The transfer of Leaseholder details can often be a lengthy and complex process. We may not have been informed that you have completed your sale. Please contact our Leasehold Transfer Team who will be pleased to help.
We advise you to contact your solicitor who should have made arrangements for payment of any arrears on completion of your purchase.
You should continue to make payment of your ground rent, insurance and service charges until you complete your sale. Your solicitor must make arrangements to recover any overpayment from your purchaser on completion.
Your solicitor should contact our Leasehold Transfer Team to obtain replies to the usual enquiries and details of the steps which need to be taken before and after completion of the sale.
You should ask your solicitor for a copy. Alternatively, you may be able to obtain a copy from the Land Registry. If you cannot obtain a copy from these sources, please contact our Legal Team who may be able to help.
Yes. As a responsible agent for your landlord we securely record information on who lives in a property for a number of purposes. These include being able to accurately inform emergency services if there is a serious event, and ensuring that the insurance cover in place reflects the occupancy rate.
Your lease may contractually require you to inform or seek consent from your landlord. We ask you however to inform us regardless, so that we can carry out responsible management.
Your Lease will govern whether letting your property is prohibited all together, whether your landlord’s consent is required or whether you are required to formally serve notice on your landlord that you have let your property. If you are unsure please contact our Subletting Team via our online form who will be able to assist you further.
Where consent is required we may perform checks with the managing agent of the property to ensure that consent can reasonably be granted.
Where your Lease requires your landlord to grant consent or provide formal receipt of a notice (or both) there may be charges payable. Your Lease may state the charges payable, however, typical charges are £60 plus VAT per tenancy agreement for the provision of a consent and £100 plus VAT for the receipt of a notice.
The information is securely stored on our internal database and is governed by our data privacy policy.
We do not share personal information other than with the appointed managing agent for your property unless an authority (e.g. local authority; police; fire brigade; etc) with the relevant powers requires us to do so.
The percentage of apartments sublet within buildings impacts on insurance risk and whether an HMO licence is required, dependent on the local authority. We therefore may share aggregated data with insurers and local authorities as required.
E&J Estates is pleased to launch our new homeowner portal.
By registering for the portal, you can self-manage your E&J account, 24/7, through your phone or device without having to contact us.
Click here to register for the E&J Homeowner portal,
Our Price List contains fees for matters undertaken by each department, this can be downloaded here
Our Price List contains fees for matters undertaken by each department, this can be downloaded here
The landlord’s title to your property is registered at the Land Registry and all related entitlements to the landlord are detailed in your lease.
To receive invoices by email please complete this form
The most efficient way is to opt for e-billing and to settle your invoice online by bank transfer. For details of all payment methods, please see your invoice or click onto the “Payments” tab on the homepage of this site.
We do not offer a Direct Debit facility. You can however set up a standing order with your bank directly. Please email Enquiries@EandJEstates.co.uk. for details.
You will need to contact your bank directly to confirm, as we do not have visibility. To set up a standing order for future ground rent payments, please contact Enquiries@EandJEstates.co.uk for the information to arrange with your bank.
If your payment is not made by the date specified on your invoice, your account will enter the late payment process and charges may be incurred. Full details are explained in our Collection Policy. Click here to read.
Interest is charged in line with the terms of your lease on overdue amounts. Interest is charged monthly in arrears and therefore if payment is received late, interest will automatically accrue. If payment is received by the due date no interest is charged.
Yes, If you require a receipt please contact our Accounts Team.
Generally, invoices are payable in full by the due date stated on the invoice. Failure to do so may result in late payment charges and referral to external solicitors. If you are having difficulty in settling your invoice however please contact our Late Payments Team to discuss your circumstances. We may be able to help with a payment plan.
If you wish to pay monthly, you can do this by placing your account into credit, in preparation for the due date. Please contact Enquiries@EandJEstates.co.uk for the information to arrange with your bank.
Your lease clearly specifies that you are obliged to make periodic payments of ground rent to your Landlord. The amounts and frequency are specified by the lease, as are the dates on which the amount of ground rent will be reviewed. Your solicitor should have explained this to you when you purchased your lease. You may wish to contact your solicitor if you have queries regarding your lease terms.
The level of ground rent payable is reviewed periodically, as specified by your lease. It may not always be possible to complete a rent review exactly in line with your normal annual payment date. We may for instance be awaiting publication of the latest Retail Price Index figure if your rent review is calculated by reference to that. In such cases you may receive a further invoice. We do generally notify a pending ground rent review on our invoices.
A ground rent notice which may include a ground rent adjustment will be sent once review has been completed. It may not always be possible to complete a rent review ahead of the rent review date. We may for instance be awaiting publication of the latest Retail Price Index figure if your rent review is calculated by reference to that. In such cases you may receive a further invoice. We do generally notify a pending ground rent review on our invoices.
The solicitor who acted on your purchase of the property should have explained this to you. We do generally notify a pending ground rent review on our invoices.
The amount of ground rent due, the payment dates and when the amount of ground rent will be reviewed are specified by your lease. Your lease sets out how the rent review is calculated, for instance by reference to the Retail Price Index. Please refer to your lease for full details.
Please contact the Accounts Team who will let you know if we have received your payment.
