Recently www.easyquote.ie has noticed that significant changes have been applied to apartment block Insurance by many of Ireland’s leading Insurance Companies. This change could leave individual apartment owners facing severe financial difficulties.

What is the problem?
Insurance companies have sustained considerable losses from burst pipes, flooding and water damage claims over the past 12 months and as a result they are increasing rates.
A worrying development with apartment block insurance is that insurance companies are also moving to increase the policy excess considerably, in some cases the excess may increase to €5000 per claim. Many apartment block management companies operate a policy whereby the individual apartment owner pays the excess for damage sustained to their apartment (even though a leak may have started in the apartment above them). This could result in an individual apartment owner facing a shortfall of up to €5000.

If it is policy for the management company to pick up the excess tab, then it is likely that in some cases the management company could be hit with a more than one payment of €5000 in a single year.

www.easyquote.ie is recommending that apartment owners consult with the management company in each case to explore the procedure when making a claim and also to establish the details of the block insurance policy. It is also important to establish whether the management company or the apartment owner is responsible for the policy excess.

Based on recent apartment block insurance quotations obtained by easyquote.ie it has observed that:
- Some insurers have opted to leave apartment block policy excess at between €250 & €500.
- Some insurers have opted to increase the excess for water damage claims to €1500 per claim.
- Some insurers have opted to increase the excess for water damage claims to €5000 per claim.
- Most insurers are applying substantial increases to this type of insurance and in some cases this increase can be as much as 75%.

www.easyquote.ie - provide tailored apartment block insurance which is underwritten by a panel of specialist insurance companies.

Call easyquote on 1890-399-399 or e-mail info@easyquote.ie