Renter's building insurance and other things, I'm a bit suspicious of my landlady's intentions? (Long Sorry!)

[KangKorandKoloth]

Hi,

DP and I have been in our 3 bedroom rented property for roughly seven years. Approximately three years ago we were asked by our landlords to take out buildings for our bit of their property (it's an annexe on a semi detached house). Although Skeptical (as I have always been told that you only needed contents insurance) I managed to find a company who would do this and have been with them ever since.

Fast forward to now. My landlady is claiming her buildings insurance company need to see a copy of our buildings policy, absolutely fine and I have provided a copy of this. She has now returned it with the following issues

• Our house is a semi detached bungalow and I have registered it as a semi detached House : Our house was indeed at one point a bungalow,it now has an upstairs with three rooms which our landlord has put in. Would this now make it a house? Genuinelly confused on this and will hold my hands in the air if I'm wrong, there is no Chellet bungalow option to put in when I renew our policy, also what difference does it make in terms of our policy validitiy?

• Our House is less than 1/4 a mile away from water - This is news to me, we are quite near water but have been previously assured it wasn't a that close iyswim

• Apparently this insurance company need three years worth of policy documents. This really isn't a problem but I've never heard of a company asking for this before and I'm a little reluctant to handover so many insurance documents with a lot of information about myself and partner without a reason as to what it's going to be used for. This is exasberated by the fact my landlady will not give me a reason as allow me to phone the company myself to discuss. Shen won't even tell me which insurer needs it. Her reason for this is becasue the policy is in our landlord's name so only hmakin he can deal with it, apparently she can't even deal with it (although she is the one who is making all the phone calls to this company)

• The insurance company will not accept me emailing over PDF's of our insurance policy apparently we must send the original certificate vis the post. Which isfine, expect we are are with a company who issues their policy documents electronically and the only one's we have are in PDF's which I have then printed. Do I need to contact my insurance company and ask for copy to be sent through post? If so can anyone explain to me what the difference between the two are as I am very confused.

Thanks for getting this far, didn't realise it was going to be so long. I'm not sure what I even want from this thread, just trying to get the issues straight inmy head I guess, but if anyone could answer my questions I would be very greatful.

As a tenant you should not have to take out a buildings insurance policy. The owner of the building is responsible for this. You only need contents.

I would seriously question why the reason for the request! I probably would say I don't have the old policy documents too ;) only current policy would ever matter surely? Sounds suspect!

Thanks for responding,Glad, I'm not the only one who thinks that!

There is a long back story to this (Too long to go into) so I'm a bit predisposed not to trust her, I think I'll pop round tomorrow and have a chat with the landlord. My logic is, if it's not dodgy then they'll let me speak to the insurers right?

There's definitely something dodgy but I can't figure out what the hell it is! You don't need buildings insurance (FYI, I used to work in housing law), only contents.

I cannot work out what her angle is, very weird!

not your building, you can't insure it.

your contents, you insure them.

tell her where to go.

Stop your buildings insurance immediately, you should def not be paying that,it's a rental property, wouldn't imagine if would even pay out if you don't own the property.

Say you don't have the documents.

Thank you!!! I'm so glad I'm not going mad, I knew this wasn't right but DP sides with her and I was beginning to doubt myself. Will definitely go to see them tomorrow and I am not letting it lie. Will most definitely cancel the policy too.

Why would your DP side with her?

Long story - they've known each other for a long time (since before we met and we've been together 10 years) and he doesn't like to rock the boat, which in all honesty drives me insane. She can come across quite domineering and he's quite passive which I don't think helps.

You are a tenant and you don't need buildings insurance.

Some letting agents try to force it on tenants as a way of making extra money out of them via commissions. A few have tried it with us in the past and when we asked why they didn't have an answer and backed off.

Not your property so you don't insure it.

Agree with everyone above. I'm new to renting and tried to get building insurance and was constantly told you can't insure it you don't own it!! I wonder if she is going to try and claim against it. Does your insurance have legal cover perchance? It would be worth getting some advice - either via that or CAB?

I suggest you speak to cab before you se it. Your insurance may not even be valid.

you don't need advice, you just need to install a brain in your husband.

you can't insure what isn't yours!

Erm, you don't own it so why would you insure it?

In your shoes I would not be forthcoming with any insurance documents before speaking to CAB about it.

That sounds really weird. Like others have said, if you're not the owner you shouldn't be able to insure, and the fact that she wants 3 years info, original certificate and won't let you even know the name of the insurer asking sounds extremely dodgy.

Oh my gosh, we had a set up like that once, annexe etc, but in our case the landlady was running her own outhouse off our coin meter.