Please contact the Late Payments Team detailing why you consider you don’t owe what we are asking you to pay.
Our invoices are sent out via Royal Mail in good time and envelopes are date stamped. We cannot however control delivery timescales once mail has left the office. Invoices remain payable by the due date. To avoid postal delays and possible late payment charges, you may wish to request our e-billing service by emailing Enquiries@EandJEstates.co.uk.
Prior to the late payment notification received, your invoice would have been issued to you via the method you have requested and to the address stated. Late payment charges do therefore apply if you do not pay by the due date.
The charge covers our costs of pursuing outstanding payments. Charges are reviewed regularly and have historically been upheld by Tribunal.
We keep our charges proportionate to the administrative cost of collecting unpaid invoices, but our costs are also rising. If you are having difficulty settling an invoice, please e-mail us on latepayments@eandjestates.co.uk. We may be able to offer you a payment plan to avoid charges being applied.
Once we have referred an outstanding invoice to lawyers, we freeze your account and conduct of the matter rests entirely with our lawyers, to who you should direct any further queries.
If you both remain as joint owners of the property then you are still both jointly liable for making payments as per the lease. We are unable to get involved in personal disputes.
You will need to speak to the 3rd party to which payment has been made to, to request a refund. However if a payment is already overdue, you will need to arrange payment accordingly. All of our correspondence is clear as to our payment details.
Unfortunately you remain responsible to pay as specified by your lease and our invoice. Payments are due at the same time each year and we ask homeowners to make appropriate arrangements when away from home. We are unable to remove late payment charges in these circumstances.
In accordance with section 166 of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, you are required to update us of any changes to your correspondence information in writing. Please email Enquiries@EandJEstates.co.uk Late payment charges will be applied if invoices are not settled by the due date.
We send correspondence to the email address specified by you. If your details change you must update us in writing. Please email Enquiries@EandJEstates.co.uk Late payment charges will be applied if invoices are not settled by the due date.
We can write to you at any correspondence address you wish. If you wish to change your correspondence address however you must tell us in writing to our Enquiries team.
This situation is outside our control and you remain liable to settle invoices by the due date. We advise however that you add our email addresses, NoReply@EyreandJohnson.co.uk and LatePayments@EandJEstates.co.uk, to your email address book to ensure delivery to your inbox. We recommend that you also check your junk or spam emails regularly.
Your account has been set up for email correspondence at your request. Invoices delivered by this method must therefore be settled by the due date to avoid late payment changes.
In our communications, we clearly advise that where email is selected, we do not also send postal correspondence.
We have a clear reminder process, either via post or email (depending on your preference). We do not contact homeowners outside of this process. In the vast majority of cases homeowners settle invoices within terms of credit or after receiving our first reminder letter, which does not involve any late payment charge.
Your account has been referred to external solicitors because we have exhausted our internal late payment processes, which includes 2 reminder letters after the original invoice.
Your solicitors will deal with any apportionments within your completion. You will need to contact them directly to ensure that this is undertaken.
If you are due to complete after the due date of the Ground Rent, then full payment is due, you will need to advise your Solicitors so they can obtain a Ground Rent apportionment from the Purchaser.
We will probably not have received a Notice of Transfer from your purchaser’s solicitors. Please email a copy of the transfer document provided by your solicitors on completion to Transfers@EandJEstates.co.uk and we will update our records.
The tenant reference number is the sequence of letters and numbers assigned to each property and can be found at the top right of our correspondence, labelled “Tenant Ref.” The tenant reference needs to be quoted in any communications with E & J Estates
A statement provides you with the total balance on the account at the date of issue. An invoice is a document detailing a specific charge which you need to pay.
Generally not, we are restricted by the terms of credit specified by the insurer. We will however consider offering extended payment plans in cases of hardship. We are not able to offer longer terms, such as 10 or 12 months, in view of insurer terms of credit.
Your landlord is generally obliged by the lease to insure prudently against a range of risks. Terrorism insurance is arranged across our portfolio as sadly this exposure still persists in the UK. Premiums charge reflect the different levels of risk in different parts of the country.
We are employed by your landlord to act as its agent. Our professional team is dedicated to providing an effective service to homeowners in connection with your landlord’s interest in the property. Key services administered include the invoicing and collection of ground rent, providing landlord consents, arranging block maintenance and insurance, assisting with property transfers and arranging lease extensions.
Please contact us using this form to update your details.
Please contact us using this form with evidence of payment including a receipt statement of account from the previous landlord or their agent and a copy of your bank statement (and copy cheque if relevant) clearly showing the payment with beneficiary details. We will contact that party to request transfer of those monies.
Please check your lease in the first instance as your new landlord will have carried out its own checks prior to instructing E&J Estates. If you believe that we have any incorrect information please contact us using this form and provide the correct details with evidence where appropriate.
No. We do not provide property maintenance services and will appoint specialist managing agents on behalf of your landlord where appropriate. If our clients have recently purchased the superior interest to your property then your current service charge arrangements will remain in place unless otherwise advised by E&J Estates.
Please visit our ‘Making Payments’ section of the website here.
Yes, we support email billing and the environmental benefits linked to it. Please visit the ‘E-Billing’ section of our website and fill out the short form.
If you have any other queries regarding your account following the purchase by your new landlord, please contact us using this form and we will be happy to assist.
