Landlord’s liability

BB.

Hello,

I am looking for a bit of help here. I had to rent out a flat I used to live in. It’s a ground floor flat in a Edwardian terraced house, with another flat above. It’s a leasehold property, managed by a property management company on behalf of a freeholder, this company arranges the building insurance for the whole house. There was an incident recently where the soil pipe came down crashing onto my flat’s decking, this could have seriously harmed my tenant if she was outside at the time. Since then I am very worried that something like that can happen again and I will be liable for the injury to my tenant because of lack of house maintenance. I just had a look for a property owner’s liability insurance but I understand you can’t get it without the building insurance? The building insurance is in place already so I don’t want to be paying for it again. Is it likely that the existing building insurance covers for such damage including physical injury to my tenant? Even if the damage is caused by lack of maintenance? 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! 

Many thanks
B.

user1977

BB. said:

The building insurance is in place already so I don’t want to be paying for it again. Is it likely that the existing building insurance covers for such damage including physical injury to my tenant? 

The way to find out is by reading your policy. But it's pretty standard.

canaldumidi

Well what does the building insurance cover? You have got details of the policy, including the policy document yes? If not, ask the freeholder/manco for it.

Does your lease permit you to let the property, either with/without consent? If not, that might be grounds for the insurer not to pay out!

Has the soil stack now been fixed? By the freeholder? At the cost of you and the other leaseholder? Or via insurance?

Assuming the soil stack has been fixed, what makes you think it might fall again?

theartfullodger

Your job as landlord to the probably concerned tenant is to ensure it is safe for the tenant.

That's the priority.  Sort that 1st (or risk a real nasty) , then worry about how you may or may not get any of the expenditure back.

BB.

Thank you both. I don’t have the policy details so will ask for it. 

Yes the managing company knows and has the details of the tenant. I had to pay £100+ admin fee for them to process the tenant’s details. 

The stack has been fixed at my and the other flat owner’s expense. It shouldn’t fall again and it’s plastic now so small chance of serious damage  It is an old building though where work is carried out reactively mostly, so I would rather get a cover for my piece of mind, in case something else like that happens…