As the freeholder of your leasehold flat, the Council is responsible for providing comprehensive buildings insurance cover for your property. You cannot opt out or arrange your own cover with another company.
The buildings insurance policy does not cover your home contents. We strongly advise you to arrange your own home contents insurance cover.
For the last two years we have insured our residential leasehold properties through Avid Insurance Services Ltd.
This year (1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024), residential leasehold properties will be insured through Protector Insurance Services Ltd.
Why has the insurance provider changed?
Our previous supplier (Avid) notified us in late January 2023 that they were withdrawing from the market for leasehold insurance from April 2023. Avid were not the only suppliers in the leaseholder insurance market taking this action. This was unexpected and did not give us sufficient time to consult with leaseholders on alternative options but were able to go to tender for a replacement insurance provider from 1 April 2023.
We chose to go ahead with the one-year deal offered by Protector to be able to provide buildings insurance cover for the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. Many local authorities have been impacted by the withdrawal of insurers from the leaseholder buildings insurance market with some authorities having difficulty in obtaining any quotes at all.
We aim to conduct a full procurement exercise later this year for a provider from 1 April 2024. This exercise will include full engagement with leaseholders.
Buildings insurance policy document
Your buildings insurance premium is calculated on the basis of the property’s reinstatement value as individually assessed by an RICS Chartered Surveyor independent of the current insurance suppliers, unless your mortgage provider has asked for a different value to be used. We aim to regularly reassess these values to keep them up to date and where necessary adjust them so that your property is covered to the appropriate insurance level.
You must advise the Council of any subletting tenancy agreement and contact details should we need to get in touch with you and let us know if your property will be unoccupied for 30 days or more as this may affect your insurance cover. Please contact the Leasehold Services team directly to advise if you sublet your property on leaseholdservices@hounslow.gov.uk or by telephone to 020-8583-3787.
How to make a claim
If you need to make a claim:
- If the matter is urgent, you should contact them directly on 0161 823 1912.
- Alternatively, you can contact them by email via Protectorclaims@uk.sedgwick.com
We appreciate that the increase in insurance premiums for 2023/24 will put an extra financial burden on our leaseholders.
If you will have difficulty paying your invoice by 1June 2023 please contact the Accounts Receivable team via email leaseholdincome@hounslow.gov.uk or by calling 020 3949 7732 to discuss how we may be able to support you by spreading the cost of your building's insurance premium over a number of months.