Freeholder clients of E&J Estates (“E&J”) have undertaken to amend all long-term residential Countryside Leases acquired by E&J that include terms under which the ground rent payable doubles every 10 or 15 years (a ‘doubling term’).
Since 2018 E&J has contacted all leaseholders with a doubling term with the offer to replace these with a Retail Price Index linked ground rent (a ‘RPI replacement term’). Leaseholders who took up this opportunity, and signed a legal document known as a ‘deed of variation’, will now also benefit from new, more favourable lease terms, which we have summarised below.
All long-term residential Countryside Leases where an E&J client is the landlord, and which still have or originally had a doubling term, will be varied so that they no longer contain that doubling term or, where applicable, the RPI replacement term. The ground rent payable will be reset to the sum that applied when the Lease was first granted (the amount specified in the lease) and this will now never increase in future.
If you have a Countryside Lease that qualifies for this new treatment, you do not need to take any action. E&J will contact you by no later than 18 March 2022.
If you are not contacted by 18 March 2022 and believe you have a Countryside Lease which qualifies for the new terms, please contact legal@eandjestates.co.uk. after that date.
If you previously had a qualifying Countryside Lease and paid an increased ground rent following a rent review, you may be due a refund of any rent paid in excess of the initial ground rent.
If you believe this position applies to you, we ask you to contact legal@eandjestates.co.uk as soon as possible. It is not necessary to wait until 18 March 2022 in order to do this.
This announcement is for the attention of leaseholders of long-term residential leases originally purchased from Crest Nicholson Operations Limited or a subsidiary and where the original terms of their lease specify that the ground rent payable under the lease will double more often than every 20 years (“Crest Nicholson Lease”).
Freeholder clients of E&J Estates (“E&J”) have undertaken to amend all long-term residential Crest Nicholson Leases acquired by E&J that include terms under which the ground rent payable doubles every 10 or 15 years (a ‘doubling term’).
Since 2018 E&J has contacted all leaseholders with a doubling term with the offer to replace these with a Retail Price Index linked ground rent (a ‘RPI replacement term’). Leaseholders who took up this opportunity, and signed a legal document known as a ‘deed of variation’, will now also benefit from new, more favourable lease terms, which we have summarised below.
All long-term residential Crest Nicholson Leases where an E&J client is the landlord, and which still have or originally had a doubling term, will be varied so that they no longer contain that doubling term or, where applicable, the RPI replacement term. The ground rent payable will be reset to the sum that applied when the Lease was first granted (the amount specified in the lease) and this will now never increase in future.
If you have a Crest Nicholson Lease that qualifies for this new treatment, you do not need to take any action. E&J will contact you by no later than 1 July 2022.
If you are not contacted by 1 July 2022 and believe you have a Crest Nicholson Lease which qualifies for the new terms, please contact legal@eandjestates.co.uk after that date.
Former Leaseholders
If you previously had a qualifying Crest Nicholson Lease and paid an increased ground rent following a rent review, you may be due a refund of any rent paid in excess of the initial ground rent.
If you believe this position applies to you, we ask you to contact legal@eandjestates.co.uk as soon as possible. It is not necessary to wait until 1 July 2022 in order to do this.
This announcement is for the attention of leaseholders of long-term residential leases originally purchased from Taylor Wimpey Plc or a subsidiary and where the original terms of their lease specify that the ground rent payable under the lease will double more often than every 20 years (“Taylor Wimpey Lease”).
Freeholder clients of E&J Estates (“E&J”) have undertaken to amend all long-term residential Taylor Wimpey Leases acquired by E&J that include terms under which the ground rent payable doubles every 10 or 15 years (a ‘doubling term’).
Since 2018 E&J has contacted all leaseholders with a doubling term with the offer to replace these with a Retail Price Index linked ground rent (a ‘RPI replacement term’). Leaseholders who took up this opportunity, and signed a legal document known as a ‘deed of variation’, will now also benefit from new, more favourable lease terms, which we have summarised below.
All long-term residential Taylor Wimpey Leases where an E&J client is the landlord, and which still have or originally had a doubling term, will be varied so that they no longer contain that doubling term or, where applicable, the RPI replacement term. The ground rent payable will be reset to the sum that applied when the Lease was first granted (the amount specified in the lease) and this will now never increase in future.
If you have a Taylor Wimpey Lease that qualifies for this new treatment, you do not need to take any action. E&J will contact you by no later than 28 July 2022.
If you are not contacted by 28 July 2022 and believe you have a Taylor Wimpey Lease which qualifies for the new terms, please contact legal@eandjestates.co.uk after that date.
Former Leaseholders
If you previously had a qualifying Taylor Wimpey Lease and paid an increased ground rent following a rent review, you may be due a refund of any rent paid in excess of the initial ground rent.
If you believe this position applies to you, we ask you to contact legal@eandjestates.co.uk as soon as possible. It is not necessary to wait until 28 July 2022 in order to do this.
Your Landlord has acquired the freehold of your property as a long term investment however, you may have statutory rights to purchase it. We recommend you seek independent legal advice.
You can extend your Lease whenever you wish but sometimes you will have to extend it because, for example, this is a requirement of your bank or building society or because you want to sell the property and your buyer is unhappy with the length of the Lease.
