Calico Homes leaseholders hit with shock 400% home insurance hikes

The residents, who have leases with Calico Homes due to building shares with their tenants, have contacted local councillor Mark Townsend for help.

Coun. Townsend blamed “greedy profiteering insurance companies” for the hikes and immediately contacted Calico for an explanation. It appears the 80 properties impacted are those that were bought under the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme.

Coun. Townsend said: “I am shocked and disgusted that many homeowners in Brunshaw that have Calico leases due to building shares with their tenants are facing insurance premium increases of of over 400%. This is due to greedy profiteering insurance companies.

“On behalf of a number of concerned residents who have contacted me over the last few days I have contacted Calico.”

In a letter to affected residents on August 11th Calico Homes explained that each leaseholder is required to pay towards the shared insurance costs at the building they live in, because it is part of a block or connected to other people’s homes, and that the premiums were increasing due to inflationary pressures on the insurance industry.

Consequently, leaseholders now face an increase from £95.10 to £433.33 per year on the housing insurance charge for their homes. The new excess for claims will

remain at £100, however escape of water claims will be increased to £350.

The letter went on to explain that the insurance industry was facing challenges due to the economy with inflation affecting the costs of repairs, and an overall rise in the number of claims across the UK.

A further explanation was provided to residents following Coun. Townsend’s intervention which said:

“We do recognise this is a significant increase for our leaseholders we have worked hard with our Insurers (Zurich Municipal) and our Insurance Consultants (Gibbs Laidler) to keep insurance costs down to a minimum.

“The leasehold portfolio for Calico forms part of a larger property policy which does allow us some leverage in our negotiations with the insurers, however, the number of insurers that are willing to accept these risks has shrunk in the last two years, so competition has reduced.

“The reasons for the insurers not wanting to offer insurance is that not only has there been a significant increase in the number of insurance claims, the costs of these claims and the repairs has reached such a level that the insurers are increasing premiums and excess levels for all.

“We have placed your risk with ZM for a number of years but have not remained complacent. Last year we carried out an exercise to ensure ZM remained the most competitive as we saw an increase at that time too although Calico limited the increase to the leaseholders as much as possible. Again, this year as premiums have increased, these costs do need to be passed on to you as the Policyholder.

“We remain vigilant in ensuring that the cost and respective cover is suitable for the needs of all our leaseholders and if you have any further queries regarding this then please let us know.”