What are the factors involved in flat insurance? Do I need to provide both buildings and contents cover? Who will cover shared flats or flats with student tenants?

The responsibility to insure the building fabric of a flat lies with the freeholder. This means that if you own your flat on a leasehold basis then you only need to insure the contents. The buildings will be covered by the freeholder. In flats with shared areas and gardens, you normally pay a monthly service charge. Out of this charge, the freeholder will also pay for the buildings insurance.

If you are the freeholder of a flat then you need to insure both the buildings and contents of the property.

If you are renting a flat, then your only concern is the contents that belong to you. Your letting agent might insist that you take adeqaute protection for your liability to the landlord. This means that you have insurance cover ihn case you damage the landlords goods. This can be a good idea and while you are not responsible for wear and tear of the landlords property, if you break the washing machine, this cover can be useful.

Yourhomeinsurance.co.uk has a panel of insurance companies that allow it to cover tenants even in shared flats.

Within student shared flats, you need a specialist insurer such as www.endsleigh.co.uk.

Tim Larden writes for yourhomeinsurance.co.uk who specialise in Flat Insurance. The site can provide information for flat renters, sharers or owners on their buildings or contents cover.

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Critical illness cover (CIC) is a type of insurance which provides a significant one-off payment if you are diagnosed with a specified life-threatening condition - specified being the important term, because if your illness isn’t in the terms and conditions - you won’t get the payment. Over recent years, critical illness cover has gained in popularity due to lower costs and apparent simplicity.

Critical illness insurance can be sold as part of a mortgage package or additionally as a stand-alone policy. Critical illness cover can also be commonly associated with life insurance, with certain CIC policies paying out either on the diagnosis of a particular illness or on death, but not both, whilst other CIC policies pay out in both events.

When you first purchase the critical illness insurance policy, there might be an option for buy-back insurance, this would permit you to buy additional critical illness cover or life insurance, typically at a minimal cost, after you have made a claim on your existing CIC policy. It is often worth considering such an option, as the survival rates from a critical illness are usually very good and it can be extremely difficult to obtain new cover following a critical illness. Buy-back critical illness cover usually protects against the three major critical illnesses: heart attack, stroke and cancer from which you are most likely to recover, but also risk an attack later in life.

Bear in mind that when you take out life critical illness insurance, there is a standard waiting period between diagnosis and possible payout, from six months to a year for certain conditions, such as total permanent disability. However, if the diagnosis is very transparent, it is possible that the insurer would consider waiving the waiting period. The maximum payout varies from policy to policy thought it’s not unusual to see capped payouts of

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Most home and contents insurance claims proceed smoothly, except perhaps for occasional disagreements about how much something was worth. But another re-occurring difficulty is where damage is due to poor building maintenance. The homeowner has a duty of care and the insurers take a dim view of claims that the homeowner could, and should have, avoided. AS a result insurers may scale down or even reject your claim.

To avoid such problems you should give your house an annual Maintenance MOT. A springtime check would be good. By carrying out just a few simple checks, it should be possible to find problems at an early stage.

Rain, wind, snow and frost place some of the biggest day-to-day strains on the structure of your home. Consequently, most homes develop a few problems in the autumn and winter months, so a springtime check can save much time and expense further down the line.

It’s not as if you’ll be paying money that you could claim later on an insurance claim. Indeed, any costs you claim that were really a maintenance issue, will be rejected by your insurance company.

Here’s our 10 point springtime MOT for your home:

Clean out the gutters. Autumn can be especially hard on gutters as lots of debris can accumulate. That must be removed. Blocked gutters and down spouts can quickly cause enormous damage if water is left to overflow and penetrate the structure. But please be careful with this job. Working up ladders is dangerous so why not get your window cleaner to do the job!

Now get your binoculars out and check the roof. Search for cracked, loose or slipped tiles. A leaking roof can result in costly damage. Ceiling damage, rot, redecoration can quickly swallow up money. Then there’s the a safety issue. If a tile slips off, someone could be badly injured. Even your car could take a direct hit!

Check out your exterior paintwork. Any cracked, peeling, or blistered paintwork needs attention. Touch it up to preserve the wood from damage. Summer time can be surprisingly hard on paintwork. High temperatures and big temperature changes create expansion and contraction cracks ready to let in the following winter to do its worst.

If you’ve heavily used an open fire during the winter, get the chimney swept. Heavy build-ups of soot can easily catch fire and during the summer the soot absorbs damp.

Take a walk around the house and make sure that nothing is covering over the damp course. Pilled up garden rubbish is the most common offender. Grass cuttings are not your home’s best friend! If damp gets past the damp course your walls inside will get damp resulting in damaged to plasterwork decoration. Over time, rot will set in.

When you are planting shrubs and trees you need to ensure that their roots are not going to cause future damage. If roots penetrate your drains or get into your foundations you’re in for horrendous bills. Willow and Popular trees are some of the worst offenders. Are you aware that you shouldn’t have a Popular tree within 150 feet of your property? If a new house is built within this distance, it has to have specially reinforced foundations!

Whilst on the subject of trees, you probably think that your buildings insurance will cover damage caused by falling trees. Yes they will - if the tree was well maintained. But what happens if the tree was rotten or already damaged? Yep, you’ve guessed it, that’s a maintenance issue. You’re liable! Unless you can show that you took reasonable care of the trees, the insurer can refuse any subsequent claim. If have big trees you could have big problems. You are advised to get an annual report from a tree surgeon detailing any work that is needed - and don’t forget to carry it out and keep the paperwork! Such action demonstrates that you have taken due care and therefore, any related claim will be accepted.

Do you have any climbing plants on the house? Check out that they haven’t caused damage to your brickwork or render. Ivy is the biggest offender. And never let climbing plants get onto your roof - that’s a recipe for disaster!

Now go inside your house. Remember to have your central heating boiler serviced - it’s been a hard winter! And get its carbon monoxide emissions checked. Whilst the engineer’s there, also get him to give your radiators the once over.

Finally, up into the loft. Check for signs of leaks and rodent damage to the wiring. Squirrels love warm lofts and they love the insulation around wiring! The fire brigade hate squirrels! And a dirty job. Whilst you there, remove any old bird or wasp nests and block up the openings.

Take these steps and you’re unlikely to run into a problem with any structural insurance claim. Your home will also love you!

Brokers Online are a large uk based finance website offering you access to great deals on home and contents insurance and life insurance cover all online.

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