The Landlord changed their process following the introduction of the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 and is no longer in a position to offer an informal Lease Extension outside of your statutory right contained in the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 (“the 1993 Act”).
To proceed with a Lease Extension we would recommend that you seek independent advice as to the process set out within the 1993 Act .
Because the Landlord owns the building and will own the property when your Lease ends the Landlord needs to ensure that you do not make alterations or additions which may adversely affect the Landlord or damage the building. Some alterations or additions do not require the Landlord’s permission. For example, internal painting and decorating, minor plumbing and electrical works, upgrading of kitchens and bathrooms on a like-for-like basis and new interior doors do not require the Landlord’s permission. If you are thinking of making any other alterations or additions you should ask the Landlord for permission before you carry out any work. If work has been carried out already without the Landlord’s permission, you should ask the Landlord for what is called retrospective permission. Alterations and Permissions Factsheet and Form.
E&J Estates do not provide property maintenance services. If you have a query regarding the management of your property, you should contact the company to which you pay your service charges.
If you do not have an agent in place, please refer to your lease as to where the management obligations sit. Some leases include self maintain and repair obligations where lessees themselves are responsible for maintenance issues such as drains and roof, as well as routine services, e.g. gardening and common part cleaning to the building.
If you are unsure who manages your property, please contact the Property Team who will try to assist.
If you have a managing agent, they will be able to assist. If not the following documents may help: Noise and Anti-Social Behaviour.
If you want to ask your Landlord to consider taking such steps, please refer to the Breaches document.
Following the recent passing of the Building Safety Act (The Act) and associated regulations, some homeowners in leasehold properties are now protected against the costs of some building safety related costs. Some homeowners will still have to pay, but only up to a maximum “cap” specified by the legislation. Other homeowners remain liable to pay as normal through the service charge apportionments specified in their lease.
The protections apply to buildings in England which are 11 meters or over in height or with at least 5 storeys.
The Leaseholder Deed of Certificate (LDoC) has been designed to identify whether a homeowner is liable to contribute towards building safety costs, in some circumstances, and if so what their maximum contribution will be.
Your landlord needs you to complete the LDoC to understand what your own position is in relation to cost contribution and to ensure that you benefit fully from any protection available to you. We have attached for information only at this stage a copy of the specified form.
You might want to read the documentation on the government’s website. This gives details of the supporting documents and information you will need to provide with your DLoC so that your landlord can confirm your own position in relation to the cost protections.
Your landlord is currently going through a process of contacting homeowners for their LDOc’s and you will receive documentation from us in due course. You do not have to contact us yourself, we will be directly in touch.
The recent changes brought about by the Building Safety Act (The Act) and the associated regulations provide some leaseholders with protections against costs arising from certain building safety related costs, in some circumstances. Some leaseholders will still have to pay, up to a capped amount and others will still have to pay in line with their usual service charge apportionments as determined by their lease.
The LDoC enables the Landlord to understand who within a block may, under certain circumstances, be required to contribute towards those building safety related costs, and to ensure that they only pay the amount that the law has deemed appropriate.
You need to complete the LDoC to determine if you qualify for the leaseholder protections against building safety costs arising from the BSA and to enable your landlord to calculate your maximum financial contribution towards those costs.
The information provided in the LDoC will help your building owner to ensure that no homeowner will pay more than the law now requires in relation to building safety related costs.
E&J Estates may have, or will in future, contact you to request that you return to us a Leaseholder Deed of Certificate (LDoC).
The purpose of this is to establish whether, and to what extent, you may benefit from protection from contributing towards the cost of historic building safety defects in leasehold buildings in England with the following features, as specified by the Building Safety Act 2022 (The Act) and associated regulations:
The LDoC is one part of the process specified by the Act to achieve this clarity. Your landlord is required to gather from you mandatory information, in the form of the LDoC, to establish how your property should be treated in relation to the costs of certain building safety issues.
We have included below a link to the government’s website, providing further information.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mandatory-information-required-from-leaseholders-and-building-owners
This is an important process if homeowners are to secure the protection intended by government. When we send you a request to complete a LDoC, you must respond within the deadline stated in our letter.
Because the building in which your property is housed is one where your landlord is required to serve the notice under the Building Safety Act 2022 (the Act) and associated regulations, in specified circumstances.
Those circumstances are as follows:
Not in all circumstances. The requirement for a leaseholder to complete a LDoC when the property is to be sold applies whether or not a relevant building defect is known.
The LDoC template states that the current owner is responsible for providing the form and related evidence. You might though have to contact the previous owner of your property, or your conveyancer, if the property was not owned by you on that date. The previous owner will be required to confirm their ownership status at that point.
The LDoC template contains a section specifically for shared ownership leases. The purpose of this section is to allow the landlord to understand any contribution you may have to make towards any building safety costs. You are required to declare the percentage of your ownership in the property. This will allow your landlord to ensure that correct calculation is applied. Without this information, your building owner will assume that you own 100% of your property.
If you no longer own the property but did on 14 th February 2022, you still need to supply this notice to the person who currently owns the property and contact us to let us know. Supply of this information will enable the new owner to complete details of the ownership status on 14 th Feb 2022 and to give us evidence showing that you sold or transferred your interest in the property as at that date.
