Block Of Flats Insurance

Block of Flats Insurance – All You Need to Know

Block of flats insurance is one of the more complex areas of property insurance, but in this article I’ll try and clarify things for you.  

Firstly, responsibility for insuring the buildings of a block of flats is normally laid out in the lease and is stated under the freeholder’s covenants, with them usually retaining the right to recover the cost of the flats’ insurance as part of the service charge.  Failure to provide this insurance protection would mean a breach of the lease, leaving the freeholder liable, unless of course the right to insure has been assigned to a management company, residents’ association or a right to manage (RTM) company or similar organisation.

Blocks of Flats Insurance for the Entire Block of Flats?

There are a number of good reasons why you should have a block of flats insurance policy for the entire block and these include:

• If each flat owner in the block of flats individually insured the buildings of their flat then dealing with a claim would be  extremely complex as multiple insurers would have to be involved when a claim arose
• If one flat owner in the block of flats failed to arrange flat insurance cover then that too would complicate matters when it came to a claim
• Differing block of flats insurance companies offer different levels of cover and this can make making a claim a long and difficult process

As such, the best solution to block of flats insurance is to have a single bespoke policy that covers all flats and which protects all members of the block – something that we at 1stsureflats.com specialise in.

Finally, let me clear up one last point of confusion when it comes to block of flats insurance.  Typically a buildings policy does give contents cover for communal areas and the policyholder’s gardening equipment.  It does not, however, cover items owned by a flat’s occupier left in communal areas such as bicycles or prams left in stairwells.  These items need to be covered by contents insurance and contents insurance remains the responsibility of the individual lessee/owner/occupier.

I hope that’s helped clarify things on block of flats insurance, but if you would like any more advice please don’t hesitate to contact the the 1st Sure Flats team on 0345 370 2844, email us by clicking here or let us call you back.