© 2025 News On The Block. All rights reserved.
News on the Block is a trading name of Premier Property Media Ltd.
© 2025 News On The Block. All rights reserved.
News on the Block is a trading name of Premier Property Media Ltd.
If you are living in a block of flats, as opposed to sub-letting, when you come to consider your contents insurance the first thing to bear in mind is to ensure that you have comprehensive cover.
Comprehensive cover is a phrase perhaps more naturally associated with motor insurance but it really indicates the fact that you need to make sure that you have wide coverage. This means ensuring that you have cover for accidental loss, that your insurance includes cover for legal costs, for your cash money and credit cards and you need to bear in mind whether you want coverage for items taken outside your flat and if so at what level.
The next point is to ensure that whoever you insure with provides you with a good service. You can either insure direct with a major insurer (it is probably unwise going for smaller companies now with the fall in the Stock Market) or through a broker. The advantage of using a broker is that if you get into difficulties on a claim or in any other respect with your insurer you have someone who has the expertise and knowledge to fight your corner. It could well be worth using their services which, in fact, cost you nothing extra because the broker will get a commission from the insurance and it ought not to affect the level of your premium. The only way that you will know if a broker will give you good service is really by experience. In the first instance enquiring amongst friends may lead you to a suitable firm.
Today with the fall in Stock Market prices insurance companies have come under increasing pressure. An insurance company under such pressure may be less keen to meet claims without full investigation. Perhaps more important is the fact that insurance companies have lost so much money over the last few years that some of them, like the Independent, have gone out of business entirely reducing the number of companies available in the market place. Here is another important reason for using a broker because brokers have a duty to check on the security of the insurer and will understand the ratings given to insurance companies by the various credit agencies. You need to be sure that the price of your quotation is competitive. A broker would automatically advise you if this was the case but if you are trying to organise your own insurance you will need to contact two or three companies to make sure that you are paying a fair price for your cover.
Most insurance policies that cover contents will include sub-tenants. However insurance companies will expect to be informed if you are sub-letting to students. Insurers are particularly concerned if you reach an agreement with the local authority or a housing association whereby they will take over your flat for a given period of time guaranteeing you the rent and the maintenance of your flat but in return having complete control over who lives there. This type of business is generally disregarded by insurance companies so you need to be very careful before entering into this sort of arrangement and make sure that your insurance is not affected.
When it comes to claims handling you need to ask your broker what services they can provide. The service will vary from broker to broker. Some will have a dedicated claims handling team that works to a strict set of service standards to ensure that your claim is dealt with fairly and efficiently.
News on the Block would be interested to hear from any readers who have specific insurance queries. Please drop a note to the editor and we will endeavour to deal with your queries in future issues.