A guide to leasehold retirement living
Insurance for retirement housing
Where your service charge includes contributions towards insurance, you are entitled to ask your landlord for a written summary of the current insurance cover, including the name of the insurer. The landlord must provide this within 21 days. You can then, if you wish, demand to inspect the policy together with evidence of payment of the premiums by the landlord. In the absence of a reasonable excuse, failure to comply may be an offence.
Failure to insure, where this is required by the lease, is a breach of the lease
In cases where the landlord refuses to make a claim on the insurance which would have offset service charges, leaseholders have the right to tell the insurance company of their intention to force a claim. They then have 6 months to persuade the landlord to make a claim or they can apply to the court for an order.
The ARHM code of practice says that if any commission is paid to the managing agent for the insurance, this should be declared and the manager should demonstrate that the insurance still represents good value even after the commission is added.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) set new regulations which from 31 December 2023, require new levels of clarity with regards to multi-occupancy residential buildings insurance. The rule focuses on new requirements for transparency and fair value when it comes to commission renumeration in the insurance sector, to empower leaseholders and boost competition.
Find out more:
- FCA report – Multi-occupancy buildings insurance – broker remuneration (PDF)
- FCA press release – FCA confirms leasehold buildings insurance reforms
- Written evidence submitted by James Dart, Chartered MCSI, Int. Adv. Cert (RegComp), MICA., on behalf of dart Compliance Ltd, an FCA regulatory compliance consultancy operating in the General Insurance intermediary market
- Last updated:
- 9 January 2025
- Next review:
- 22 December 2026