Building insurance

[MRJWA]

My wife and I bought a freehold house some three years ago on a mixed estate of freehold and leasehold properties. Since we bought the house we have paid building insurance every year ourselves as we have done on other freehold houses we owned in the past.
The management company for the whole estate has now told us that they have been paying this insurance for us and now want payin.
We have never been told since we bought the house that they would be paying the building insurance. Should we pay? Any answers would be greatly appreciated thank you

[terambulan]

If its freehold you pay own building insurance.

Only on Leasehold properties are the landlord responsible for building insurance.

[cassa333]

I would agree with the above. If they have paid an insurance premium for your property in error then that is their hard luck and will teach them to keep a better eye on things.

They will need to try to get the payments back from the insurance company.

[colin6789]

I thnk that most leasehold houses as opposed to flats the landlord requires the tenant to insure the house themselves, and maybe requires proof.

[sandmaster]

If you own the freehold you have no commitment to the ex-ground landlord. If you have never asked them to pay on your behalf the problem is theirs.
As a property cannot be insured twice they can apply for a full refund from their insurer but they may need written confirmation from you that you have insured it. No harm in co-operating but make sure they pay you a small fee for your time, the photocopying of your insurance schedule and postage.

[Vivavilla]

Hi, we had exactly the same problem. We bought a freehold house on a small estate which had leasehold flats and freehold houses. We were told by our solicitor that we didn't have to pay buildings insurance as the management company paid this. When I got the following years bill I queried it with the management company who stated that no they didn't pay the buildings insurance for the houses, only the flats. Anyway, to cut a long story short - they had been paying our insurance but shouldn't have been doing so, it was a mistake on their part. They now only pay the insurance for the flats and not the houses. It is up to the owners of the houses to pay their own buildings insurance and I believe this should always be the case. It's well worth getting to the bottom of this matter, it sounds as if it's a mistake on the part of the management company. Stick with it - it took me ages to sort out and I'm still having problems with the management company! One tip - I asked them to send me a copy of the insurance certificate where it clearly stated that our property was covered for buildings insurance - it would be worth asking your management company if you could have a copy of the insurance certificate, it should hopefully clarify the matter for you. Best of luck!!