The LDoC contains a list of evidence requirements. The government guidance gives further information on the documents that can be provided in support of the information you include in the completed DLoC itself. Examples are as follows:
Without a complete LDoC returned to your landlord, your property will not qualify for the protections against certain building safety costs provided by the Building Safety Act 2022.
In that event, your contribution towards any building safety related costs from which you might have received protection will be payable by you, and also future leaseholders of your property, according to the existing service charge apportionment in your lease.
Penult Capital Partners Ltd is an Appointed Representative of its 2 insurance brokers:
• Arthur J Gallagher (UK) Ltd, Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered Office: The Walbrook Building, 25 Walbrook, London EC4N 8AW. Registered in England and Wales. Company Number: 01193013.
• Lockton Companies LLP (in respect of its insurance mediation activities only) which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered Office: The St Botolph Building, 138 Houndsditch, London, EC3A 7AG Registered in England and Wales. Company Number: OC353198
The FCA now requires brokers and insurers to provide certain information to leaseholders on insurance programmes arranged by freeholders. If insurance for your building is arranged by us, click here to access this information:
If your property is insured by Zurich, click here.
If your property is insured by Ecclesiastical, click here.
Your insurance certificate confirms the insurer for your property
We have now completed negotiations for the renewal of our group insurance policies on 25th March 2024.
Each of our insurers, Zurich and Ecclesiastical, has re-assessed pricing for each building on its own merits.
Zurich has offered small rate reductions on a wide selection of buildings, particularly those carrying the highest rates because of safety defects or other adverse features.
Ecclesiastical’s rates will remain largely unchanged, having offered savings when they started insuring part of our portfolio in 2022.
A small number of buildings will have rate increases, where individual circumstances require it. This can be for instance where the presence of fire safety defects was discovered after the last renewal.
Terrorism rates for properties in the lower risk zones, B, C and D, have reduced by on average 15%. Higher risk Zone A rates are unchanged.
Unfortunately, inflation indexation does eat into these reductions. Both insurers have recommended indexation of 3.8% next year. This is reduced from 10% last year, since the rate of inflation for building materials and labour has reduced.
Our brokers have conducted a limited tender exercise this year, and a number of individual properties have been offered to alternative insurers. Generally this process did not achieve more economic premiums and buildings have remained with the current insurers
Our rationale for how frequently we tender our portfolio is discussed elsewhere in these FAQ’s.
The market for residential blocks remains difficult. Pricing in the sector should ease however as fire safety defects in buildings across the UK are remediated. Pricing even for buildings without safety defects has been influenced by overall insurer sentiment. We do not expect premiums to return to historic levels. Insurers generally consider residential property to have been widely under-priced in the past, based on what is now known about the scale of safety defects across the country.
We will continue to do everything possible to ease the burden of premium levels in the future.
Your freeholder receives remuneration from insurers for the work its Insurance Department does to support the programme. The level of remuneration reduced in 2023, for the fourth year running, in view of the historically high premium levels applying across the UK insurance market.
We will shortly send out this year’s invoices and insurance certificates. If you anticipate difficulty in settling your invoice, please contact our Late Payments Team (not the Insurance Team) as soon as possible after renewal on 25th March.
This year, our brokers and insurers are required by the Financial Conduct Authority to provide leaseholders with more information about insurance programmes. This information will be provided by us when the renewal has been concluded, Where the information is common to our whole portfolio (for example a summary of the cover provided), the information will be available on our website. Where the detail is property specific, it will be e-mailed or sent by post, either by ourselves or your managing agent.
Further detailed information is available on this section of the website. Please note that we are not able to enter individual correspondence where questions are answered by the website material.
For many months, Government has been working with the insurance industry to make it easier to insure large multi-occupied properties awaiting fire safety remediation work.
The Association of British Insurers has now announced a new reinsurance facility to improve the position.
Premiums for large, complex sites have increased substantially as the extent of fire safety problems has become clear.
Most insurers have reduced their participation in the sector and are not taking on new business.
The new facility is open for business on 1st April 2024. It will only accept business for policies renewing on or after that date.
It will not therefore be available for any of your landlord’s buildings before our 25th March 2025 renewal. Our renewal process for March 2024 is now complete on the existing basis.
5 major insurers, Allianz, Aviva, AXA, RSA and Zurich have joined the scheme. It is hoped that other insurers will join in time.
The scheme gives access to a reinsurance facility from reinsurance company SwissRe.
The intention is twofold, to expand the ability of insurers already underwriting higher risk buildings and to attract more alternative insurers who are not.
It is hoped that the facility will also lead to some easing in current high rates of premium. The facility is not a universal panacea however and will be of most help to large, complex sites awaiting or undergoing remediation.
We will work with our brokers before next renewal to establish which buildings might benefit from this facility. We hope by then that the number of insurers using it will also have increased.
In the meantime, we are not able to answer speculative enquiries on individual buildings.
Your freeholder undertakes a range of activities to support the insurance programme. The remuneration paid by insurers in return for this does not innately increase the cost of the insurance. If your freeholder did not do this work it would have to be carried out by insurer or broker.
Invoicing and collection of premiums from multiple parties, credit controlling managing agents.
