Building insurance

[Miss-taken]

Hi

I live in a small 1 bedroom maisonette that I own. Within the building there is a 2 bedroom flat and at the front of the property is a small shop. Building insurance is split equally 3 ways. My problem however is that because there is a shop, the buildings insurance has to be (so I'm told by the freeholder) commercial insurance. This means my share of this years will be £263 which I think is way way too much money for such a small property. Is this correct (ie splitting it 3 ways) and does it have to be commercial insurance? I suspect I'm being had over!
TIA

[jackthehat]

If you were to contact any Insurance Companies I'm sure they would tell you which type of insurance cover they would be willing to give you in your circumstances.

[themas]

You need to look at your lease. That will lay down the way in which the insurance premium is to be split. If it says 3 ways equally, you can't get out of it.

I think it unlikely that ordinary household cover would be acceptable where a shop is included in the space but - as already suggested - you could ring a few insurers & find out.

[twix123]

Speak to an Insurance Broker. It should be possible to get a Commercial Combined insurance policy covering the shop and residential parts but with the premium correctly apportioned between the separate premises.

[woozer]

Hi
If the lease says a three way equal split then you are bound to that. Otherwise the premium should be apportioned by the size of each unit within the property assuming the build specification is the same throughout.
The insurer will rate the whole building on the basis of the highest risk which presumably in this case is the shop.
If your unit is separated from the shop by walls and floors/ceiliings which are fire retardent up to a certain level/number of hours and there is no communicating staircase or other void that fire could travel along then you might have an argument for having your property rated differently (I am not sure what the number of hours is the insurer could tell you) .
Finally, the policy will almost certainly include Property Owners Liability - again, unless specified in your legal agreement with the owner I dont see why you should pay a proportion of that.

[woozer]

Sorry - ignore the bit about the Property Owners Liability if it is covering you as a leaseholder

[boxtops]

(apologies miss-taken) woozer, is that your cat? Lovely!

[woozer]

Hi Boxtops - yep that is my Norwegian Forest Cat - glad you like him !

[ChloeReed]

You should contact an insurance company that will come over and review the asset. If the asset is legaly devided to 3 different spaces each with a different purpose the insurance shouldn't be commercial for your "piece" of the building as it is not a commercial space. I bet you can even check this out online - https://www.boltinsurance.com/