Getting the Best from Your Broker

Darren Bagnall, Managing Director of Flat Living Insurance explains how choosing the best protection for your property is vital and how to get the best from your insurance broker or intermediary.

As a director or officer of a Residents’ Management Company (RMC) choosing the right policies for your block is essential. Your fellow leaseholders are relying on your judgement to ensure that, should the worst happen, your block will be covered.

Insurance policy details and quotes are readily available online so it can be tempting to make your decisions based on website content alone to get the job done, but the process is not that straight forward.

How do you know which policies to go for? How do you know for sure that the policy sat conveniently in your online basket is really going to provide the cover you need and how do you make sense of all the small print?

The solution is of course to go through a specialist insurance broker or intermediary; an independent professional who will act on your behalf to get the job done properly- allowing you full peace of mind once all the decisions are made.

Their task is to help you ascertain and locate the insurance cover that best suits your requirements and to canvas the insurance market to obtain the best protection at the most competitive price.This should be coupled with information on the levels and type of cover you need, together with help when claims are made.

Finding the Best Value for Money

Your insurance broker will gather the information they need from you to figure out exactly what sorts and what levels of cover your building may need. Their next job is to find you the best price for the coverage required, and to do this they will approach a number of different specialist Insurance Companies for quotes.

This results in you having access to several suitable options at different price points and from across a wide spectrum of providers, with all the advantages and disadvantages of the different policies clearly explained to you. You can then make a truly informed decision and come away comfortable in the knowledge that you have found the best value for money for you and your leaseholders without compromising on cover.

Specialist Knowledge

In most cases, insurance companies would prefer to deal with a specialist, knowledgeable insurance broker rather than directly with clients- particularly in a specialist field such as property insurance.This is because, generally speaking, an experienced insurance broker will often have a better understanding of customers’ requirements than the customers themselves.

In terms of their contact with you, using an insurance broker has many advantages. They can provide quotes, summaries of cover and sample policies to help ensure you understand the cover being provided. Specialist flats insurers can often issue your policy and renewal documents as well as invoices – streamlining your personal admin. They will also collect your premiums and assist you through any claims.

Simplify Your Complex Role

Being an RMC Director is complex enough without having to become an expert in every aspect of property ownership. Hand over some of the load to your trusted insurance broker and allow them to take the stress out of this aspect of handling a block.

You can tick the huge task of finding insurance off your list, safe in the knowledge that all brokers and intermediaries operating in the UK are regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority which gives you the security of knowing that:

• There is someone you can complain to if things go wrong

• Your money is held securely in an ‘insurance broking account’
• The solvency and working capital of your broker will be regularly tested by the FCA
• Your broker will have many years broking experience and has a first duty of care to you and not to the insurer

If you find yourself a longstanding, trusted insurance broker, they may also be able to advise you and your fellow directors in areas such as risk management, key legislation changes and how to keep your claims to a minimum while ensuring you’re covered for the risks that are unavoidable.

What if Your Managing Agent is Responsible for Insurance?

RMC directors do not always take responsibility for arranging insurance- many will have their policies arranged by their managing agent.

Agents can be FCA authorised in their own right, enabling them to obtain quotes from many sources. Royal Institutes of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) members may be authorised under their RICS membership, but this is not an automatic right. Some agents are Appointed Representatives. This ties them to one broker or intermediary but allows them to complete many functions, such as notifying insurers of a claim and arranging an insurance policy. Agents can also be Introducer Appointed Representatives, which allows them to introduce insurance products to their client(s) but they cannot decide which product is suitable or arrange cover (this needs to be done by the RMC) and nor can they notify a claim, although they can be involved once the incident has been notified.

If you are not sure which, if any, of these categories your managing agent may fall into, just ask. They should be only too willing to explain what their status in term of insurance means for you and your fellow leaseholders.

To check the current FCA status of any brokers, head to the FCA website.

Head to our website for details of the policies Flat Living Insurance offer. You can also find details of the services we provide such as Manage Your Block and Block in a Box– tools specifically designed to make the lives of RMC directors simpler and easier.