Claims co-ordination, including assistance to insurers and loss adjusters; assistance with recovery of costs from negligent parties to minimise premium increases following claims; ensuring that all claims are dealt with swiftly and fairly.
Managing bespoke construction placements supporting building remediation programmes and other major works.
Answering all leaseholder/RMC and RA enquiries.
Provision of insurance policies, certificates and other documentation to homeowners, mortgagors and other interested parties.
Responding to all complaints.
Managing a programme of rca’s, fra’s, fraew’s and PAS9880 assessments in pursuit of adequate valuation and building safety/fire integrity.
Maintaining and updating detailed property construction and fire safety status of all buildings to allow insurers to assess risk and premiums.
Attending site surveys with insurers or agents, following up on risk improvements.
Policy administration, including premium bordereau and policy record maintenance.
Ensuring coverage complies with the freeholder’s lease obligations
Complying with all Financial Conduct Authority regulatory processes, including periodic audits.
Insurance Renewal 2024
The insurance market for residential blocks remains difficult. Premiums levels are generally much higher than historically because of better knowledge of the fire risk presented by unsafe cladding and other building defects.
Your landlord is acutely aware of the difficulties faced by many homeowners through higher insurance bills. We will again work with our insurance brokers to achieve the best possible result at the March 2024 renewal.
We have included below some FAQ’s for your information.
Why have premiums increased for many buildings?
Many homeowners in residential blocks have experienced sharply increased insurance premiums.
This situation is common across the UK, not unique to your landlord’s insurance programme.
The extent of fire safety problems in blocks across the country is now more widely understood than in the past. Insurers are less inclined to cover such buildings and require higher premiums to do so.
Actual levels of increase are driven by several factors:
• Cladding and related fire safety problems.
• The building sum insured – a high sum insured represents a greater risk to insurers.
• Converted buildings such as former mills are considered higher fire risks.
• Historic claims experience.
• Flood risk profile.
The more of these factors affecting an individual building, the higher the premium rise has been.
Even buildings with none of these features have generally experienced some increase, so premiums have risen across the residential sector.
What is your plan for the 2024 renewal?
We have regularly tendered our portfolio over recent years, demonstrating to homeowners that all options to limit premium levels have been pursued, however unpalatable the results have sometimes been.
This year our brokers will conduct a further limited portfolio tender exercise. They will also market some individual buildings with particular issues on a “stand-alone” basis.
Our brokers believe it unlikely that alternative insurers will offer superior terms. They will therefore also focus on negotiating the best terms available from our existing insurers.
We cannot speculate at this stage on the results of these negotiations but hope that the exercise will be concluded by the middle of February.
We will communicate through our agents and this website as key milestones are reached, so that homeowners are kept reasonably informed. We are not able however to provide a running commentary on individual buildings.
Are you tendering the business in 2024?
We tendered our entire programme in 2018, 2021 and 2022 to all insurers potentially able to underwrite this type of business. In 2022 our programme was split, with some properties remaining with Zurich via brokers Arthur J Gallagher (UK) Ltd (AJG) and others transferring to Ecclesiastical via Lockton Companies.
Please also see our comments immediately above.
Why do you offer my building to the insurance market as part of your overall portfolio?
There are potentially economies of scale in offering a large portfolio to the insurance market. This approach can secure cover for buildings which could not be insured in isolation. The Financial Conduct Authority recognised the value of this approach in its Sept 2022 report on insurance for multi-occupancy buildings. As stated however many of our buildings are also offered in isolation. All buildings premiums are priced individually based on their risk to insurers.
Can I see the quotations provided by the insurance market for my property?
Yes, if viable alternatives are available this year.
Can I arrange cover for my building outside of the freeholder programme?
Generally not. It is unlikely that adequate cover could be sourced and your freeholder has selected its chosen insurers on a range of specific criteria. If a homeowner can obtain 3 cheaper alternative quotations however meeting the following criteria, then we may challenge our insurers on their pricing:
• Sight of 3 alternative quotations, detailing policy cover, levels of excess and principal terms, conditions and exclusions.
• A copy of the policy wording on which the quotations are based.
• A copy of the Statement of Fact provided with the quotations.
• If a Statement of Fact is not available or does not specify this, quotations must state in writing what building construction details they are based on, and in particular the presence of any unsafe cladding or associated fire safety risks. No terms will be valid unless insurers have accepted such detail.
• Confirmation of the 3 year claims history provided to insurers. This should be summarised in the Statement of Fact.
• Insurers must have a UK credit rating of S&P A- or better. There have been financial failures of non-rated, non-UK insurers.
What do you expect will happen to premiums?
We don’t know at this stage. Insurers will not answer hypothetical questions this far before renewal. We hope that premium rates have peaked and that some easing may be available, particularly for buildings where remediation programmes are advanced.
Will the insurance declared value of my building increase at renewal and will that affect my premium?
Insurers specify an inflationary increase each renewal. This ensures that the declared value of your building remains adequate to avoid underinsurance in the event of a claim. Inflation in the cost of construction materials and labour has started to fall however and we hope that indexation can be contained to below 5% next year. Any increase however directly affects the premium.
What will ultimately cause premiums to reduce?
