BUILDINGS INSURANCE

[patricia]

I have discovered to my horror that we have no communal buildings insurance or any other insurance come to that! it was stopped three years ago as there was not enough money to pay for it due to debtors! Have just been into the Administrators office and they have told me that in any case any insurance would not cover for the loss of my flat ie if the block were to collapse etc and that I have to have my own buildings insurance. Is this correct!!

[katy]

I thought it was the law that community building has to have insurance! What he is saying that you wouldn't be covered through community insurance if it collapsed is rubbish. We had a couple of apartments and only had to take out for contents. I got a copy of the community insurance and read the small print, covered the whole shell including community pipes etc.

[patricia]

Thats intersting Katy. Well we dont have any insurance as they stopped paying for it in 2007! apparently because there was no money to pay for the insurance because of debtors! I have just taken over as the President and had no idea that the building had no insurance but indeed it does not! I have called a meeting and will ask to see the old insurance policy. Thanks for that

[sick and tired]

if you have contents insurance it does not cost much more to add buildings to it as a joint policy and it is always worth shopping around.it may be prudent to do this because if you have no money in the community account you can not buy insurance wether its legal or not! as the president i would advise the community of the situation so people can do the same.debt is a huge problem as we experience the same but we manage to just pay the bills, i had a levy of 300 euro passed which helped but again only the regular payers paid so you can imagine it went down like a lead balloon

[patricia]

Well that is true we have two debtors who over 2000 euros each!! but I have called a meeting anyway to try and sort things out. Yes knowing about it would have helped. I was blissfully unaware that there was no buildings insurance we should have all been sent a letter or something or an extraoridinary meeting called to discuss the situation) Well there are 16 flats in all so that would work out about 50 euros each at a one off plus a bit more for the two who are not paying their community charge. The insurance is some 800 euros per block.

[Mowser]

Another thing about house insurance ... if something were to fall from the apartment and injure a passer-by, your insurance would cover you in case you were stuck with a hefty bill for hospital treatment / loss of earnings / compensation etc.

[alexander1]

Would I be correct in thinking that it is OK to ask the administrator of our community to have sight of the insurance or would it just be better to ask him to confirm in writing that there is an up to date policy? We have a lot of debtors in our small community and reading this has just set alarm bells ringing.

[patricia]

Well I would like to know if is illegal not to have buildings insurance because we have just had a meeting and the Administrator has said it is not illegal!

Hello David are your there!!

[Jool]

I would assume that if there are any owners on the community with mortgages then not having buildings insurance would be a breach of their mortgage conditions and thus render the Community liable to prosecution for that reason alone especially as individual owners cannot take out effective insurance to cover communal areas.....

[patricia]

Oh thanks for that Jool. I will go into the office and tell the Administrator that. As I explained we have just had a meeting and I asked the Administrator if it was illegal and he said no but we do not have enough money in the bank to pay for it, however the new insurance he has come up with is only 25 euros per person but he said that that will be paid when we have enough money in the account to pay for it and that it will take a few months befoe there is enough money in the account:thumbdown: so here we are with no communal insurance for puplic liability should anyone have an accident or should here be a fire etc!