium now given the differential reinstatement values, rather than just split it 50-50. But it does seem rather complicated...

user1977

What do the leases say about insurance? 

kingstreet

How often has the reinstatement cost for the whole building been recalculated? The whole block is being insured, not the two separate leasehold parts.

eddddy

Are they the type of maisonettes with no communal areas/parts - and the leases say that

• the upstairs owner is responsible for the upstairs part of the building and the roof
• the downstairs owner is responsible for the downstairs part of the building and the foundations?

If so, the lease probably says (or it is implied) that you each insure your own part of the building yourselves. i.e. two separate insurance policies.


If that's the case, you can't 'force' your neighbour to take out a joint insurance policy with you for the whole building, and you can't 'force' them to pay 50% or 60% or 70% or whatever of the premium. It's down to whatever you and your neighbours can voluntarily agree on.

But it would probably be sensible to try to agree on a single policy.


Having said this - are you sure that the insured reinstatement cost for your maisonette is correct?

If a valuer/surveyor has said the reinstatement cost of the ground floor maisonette is a particular amount, why do you think the reinstatement cost for your maisonette is much less?