As remediation work on buildings with safety defects completes over the next several years, we expect premium rates to ease. More insurers should be prepared to compete and existing ones to moderate pricing. We do not however expect premium levels to reduce to historic levels. Insurers generally regard the sector as having been under-priced over a period of years.
Will my premium reduce when remediation work starts on my building?
Until works are complete, premiums are unlikely to reduce. Once work is complete, insurers’ response will be governed by how fully the risks to the fire resilience of the building itself (not just improvements to life safety) have been addressed.
The government’s PAS standard focuses on life safety. Works to deal with that will not always be sufficient to ensure that a building cannot sustain expensive physical damage.
Should a remediation project be completed in the middle of the insurance year, insurers will in principle consider mid-term premium adjustments if justified.
Will insurers be given all the risk information on my own property?
Yes. We have gone to considerable lengths in recent years to compile detailed construction and building safety information for all our properties. This means that insurers can assess specific risk, and price to reflect that. You can be confident that insurers will have access to any report and information we hold. Where there is a Residents’ Management Company in place and we do not instruct the managing agent, it can be more difficult to obtain this information. We have written recently to all agents reminding them of the importance of responding to information requests if we are to achieve the best pricing.
How are you responding to the FCA’s new requirements on freeholder commissions and leaseholder disclosure?
Please see our separate FAQ below dealing with this subject
We cannot provide more specific detail now or answer hypothetical questions. We will keep you informed however through your agent and this site as renewal negotiations progress.
Sadly, the UK remains at high risk of terrorism attacks, and the landlord insures against this. The premiums charged for individual buildings take into account that some areas may be more at risk than others.
If an uninsured property was destroyed or seriously damaged by a terrorist act, homeowners would be liable for the cost.
The First Tier Tribunal generally agrees that terrorism cover is appropriate and is also bound by a similar finding of the Lands Tribunal.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Management Code provides that serious consideration must be given to arranging cover.
It is your landlord’s current policy to arrange cover for all of its properties.
In September 2022 the FCA published its “report on insurance for multi-occupancy buildings”. This identified concerns in some freeholder insurance programmes around levels of remuneration received by brokers, freeholders and managing agents, a lack of transparency in the information and disclosures provided to leaseholders and insufficient regard to leaseholder interests in the design of insurance programmes.
Following a subsequent public consultation, the FCA published in Sept 2023 a Policy Statement, PS23/14.
This mandates a series of measures to ensure improved outcomes for leaseholders.
Broadly, the key areas are as follows:
Provision 1 had immediate effect. 2-4 are effective from 31st December 2023.
We are completely supportive of the FCA’s requirements and hope that these will drive out the bad practices which exist at the margins of our sector.
Penult Capital Partners Ltd (PCP) arranges the insurance programme for your freeholder. It has a regulatory status with the FCA as an Appointed Representative of its insurance brokers, Arthur J Gallagher (UK) Ltd and Lockton Companies LLP. Under this arrangement, it is authorised to undertake a series of functions essential to the management of the programme. It receives a remuneration on its buildings insurance policy reflecting this.
It is important to state that were this work not undertaken by PCP it would need to be carried out by the broker or insurer, each of which would require proportionate remuneration to cover its costs.
We believe, advised by our brokers, that PCP’s arrangements would pass any reasonable fair value test. We have always been completely transparent on points 1-3. We are working with our brokers and insurers to improve our disclosures under point 3. The insurance market itself is working on point 4.
Beyond the above, Government will consult in 2024 on whether the sharing of insurance remuneration should be prohibited, and replaced by a regime of transparent fees. Until that consultation is complete and Government decides whether to legislate, we will continue with the fair value practices above.
Needless to say, your freeholder’s insurance arrangements will continue to comply fully with all legal and regulatory requirements.
If a building has one or more claims, insurers may increase excesses to reflect this. Insurers maintain large amounts of data on the probability of incidents such as flood, escape of water and other claims affecting particular areas or types of building. Excesses imposed reflect insurers’ view of these risks.
Lockton, the broker which arranges our insurance programme with Ecclesiastical, has produced a useful guide to the main features of the insurance policy. It also provides other useful information such as risk management tips. The guide can be viewed here.
Premiums are apportioned according to the terms of the lease.
No, not always.
Insurers do not use EWS1 ratings as a significant factor in calculating insurance premiums. They use primarily information provided on the construction of the property. This includes details of age of the property, materials used etc, but a particular focus on combustible building materials such as cladding, infill / insulation, timber balconies and the like.
Insurers consider what the Estimated Maximum Loss will be based on the presence of combustible materials. This takes into account a number of points, such as how fast a fire may spread, and the level of damage caused before the fire services arrive.
EWS1 ratings do not measure the Estimated Maximum Loss before a fire can be controlled, but focus on a more important area – life safety.
EWS1 considers how quickly people can be evacuated in the event of a fire. For blocks with a “stay put” policy this includes consideration on how safe residents are within their flats while waiting for the fire brigade (e.g. the type, location and condition of fire doors) and how quickly they can be evacuated if necessary.
Considerations include how far away the nearest fire station is, and distances from flats to the nearest fire escape. Also, the number of fire escapes and their location within the building (if there are more fire escapes available, evacuation can generally take place faster).
