Posted: March 31st, 2009 | Author: George | Filed under: Home Insurance | Tags: blocks of flats insurance, multiple occupancy insurance
PEOPLE living in blocks of flats or houses converted into more than one residential unit could have been mis-sold buildings insurance, according to a recent report which has found many flat owners are dual insured and suspects many policyholders could have been misled.
Dual insurance occurs when a policy holder is paying for two types of cover when they only need one and can also apply if they have been sold buildings cover for their individual flat or maisonette. The reason this mostly affects flat owners is although blocks of residences can be classed as a single unit and can be covered with just one policy, some insurers still offer individual policies for each individual flat.
Typically the freeholder will have a policy covering the whole building and this is usually included in the service charge, tough you should always check this out. As many as 10 per cent of the population could be affected.
One Broker explains : “I have been seeing clients with dual cover for around 10 years but up until recently it was only about one case per annum. A client who lived in a block of twelve flats came to me once and each unit had separate buildings insurance cover. Also when the client’s wife was in the process of remortgaging she was persuaded to take cover, when she unknowligly already had it.
Problems are also arising when a lender knows a building is insured - this will have been clarified before a mortgage was finalised - but still offers a borrower building insurance. The crux is they are trying to take money when they don’t have to.
Multiple separate policy holders may be paying between £200 and £300 a year but a freeholder’s policy for the whole building may be proportionally half this amount. If the freeholder has not taken out an individual policy to cover the housing block, the first step is to approach them to see if this can be arranged. Failing that, residents could club together and form their own residents’ association and take out a collective poliy. Form a limited company to do this is not necessary (paperwork every time someone joins or leaves), becoming a resdients’ association will suffice and is much cheaper.
A key reason residents who do not club together is that they encounter problems because insurance companies often only recognise a single name for the policyholder, a problem shared by unmarried couples too. Nowadays more and more insurers will offer cover to collective residents associations, even if such insurance now falls under the “commercial” banner.
One specialist insurance broker who may be able to help is Adrian Flux, call 0800 089 0184.
Posted: March 2nd, 2009 | Author: George | Filed under: Home Insurance | Tags: flat roof home insurance, wood built home insurance
The buying and selling of insurance has become very automated these days, helped along in no small part by the internet. It has become mostly a one size fits all approach so insurers can box you and process you online, however should your house or your circumstances be slightly different you will find it impossible to buy corectly from online insurers, or at worst end up with a worthless certificate of insurance.
You will need specialist cover if your house has a larger than usual flat roof, when you disclose this most mainstream insurers will not want to cover your property. The reasoning behind this is two fold - they often do not have the specific knowledge of the risk that is required and their selection of underwriters in that niche is limited at best. Flat roofs despite any guarantee given by builders do not last in reality much more than 5 years and recent UK weather is of course a major factor too. If there is even a tiny pin hole in the surface water will seep in and often builds up to a point when it will burst damaging not only the building but also the contents.
There are also issues with properties with a high percentage of wood, such as log cabins and seaside type holiday homes used for year round residence. Although this does add character to a property it can make them more vulnerable to fire claims particularly. Please always check with your insurer rather than be faced with a claim that is refused. If in doubt please check
with a specialist broker such as Adrian Flux who can be contacted on 0800 089 0184.
Posted: February 27th, 2009 | Author: George | Filed under: Home Insurance | Tags: unoccupied home insurance
Insurance has become very automated, as has the selling/buying process. It has almost become a one size fits all service, but should your house or your circumstances be slightly different you will find it impossible to buy from the supermarkets or big online insurers. So you do need a policy that
is flexible enough to suit your specific needs rather than hope that the off the shelf policy actually covers your specific cicumstances. But please remember a tailor made policy does not necesarily have to cost more.
You will find that you do need a more flexible policy if your house is vacant ie. Unoccupied Home Insurance.
If may simply be the case that you spend more than the standard maximum of 30 days away from the home at any time of year. You may have inherited a vacant property, or you might be a developer or refurbishing the home to your requirements but living elsewhere at the time. These are various scenarios that expert insurers have helped clients with after they found the mainstream big boys insurers could not meet their needs.
Often such specialist home insurance providers do they insist that you must have your main property with them as they happy to offer stand alone cover along with the flexibility of a six month
policy. For property developers a unique policy is offered which covers all your properties ie. property you are buying, refurbishing or in the process of selling, all unoccupied phases of a project.
