buildings insurance confusion

jodenice

I moved into my flat last April. I paid the old owner for the pro rata cost of the insurance and was told that it had been transferred into my name. (I think though that she didn't transfer it, she cancelled it and got some money back - my mistake, should have checked)
The flat we live in is the bottom half of the house. We each a partial share of the freehold but not like the usual one, whereby you use a management company. We actually had to register with the land registry or something (equally complicated).
I am sure that it says in my contract that I am supposed to insure my flat separately. The old insurance policy that I can see that the other lady used says our address on it only. But phoning to get a quote from that insurance company she says both upstairs and downstairs need to insure with the same company (in case of a fire on the top floor etc). The top floor is rented and I don't even know how to contact the owners.
Our buildings insurance has run out and I'm not covered and I don't know what to do.
I hope I'm in the right place but will also post in the insurance bit too.
Help!

martinman3

When the lady from the insurance company said that both flats need to insure with the same company what she really meant was that there should be one policy to cover both flats.

It seems like the previous owner of your flat was responsible for arranging the policy and not only cancelled it but forgot to tell you the contact details of the upstairs owner.

The most important thing is to contact the owner of the other flat to find out the arrangements agreed for insuring the building and getting payment for maintenance work. The Land Registry web site can provide some details for a payment of £3 but the address supplied may be the flat above. Looks like you will have to speak to the tenants to get a name and address.

jodenice

When I first got the flat though i took my lease to someone who gave free advice (lease advisory service or something) and he went through it for me and he said there is a clause that says my flat should be insured on its own, separate from upstairs (or something like that - I may have misinterpreted it!)

I'm quite annoyed as I gave my solicitor the extra hundred quid for insurance and he sorted it out with her, she knew I'd paid for the rest of the year - it was only a hundred but - what am i saying! it was a hundred quid!!

chappers

The problem is that usually the management company would have responsibility in thie case of flats and it would be part of your annual service charge. If there is no managment company, and there should really be even if its just the two flats.

You cant insure just one , what would happen if you were un insured and your upstairs neighbour was and you say blew up both flats, could you see her insurers being very happy that they had to rebuild your flat, which there was no risk accounted for, so they could rebuild hers which they had assesed for.
You need to contact the other owner and arrange something, I would suggest you set up amanagement company just for the legal side of things if nothing else.

clutton_2

i would go back to your solicitor - it sounds as if she has overlooked something quite important here ......

jodenice

well I managed to track down the people upstairs, just phoned them and she sounded really suprised and said that they always got the buildings insurance separately.

And looking at a Which Report quote it says this.

But sometimes each owner will be responsible for their own buildings insurance – if, for example, a building has been converted into 2 self-contained flats. And in Scotland, your title deeds determine whether you arrange the insurance yourself or collectively with other flat owners.

anyone heard of this or do this?

martinman3

Do you live in Scotland then ?

I read your original post again and you initially used the word 'contract' instead of 'lease'. Is this a freehold flat or something equally strange? :eek:

It is very difficult to help unless it is clear what it says on the Land Registry website. In this case you don't need to pay anything, use the following link
http://www.landregisteronline.gov.uk/lro/servlet/TitleSearchServlet?searchType=advanced
enter your house number, postcode and see what is returned. It should list your property and the property upstairs, are there tenure entries for both 'Freehold' and 'Leasehold' for each property and do the 'Freehold' entries have an asterisk and the same digit in brackets at the end of the entry(meaning one common freehold title for the whole building) ?
Please tell us what you find out, but nothing that can identify the property.

jodenice

Sorry, i thought I made that clear, both I and upstairs own 50% each of the freehold. And not even via a management company but with each of us registered separately - it has been something of a nightmare

OK this is what I get on the land registry thing (address has been deleted)

Upstairs Flat
Tenure Leasehold Price Paid/Value Stated Data Yes Information available »
Tenure Freehold Price Paid/Value Stated Data No Information available » * (1)
My Flat
Tenure Leasehold Price Paid/Value Stated Data Yes Information available »
Tenure Freehold Price Paid/Value Stated Data No Information available » * (1)

* This row refers to a title that is duplicated elsewhere in the results table, as the title belongs to more than one property. The number in brackets will show you which other properties share this title. Please make sure you only purchase documents for one of these titles, as we cannot offer a refund for any documents you have purchased once you have downloaded them.

And no I live in South East England.

My solicitor phoned back and said that the original policy did exist but that the original owner had insured the property wrongly - she had done it as though it was one house and not two separate properties.

martinman3

The entries show that it is as we first thought, you are a leaseholder and a part owner of the freehold.

I do believe that the building should really be insured as a whole and the premiums split in two (or other proportion if the sizes of the flats are different). Although insurance companies are happy to take your premiums when it comes to a claim you may have problems. The more I think about it the more problems I can see, for instance how do you calculate the cost of rebuilding for each flat separately ?

This is really an insurance question and I would be interested to see the responses in the Insurance forum or from an insurance advisor.