Buildings insurance for shared freehold

reevepd

Hi, I share a freehold with one other flat.  Our joint buildings insurance renewal quote, through a broker, has increased by over 50% (my current insurer's quote by >100%, and there is massive variability in the other quotes shared).  No specific reason given, completely generic possible reasons.
Do I have to use a broker or are there PCWs that are suitable for our needs?

Thanks in advance for any advice. 
Paul

DullGreyGuy

Assuming you are buying block insurance then no, no aggregators exist for commercial insurance, even the ones that appear to be doing SME are really just using a broker like Simply Business and exposing their full panel.

On the flipside, there are no direct insurers and so a broker will cover most bases other than possibly one or two MGAs (but I'd expect most of them to do both direct and brokered business)

reevepd

To add that I looked into this in my previous flat, where I was one of 5 freeholders buying insurance through the freehold company, which we collectively ran.  In my current flat we are just buying insurance in the names of both flat owners, if that makes a difference.

eddddy

reevepd said:

To add that I looked into this in my previous flat, where I was one of 5 freeholders buying insurance through the freehold company, which we collectively ran.  In my current flat we are just buying insurance in the names of both flat owners, if that makes a difference.

It's might be slightly messier if you insure in the names of both flat owners.

If one owner decides to sell their flat (to a new owner), I guess you might have to cancel the insurance policy - and take out a new policy in the new relevant names. That might incur cancellation fees and more admin.

(And arguments about who should pay the cancellation fees - and if the new premium happens to be higher, who should cover the increased cost.)

Maybe ask the insurers if it's possible to change the names of the policy holders mid-term.


You wouldn't get that problem if the building freehold was owned by a company - there would just be a change of company shareholder.