Buildings Insurance for McCarthy and Stone Retirement Flat

PMSG

My sister owns one of these flats. I am being told that to insure the fixtures in her flat (such as kitchen, bathroom, hot water cylinder and immersion heater and her electric storage heaters) she will have to take out buildings insurance in addition to contents insurance. This means that the building (apart from my sisters fixtures) will be insured by both by the landlord and by her. This seems to be a duplication for which my sister will be forced to pay. I am sure all owners of such flats have faced this issue - is there another way of covering the fixtures? Please refer me to previous relevant threads if, as I suspect, this is a well-trodden path.

Sandtree

Some insurers allow you to add "tenants improvements" to your contents insurance (or include it as standard). Unfortunately those that do dont tend to allow it via their website and so it ends up being a call and making price comparison much harder.

We have added it to our M&S policy but annoyingly they add it as a % loading of the overall policy so having a bike insured on the policy will be more expensive because they're covering a new kitchen you put in.

eddddy

PMSG said:

My sister owns one of these flats. I am being told that to insure the fixtures in her flat (such as kitchen, bathroom, hot water cylinder and immersion heater and her electric storage heaters) she will have to take out buildings insurance in addition to contents insurance. This means that the building (apart from my sisters fixtures) will be insured by both by the landlord and by her. This seems to be a duplication for which my sister will be forced to pay. I am sure all owners of such flats have faced this issue - is there another way of covering the fixtures? Please refer me to previous relevant threads if, as I suspect, this is a well-trodden path.

I your sister a leaseholder or is she renting?

Who has told you that you need to insure the fixtures and why?

Assuming that your sister is a leaseholder - has your sister (or a previous leaseholder) upgraded any fixtures or installed additional fixtures since the lease was first granted?

If the fixtures are the ones that were there when the lease was granted (or replacement fixtures of a similar quality) then they should be insured by the freeholder.

You only need to worry about further insurance if the original fixtures have been replaced with more expensive ones.


For example, if the original kitchen would have cost £10k to replace - and you've installed a better kitchen that would cost £15k to replace - you need to cover that extra £5k. As above, you'd do that with tenant's improvements insurance added to your contents insurance.

Morph4610

PMSG - I think you are correct as my mother had a water damage incident which affected the interior of her flat and M & C didn't cover it on their Buildings insurance policy. This is a nasty little gap which I don't think M & C make really clear to Leaseholders. I think she does need to take out Buildings cover    

PMSG

eddddy said:

PMSG said:

My sister owns one of these flats. I am being told that to insure the fixtures in her flat (such as kitchen, bathroom, hot water cylinder and immersion heater and her electric storage heaters) she will have to take out buildings insurance in addition to contents insurance. This means that the building (apart from my sisters fixtures) will be insured by both by the landlord and by her. This seems to be a duplication for which my sister will be forced to pay. I am sure all owners of such flats have faced this issue - is there another way of covering the fixtures? Please refer me to previous relevant threads if, as I suspect, this is a well-trodden path.

I your sister a leaseholder or is she renting?

Who has told you that you need to insure the fixtures and why?

Assuming that your sister is a leaseholder - has your sister (or a previous leaseholder) upgraded any fixtures or installed additional fixtures since the lease was first granted?

If the fixtures are the ones that were there when the lease was granted (or replacement fixtures of a similar quality) then they should be insured by the freeholder.

You only need to worry about further insurance if the original fixtures have been replaced with more expensive ones.


For exampf the original kitchen would have cost £10k to replace - and you've installed a better kitchen that would cost £15k to replace - you need to cover that extra £5k. As above, you'd do that with tenant's improvements insurance added to your contents insurance.

Hi eddddy,

My initial post was not clear. My sister owns the freehold of her flat but has a Lease with Firstport, who manage the block of flats on behalf of all the tenants. The Service Charge paid to Firstport includes Buildings Insurance for the whole building. The Landlord's Building Insurance excludes anything inside the front-door of her flat. My sister has her own Contents Insurance but this essentially covers anything not fixed to the building. It seems to me that this definition excludes things such as kitchen cupboards and built-in appliances, bathroom fittings, hot water cylinder and immersion heater and her electric storage heaters. If I take out Buildings Insurance most of the Building will be double insured. This is not only more expensive than it should be but is likely to lead to disputes between the Insurers in the event of a claim. 
Does no one offer Insurance tailored to Freeholders of flats in shared blocks?

PMSG

Morph4610 said: PMSG - I think you are correct as my mother had a water damage incident which affected the interior of her flat and M & C didn't cover it on their Buildings insurance policy. This is a nasty little gap which I don't think M & C make really clear to Leaseholders. I think she does need to take out Buildings cover Hi Morph4610 Have you asked M&C about this? My sister's flat is over 20 yrs old but I suppose I could raise it with someone selling new M&C flats.

PMSG

Sandtree said:

Some insurers allow you to add "tenants improvements" to your contents insurance (or include it as standard). Unfortunately those that do dont tend to allow it via their website and so it ends up being a call and making price comparison much harder.

We have added it to our M&S policy but annoyingly they add it as a % loading of the overall policy so having a bike insured on the policy will be more expensive because they're covering a new kitchen you put in.

Hi Sandtree

Thanks for your response. Do you have Buildings Insurance with M&S as well as Contents Insurance? 

Sandtree

PMSG said:

Sandtree said:

Some insurers allow you to add "tenants improvements" to your contents insurance (or include it as standard). Unfortunately those that do dont tend to allow it via their website and so it ends up being a call and making price comparison much harder.

We have added it to our M&S policy but annoyingly they add it as a % loading of the overall policy so having a bike insured on the policy will be more expensive because they're covering a new kitchen you put in.

Hi Sandtree

Thanks for your response. Do you have Buildings Insurance with M&S as well as Contents Insurance? 

No, we only have contents but the Tenants Improvements cover the fixtures and fittings we've added