Buildings Insurance Price Hike

[LadyFramer]

I have been renting a commercial property since 2003, and to begin with (as stated in the contract) I arranged my own building and contents insurance. After a few years my landlord was requesting additional cover and offered to put me on the buildings group policy they had and until now that was costing me £3.62+VAT a month. Now they have just emailed me to say all insurance has been revised and my share for the current year is £715.73! And it starts on 1st April 2024 but they notified me yesterday and invoiced the backdated amounts today. These is a bit of a shock as you can imagine and I am already a struggling small business. Is there anything at all I can do about it? I have sent a protesting email but they are a big company and I don't expect them to be sympathetic.

 

[Frank the Insurance guy]

(as stated in the contract) I arranged my own building and contents insurance.

Double check your contract - if it says you can do it yourself, get some quotes and you can see for yourself if the landlords' premiums are more expensive.

If you find something cheaper, you should be able to give notice to the landlord that you are arranging your own insurance policy, as per the contract from XXX date and you will therefore only pay the proportion of their bill from April to that date.

However, It is unusual for the lease contract to say the tenant can arrange the buildings insurance, so do check this!

In general, Buildings Insurance rates have increased over the last couple of years - in most cases we are seeing increases of 15%+

 

[LadyFramer]

Double check your contract - if it says you can do it yourself, get some quotes and you can see for yourself if the landlords' premiums are more expensive.

If you find something cheaper, you should be able to give notice to the landlord that you are arranging your own insurance policy, as per the contract from XXX date and you will therefore only pay the proportion of their bill from April to that date.

However, It is unusual for the lease contract to say the tenant can arrange the buildings insurance, so do check this!

In general, Buildings Insurance rates have increased over the last couple of years - in most cases we are seeing increases of 15%+

I have just heard back from my insurance company and they said they cannot quote the tenant as it is not my insurable interest. They also said it is known that my landlords have been under-charging for a while and this year they have reassessed and aligned it with market rates.