It is therefore possible for a property to gain an improved EWS1 rating if, for example, an additional fire escape is added to the building. This offers no improvement however to the factors insurers consider when calculating the premium, so their rating remains unchanged. Similarly it is possible for a building to have an excellent EWS1 rating, but a higher than usual fire insurance premium and / or excess due to the presence of combustible cladding, insulation, timber balconies etc.
There is unfortunately no “set scale” or standard rules to follow – each location is rated based on its own individual risk details.
Insurers maintain detailed flood mapping data, categorising regions as high, medium and low risk. This data is compiled from years of information on the actual flooding experience in different areas, as well as individual homes. Both premiums and excesses may increase in higher risk zones, or where an individual property has suffered flooding.
There are economies through buying in bulk, and generally homeowners get a better service, including in claims settlement. All buildings are priced individually however, according to their own risk profile.
No, it is the landlord’s obligation under the lease to arrange insurance. The landlord is in any case better placed to achieve acceptable cover.
Yes, our insurers will reconsider premium levels, strictly subject to the following process. Please note however that we are unlikely to allow cover to move from our group arrangement.
If the above conditions can be met, we will ask our insurers to review the position.
The terms of credit are 14 days from date of invoice, as confirmed on the invoice itself. If you anticipate difficulty in settling the premium, please speak to our Late Payments Team or the Managing Agent from which you received the invoice.
Our buildings insurance policy also covers alternative accommodation costs incurred following an insured claim to a residential unit. The alternative accommodation cover is effective where a loss has occurred that makes the property uninhabitable whilst repairs are carried out. Where a property is tenanted, the existence of this cover will allow continued payment of the rent to the leaseholder.
This is included as standard across our client’s entire portfolio. There is no charge to the leaseholders as it is appreciated that some communal areas have no contents.
This can be obtained by registering for or logging into your Portal Account
Our client’s policy automatically notes the interest of freeholders, leaseholders, mortgagees and debenture holders. This removes the need for each unit to have individual interests noted.
Some level of increase is being applied to most residential properties, but at much lower levels than apply to higher risk buildings. Insurers have also index linked sums insured by 5.7% this year, to reflect increases in construction market costs.
Your premium takes account of claims history, but also other factors such as type of construction, flood risk, location and other underwriting considerations.
We believe not. In this environment, insurers are focussing on supporting existing insureds rather than on new business. There is little alternative capacity or competitive pressure to moderate price rises.
Although your home is safe for occupation, insurers still face an increased risk of fire damage.
By e-mail only please, to the Insurance Team insurance@eandjestates.co.uk.
Demand for convenient electric vehicle charging points in our properties is growing. It will no longer be legal to sell new, non-electric powered vehicles in the UK by 2030. We wish to support our homeowners in adapting to the new technology.
You will need to obtain Consent from your landlord before any proposal to install charge points can be considered. This applies both to a personal facility, fitted for instance in a demised parking space, or for a larger communal facility available to all residents.
Our policy is to make the Consent process as affordable, swift and clear as possible.
There are challenging issues to be overcome however, particularly in relation to fire safety, where good practice is essential. We will do our best to help you through these:
Please note that we charge a fee to validate and consent to a proposal. This covers the cost of analysing the proposal, liaison with our insurers and the managing agent and issue of the legal paperwork.
Our fee tariff is as follows:
Please see the link to our insurer’s guide
We are not able to recommend a specific supplier at this time
We aim to provide our landlord and homeowner customers with a quality service but accept that things do go wrong occasionally.
If we do not meet your expectations and you are dissatisfied in some way, we wish to know. We have adopted a procedure to ensure that any complaint is dealt with fairly and that anyone with a grievance is aware of the procedure to follow.
We ask that you please ensure your complaint is made using our Complaints Form, which you can request by e-mailing us on enquiries@eandjestates.co.uk and return by post or to the same e-mail address. You are entitled to make your complaint via post, email or phone (where we will guide you towards our Complaints Form).
If you require this policy and a complaints form in an accessible format, such as large print, please sent a request via email to enquiries@eandjestates.co.uk
The complaint will be logged and forwarded to the relevant department head for their review.
You will receive an acknowledgment within 3 working days and we will inform you of the person appointed to deal with your specific complaint. We endeavour to ensure the person appointed, where possible, is not directly involved in the matter which is the subject of the complaint.
Within 15 working days of receipt of your completed complaints form, the person dealing with your complaint will write to you, in order to inform you of the outcome of the investigation and to let you know what actions have been or will be taken or reasons that the complaint investigation is set to take longer than expected.
If you are not satisfied with the findings of our internal complaints process, or if we have not acknowledged or resolved your complaint with 8 weeks from its first notification, you may refer the matter to The Property Ombudsman Service (TPOS).
TPOS is a free and impartial service that resolves disputes between consumers and agents fairly.
You must refer the complaint to TPOS within 12 months of issue of our final response to your complaint (the “final viewpoint letter”).
You can bring the complaint to the attention of TPOS by writing to them at:
The Property Ombudsman
Milford House
43-55 Milford St
Salisbury
Wiltshire SP1 2BP
or e-mail to admin@tpos.co.uk.
Further details on how the scheme works is available at www.tpos.co.uk.
+44 (0)1962 869 377
E & J Estates
Prospect Place, Moorside Road,
Winchester, Hampshire
S023 7RX
