Insurance on a large property owned by a company

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Treverva
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Mar 27, 2017 10:01 am
Location: Cornwall

Insurance on a large property owned by a company

Post by Treverva »

Me again!

Latest situation is planning insurance cover for our new venture.

There are two difficulties that we seem to be facing - our rebuild value is over £1m (extremely thick granite walls make up a lot of this I guess) and the property will be owned by a limited company.

I'm getting quotes from a lot of different companies, but some won't insure if a company is the owner (why?) and some are asking £1k a year for buildings only.

However, if I wanted to insure it as a private home, the premium would be closer to £250.

Is this typical of other people's experiences?

Thanks
AndrewH
Posts: 1499
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2013 1:17 pm
Location: Kefalonia, Greece
Contact:

Post by AndrewH »

A couple of thoughts (assuming the property is in the UK):

(1) Is the company the legal owner of the property as it appears on the title deeds or at the Land Registry? If not and the property is registered in the name(s) of private individual(s) then they themselves could have a good reason to insure privately and not in the company's name, although the proposed use of the property would need to be revealed to an insurer.

(2) If the property is to be used for holiday letting, there are insurers who specialise in this and who may quote you more cheaply, e.g. "Intasure" among many.
Giraffe
Posts: 410
Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2016 10:10 am
Location: Cornwall, England

Post by Giraffe »

Treverva. My Cornish house is also built from large granite blocks and is around two thirds the size of yours. My rebuild cost is estimated at around £600,000.

Your insurance will need to include public liability, mine is £3million. (Had a claim 4 years ago when I had an agent running the lettings. It was not handled very well and the total costs, including legal, were £60k. This included a compensation reduction as the visitor was judged to be partially responsible. I also had to replace two original Victorian windows that had thin glass.)

For many years I have had a broker handle all my insurances, assuming that they would get me the best deals. Wrong! I have just saved over 60% on my car insurance by doing it myself. I'm going to take AndrewH's advice and look to the specialist FHL insurers when my insurance comes up for renewal. Currently I am paying £800 annually so I'm hoping for a saving.

Hope this provides some help, but I can't assist with the issue of company insurance.
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