Buildings insurance advice please

[mancity68]

Grateful for any insurance guru advice....

I am a leaseholder who also shares the freehold with the other leaseholder in my building (a property split into two flats).

Historically, we have each bought our own buildings insurance but, whilst having our leases extended and modernised, were advised that it was much more usual for the building to be insured by the freeholder on a single policy.

We're quite happy to do this but our respective insurers, co-incidentally both LV, say that we have to continue to insure separately.

Is this just a quirk of LV or is it usual for leaseholders in small shared freeholds to procure their own buildings insurance? Does anyone who is a leaseholder and shared freeholder in a small property insure the whole building collectively with their other freeholders? If so, is there a broker you'd recommend?

We thought this would be a simple change ....

Cheers.

[Banzai]

Hi there

We have the same set-up, 2 flats, share of freehold, and we have one lot of buildings insurance - just coming up for renewal in fact. We switched last year to Adler insurance, who seem quite reasonable. Generally I think you need more specialist insurers for this, as it is landlord's insurance, insuring 'blocks of flats' - even if there are only 2 flats.

Good luck

[nxjen]

The problem is that LV and the other large home insurance companies aren?t equipped to deal with situations that are a little bit different and the customer service staff can only follow an inflexible script. Freeholders insurance is far preferable in your situation and would suggest you get in touch with Lansdown who are brokers. And when your premiums increase sharply after a few years, ask for a better deal!

[JessicaJ]

Hi

I have just received a renewal for my Buildings and Landlords Insurance from LV which equates to a 36% increase in the premium. LV fobbed me off with generalisations about increase in claims / crime in the ED area but I still think this is pretty excessive. Whilst I will look at alternative insurers and approach brokers, I found obtaining landlords insurance for a share of freehold where both freeholders rent out their properties and where there was a previous subsidence claim (albeit 15 years ago by a previous owner) still makes this very unattractive to prospective insurers and so I have had to stick to my current insurer.

I would be very interested to hear from others in the area, what their approximate premium increase has been and if anyone can recommend an insurer for landlords & buildings insurance (I will try Adler as Banzai has suggested)

Thanks

[George Orwell]

Try these brokers. They have served me very well on a house with previous subsidence.

https://www.riskalliance.co.uk/private-clients.html

They search out the lowest quote every renewal time. It's even gone down this year. Currently with Hiscox.

[muffins78]

We had our buildings re-evaluation done as per the every three year requirement and the premium has gone up 12% - I?m thinking it?s too high. We have one policy for the whole block and always have done - we self manage also. The broker we use is Robert Nott and they have yet to let us down etc.. Other providers can easily be over ?1k or so more, for the same terms... I hope this helps