LTA 1985 s.20: consultation with lessees re Insurance?

[antalp]

Hi There

When it comes to insurance our block of 8 1970's flats above a small supermarket have been paying circa £4000 for a few years. It seems now it has dropped to £2500 and we have just found out that our agents may not have been obtaining the best quotes and just using their "favourite broker". Our agents are fully owned and controlled by the landlord.

Can anyone tell me, as insurance is a service do we have to be given a section 20 notice? Do quotes have to be obtained from several sources? Are the agents obliged to find us a good deal? I fear that we may have been paying £1000's extra that must have been going into somebody's pocket.

[Poppy]

Find out the criteria your landlord uses to insure the building (age, rebuild value, number/type dwellings and so on). Research insurance for the whole building. You never know they may appreciate your input.

[ashburnham]

Exactly as Poppy says!!!

There's no harm in getting some theoretical quotes for the property and then presenting it to the landlord to see what they say. I have no idea about the legal side of these things but I can't see how the landlord could refuse a better offer with pressure from the tenants.

In experience with hearing this story quite often, it is more a case of landlords in this situation simply don't shop around or make any effort to keep the costs down as they know they are no paying it. We, as a landlord insurance broker, always shop around for our landlords at renewal to see if we can find them a better deal. When we do, we will offer it as an alternative but are obliged to offer the renewal with the current company also. It always amazes me how many people stick with their current company, many of these being owners of blocks of flats.

Have a shop around and go from there...

[Mrs Jones]

Whilst all the responses are really helpful for the future, I think antalp is looking for information as to whether they can get some kind of reparation for paying way over the odds in the past. I suspect that the answer to that question will be no.

[antalp]

Thank you for your responses. I apologise for the delay, I thought I would be notified of a response by email.

[mind the gap]

Thank you for your responses. I apologise for the delay, I thought I would be notified of a response by email.

No, that only happens when you get a private message from someone on the forum.

[andydd]

'm kind of in the same position, my insurance has increased steadily over the last few years and recently I obtained various online quotes to obtain like for like insurance and they were all considerably lower.

I asked my landlord for the insurance policy and it appeared that they had always used the same insurance provider (no doubt part of a block policy) which is convienent for the them but expensive for me.

Ive written to them explaing this and attaching the quotes I obtained.

I was under the impression that you CAN claim back overpaid money IF it is deemed 'unreasonable' by a LVT, I'm unsure as to how far you can go back, I think it is six years ?. I've filled in an application to the LVT on this basis...I havn't posted this yet as I'd rather come to an agreement with my landlord but they havn't been very communicative.

I would also be interesting to know if insurance comes under the s20 consultation process, it costs more than £250 but I have a feeling it doesn't though.

You may find it very usefull (I have) to look through previous LVT decisions from the Lease site.

Andy

[jeffrey]

No, that only happens when you get a private message from someone on the forum.
OR if the member concerned 'subscribes' to the thread.