Landlords Building Insurance

BMWF30

I'm renting a business premises in a building. I pay part of the building insurance once a year when I receive an invoice from the landlords. 

Last year, we got broken into due to the scaffolding (the intruder stood on the scaffolding and kicked the window to enter). We got a crime reference number from the Police, gave it to the landlords and asked them to fix it as soon as possible. They were supposed to fix the window by claiming on the insurance. That was November 2024. Now it's July 2025 and they haven't had the broken window fixed. It's been boarded up since. Now they sent me another invoice for this year but obviously, I don't want to pay for it because they haven't fixed the window (it's their obligation, I read the lease). What's my legal rights here please? 

DullGreyGuy

Have you had a quote for repairing the window? Unless it's something particularly large or complex I doubt it would be economical to claim off insurance given the excess and inevitable impact on premiums. 

Does your lease have an offset clause?

Unfortunately two wrongs dont make a right and just because they have potentially breached the contract doesnt mean you can also breach it. They may have a twitchier trigger finger and initiate recovery actions quicker than you

BMWF30

@DullGreyGuy Thank you. There is this clause in the lease:

Where it is lawful to do so, the Landlord must reinstate the Building following destruction or damage by an Insured Risk as soon as reasonably practicable after the date of that damage or destruction.

Is the above not legally binding?

'They may have a twitchier trigger finger and initiate recovery actions quicker than you'.

This is true. When they mistook that the rent wasn't paid for the month, they were quick to send us a threatening email citing a legal action against us (when they realised it was their mistake, they didn't even apologise). 

DullGreyGuy

You can't judge a contract on a single clause taken out of context however it places an obligation on the landlord to reinstate the building not on the insurer nor that it must be done by the insurer only the landlord if its an insured risk.

Based on the capitalisation "insured risk" should be defined somewhere in the contract rather than being a plain English definition. 

user1977

This is a landlord and tenant question, not really an insurance one (especially if the definition of Insured Risk is the list of risks which the landlord should be insuring against (whether or not they actually do), as it's the landlord's obligation to get the work done irrespective of what they can recover from the insurers).

BMWF30

DullGreyGuy said:

You can't judge a contract on a single clause taken out of context however it places an obligation on the landlord to reinstate the building not on the insurer nor that it must be done by the insurer only the landlord if its an insured risk.

Based on the capitalisation "insured risk" should be defined somewhere in the contract rather than being a plain English definition. 

It's not a random clause taken out of context. It's under the Tenant's and Landlord's insurance obligation Schedule. 

The Tenant must notify the landlord as soon as practicable after it becomes aware of any damage to or destruction of the premises by any of the insured risks or an uninsured risk. 

That's what we did. 

BMWF30

user1977 said:

This is a landlord and tenant question, not really an insurance one (especially if the definition of Insured Risk is the list of risks which the landlord should be insuring against (whether or not they actually do), as it's the landlord's obligation to get the work done irrespective of what they can recover from the insurers).

Sorry if I posted in the wrong forum. I couldn't find a Landlord and Tenant forum.