Forum Topic

Freehold building insurance

Hi all, for those of you who live in a house which has been converted into flats and where you your neighbour own the freehold- would you have any recommendations for building insurance? We have been quoted a 40% increase to ours. We and our neighbour always get a building insurance together each year but this years premium is ridiculous (haven’t even claimed anything!).

Nina Bodil ● 728d9 Comments

Some say residential block insurance has gone up substantially 'because of Grenfell' or because of 'an increasingly difficult market' which has seen fewer companies prepared to take on this business. However, with a small 'shared house', most regular companies and brokers will offer something, and, as others have suggested, getting a range of competitive quotes is always a good idea, if only to concentrate the mind of your existing provider. Also, be clear what your block insurance needs to cover and what should be covered by individual leaseholders within their own flat. You can also reduce the premium by increasing the excess, but that can cause its own difficulties.

Peter Evans ● 726d

Different companies include different things in Buildings Insurance so make sure that nothing falls through a gap between Buildings and Contents eg fixtires and fottings like sanitary ware and kitchen cabinets and where the line is drawn re responsibility re pipework.

Philippa Bond ● 726d

Insurers do try it on. I prefer to stay with the same one, but a couple of years ago my car insurance almost doubled at renewal for no apparent reason, so I insured elsewhere, and before notifying my existing insurer. When I phoned them up to cancel, they made all sorts of offers to keep my business, and it took me a while to get through to them that I'd already gone.

Michael Brown ● 726d

Best to try a broker or two.  Every year we try two or three.  Some years we move to a new insurer, some years we stick with the existing one.  The brokers that we use are Deacon, Lansdowne and AON.  One thing to be careful of when comparing quotes is that you are comparing like-for-like.  Different insurers will have different levels of excess as standard, or include / exclude as standard (and at different levels of cover) various items such as Directors' liability cover, landlord's (i.e. freeholder's) furnishings etc. etc.  Insurance premiums can rise not only because of your own claims history but also because of levels of claims generally - if claims for flooding, for example, are up by 50% nationally, then that will be reflected in a rise in all insurers' premiums

Andrzej Kowalski ● 726d

Yep, saw a 20% increase this year, so maybe got off lucky

Russell Pearson ● 727d

I recently renewed buildings and content insurance and started by checking price comparison sites. The best price there was about 30% higher than my current rate and I ended up going with my existing insurer who were offering by far the lowest price on renewal. How weird is that?Rates seem to have shot up for a variety of reasons including inflation, higher interest rates, higher claims during the pandemic. If you had a particularly low rate last year your rise may not be that out of kilter with the market.

Jeremy Parkinson ● 727d

If work was recently carried out quite often insurance increase is to cover the party wall, have you ask them the reason for the 40% increase.

Janice Evans ● 727d

Perhaps try these people Nina. Prices have gone up but not as much as 40%https://kerrylondon.co.uk/industries/property-investors/property-owners-investors/

Russell Pearson ● 728d

I don't know about the specific situation you describe, but I have found Aviva to be competitive and efficient for straight forward house insurance.

Michael Brown ● 728d