Home Insurance - 2 flats under one freehold

london_79

Hi all,
Hoping someone can give some guidance or advise.

I own the ground floor flat of a converted house.

There is another flat up stairs under its own leasehold owed by someone else.

I also own freehold for whole property.

I find it very hard to get buildings insurance (my responsibilty as freeholder).
When I approach a typical insurance provider via a price comparison site, they tell me I must have comercial property insurance due to the property being multiple flats.

As a result cost is usually 4 or 5 times the cost I'd expect to see on price comparison sites.

We live in London, most properties are converted into flats. 
Any suggestions of a good competitive insurance provider?

Thanks Tony

Hoenir

Speak to an insurance broker. 

DullGreyGuy

london_79 said:

Hi all,
Hoping someone can give some guidance or advise.

I own the ground floor flat of a converted house.

There is another flat up stairs under its own leasehold owed by someone else.

I also own freehold for whole property.

I find it very hard to get buildings insurance (my responsibilty as freeholder).
When I approach a typical insurance provider via a price comparison site, they tell me I must have comercial property insurance due to the property being multiple flats.

As a result cost is usually 4 or 5 times the cost I'd expect to see on price comparison sites.

We live in London, most properties are converted into flats. 
Any suggestions of a good competitive insurance provider?

Home insurance is there to cover a single dwelling but your building contains 2 dwellings and so Home isnt the appropriate product. 

Typically you would be looking at Block (of flats) Insurance which is a form of commercial property insurance. There are some schemes out there designed for very small blocks such as converted houses which may offer better value than regular block insurance. 

There has been some people claiming to have gotten Home and Landlord (technically another form of commercial property but really sits in a bit of a grey area) insurers to cover it but none have ever come back to state how they got on with a claim. In principle as long as you've clearly described it over the phone to the insurer or broker they should honour the claim but it may be a fight to get them to do so. 

kelkka

We're in a very similar position. Did you find a reasonable insurer in the end? I've talked to several brokers who all struggle with our circumstances.

poseidon1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82065272#Comment_82065272

These situations require specialist brokers who provide block of flat cover.

I am in a converted victorian town house ( 4 flats), and arrange our cover.

Currently use London Flat Insurance, but in past have arranged via Howden Brokers, Marsh Commercial , Lansdown Insurance Brokers etc in shopping around for competitive rates.

Simply Google block of flat Insurance brokers, other options will be revealed.

huckster

Have you checked with Direct Line or Aviva about whether you can get a normal Buildings Insurance policy? You would have to call them and not do online.

Or contact a brokers.

When I dealt with Insurance years ago some Insurers where it was just a house split in 2,, would cover under a standard Buildings Insurance.

kelkka

We got Churchill to cover us when we bought the place, but apparently the regulator has changed some policies which means that insurers are more strict about who they insure. We have the added complication of being in a flood zone in London and our mortgage requires that we have flood cover, but none of the brokers seem to find block of flats insurance with flood cover. And yes, we've spent hours on the phone with different brokers.

poseidon1

Unless the 'block' of flats exceed 4 in number the flood re scheme should enable freeholders to access buildings cover inclusive of flood ( at a cost) from a range of insurers - ABI article below explains -

https://www.abi.org.uk/products-and-issues/topics-and-issues/flood-re/flood-re-explained/

kelkka

@poseidon1 We're aware of Flood Re and we're eligible as there's just two maisonettes. Just that insurers don't seem to be signed up to it or they don't like something else about our property, like the single freeholder / two leaseholders set up. We'll try a flood specialist insurer next, but I expect the cost to be extortionate, probably around £2k.

poseidon1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82066003#Comment_82066003

Flood in the UK is an ever increasing problem as climate change ( ironically) leads to England becoming wetter.

As a landlord of a commercial property in the North of Enland I lost coverage for flood completely 2 years ago, so current policy excludes flood.

As a result I am now looking at a novel and unique standalone policy for flood risk, from FloodFlash.

They say they will consider Freeholders of residential flats as well as flat management companies, so maybe worth talking to them as an alternative to trying to source an all risks insurer. They only deal with flood, so you will still need additional conventional cover for all other risks. See details below -

https://floodflash.co/floodflash-in-action-insuring-hard-to-place-risks-with-flexible-cover/

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82066062#Comment_82066062

Out of curiosity, who does your policy identify as the markets/underwriters?

They are an interesting option as long as you know what you are buying as its not traditional indemnity insurance but instead a fixed payout depending on the depth of water which may be more or less than the damage sustained. This is part of their USP… flood almost never causes a total loss but insuring the building for its full cost means you are paying premium on the fact the insurance could make such a payout plus as its a fixed payment then claims expenses are much smaller.