Insurance included in flat service charge – will it cover letting?

Hi Edward,

The Block insurance will not cover letting and you need to have Landlords Insurance. Please see >> https://www.property118.com/insurance-landlords/

Considering how cheap it is, it is the responsible thing to do.

Agreed Neil. However it is prudent as Mark advised me years ago to buy a minimum cover landlords contents policy and with this should come Public Liability. Buildings Block Insurance should cover buildings etc regardless of whether it is a tenant or an owner occupier- but the policy should be checked. What the policy will not cover is any public liability for anything that happens in the flat – i.e a slip trip or fall.

I second what Gary Nock has said – check the policy, as these vary. Some block building policies are tailored for flats being occupied by tenants, but you need to check the wording as some won’t cover certain types of tenant. For example, earlier this year as joint freeholders we were looking at various policies when our building policy came up for renewal.

The policy we eventually went for covers most tenants types (I can’t remember if that includes students) but doesn’t cover tenants referred by the council. We made additional enquiries to ensure this doesn’t extend to other tenants on housing benefit (as two tenants are likely to get housing benefit as a top up, and no one is immune to losing their job) and categorically established that “ordinary” housing benefit claimants are covered.

Hi Edward,
I had this issue earlier this year and also wrote on the forum for advice (I’ll try and find the link). My block policy was, as everyone has mentioned, just buildings insurance. It didn’t cover for the fact I was to let my property so I had to inform the insurance company and they added a few extra clauses to ensure it covered tenants living in the property. I then purchased landlord insurance with a minimum contents policy, as Gary mentioned above, to ensure I got the public liability protection.

Hi Edward, here’s the link to the other thread when I posted about a similar topic: https://www.property118.com/landlord-insurance-query-public-liability-flat/85040/#comment-73983

HI,

Within my service charge on my flat includes building insurance and comprehensive buy to let insurance at no additional charge. My flat is an EX LA property in London.