Can you insure a building against an owner's will?

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Deleted User YDKXO

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Yup, it's my mother in law again. She is in her 80's and still runs a small hotel in Devon (you don't want to go there, Fawlty Towers is the Ritz in comparison). My SWMBO found out recently that she has not insured the building or contents for several years because she has convinced herself that she doesn't need to and she won't accept any argument to the contrary. This is not a money thing because whilst she's not rolling in the stuff, she has a few bob. We've checked with an insurance company and the cost of buildings and contents insurance would be about £200 pa. So, can we set up an insurance policy ourselves without the agreement or knowledge of my mother in law and would an insurance company be able to use the fact that my mother in law has no knowledge of the policy to deny a claim?
 
I understand that one has to have an 'interest' in a building or car to insure it, otherwise the possibility of insuring someone else's property and making a claim without the permission of the owner is too real.

I can only insure my property on the farm; I cannot insure house/sheds etc belonging to the landlord.

As the building is owned by family, why not ask the insurance company, indicating gently that MIL, while in possession of her marbles for most things, appears to have overlooked essential insurance ?

Is it worth PM David of Mersea ? His area of business.
 
Tricky. You cannot lawfully insure, with you as policyholder, when you have no economic interest. You might, if you carried out some fancy footwork, get your MIL to appoint you as her agent. Perhaps without her fully realising what she has done. Then you can enter the insurance contract in her name with her as the beneficiary of any payout. But tricky to execute

Much better to persuade her, though I haven't met her of course. Could you stuff the proposal form under her nose and get her to sign it?

Good luck
 
sarabande said:
As the building is owned by family, why not ask the insurance company, indicating gently that MIL, while in possession of her marbles for most things, appears to have overlooked essential insurance ?
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Well, thats the problem. The building isn't owned by the family but is solely in my MiL's name. My SWMBO has a limited power of attorney over her financial affairs but she doesn't know whether this extends to arranging insurance for her
 
jfm said:
Much better to persuade her, though I haven't met her of course. Could you stuff the proposal form under her nose and get her to sign it?
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She's as pig headed as her daughter and has enough of her marbles left to refuse to sign anything:)
 
I can only offer a real life situation as an example to maybe help in convincing her.

My mother (also in her 80's at the time) was the same ending the insurance on her house. Then on one day the inlet pipe to the dishwahser burst letting hot water in on full flow. Unfortunately the house was empty at the time so it was three full days before the neighbors noticed that the snow around her house had oddly melted...

You can imagine the damage. First thing to do to clean up afterwards was to shovel the parquet floor out of the door... Everything had to be taken apart.
 
Maybe I'm missing your point Mike but can you not just set up an online insurance policy, in your mothers name, paid online by you, no paper documents just electronic only, to an email address she won't see? That way the insurance is in her name (which it needs to be to chime with ownership of the insured asset) but she wouldn't necessarily know anything about it. Pay by dd from your account for future renewals, correspondence to an email address set up by you for this express purpose?

Cheers
Jimmy
 
Whoops just realised that this is the wrong forum. I will ask the mods to move it
 
Not sure why this is the wrong forum. Like you're gonna get any useful info in t'Lounge?!

Jimmy's idea is highly practical but in isolation risks a non-payout by the insurer, and worse. My worry woud be that insurer alleges fraudulent misrep in the course of denying the claim, which is a bit of water too hot to get into. Might be ok, but has those risks.

Surely the answer lies in the PoA. It would only take a filenote recording a sensible interpretation that permits S executing an insurance policy as MIL's attorney, and Bob would be your uncle. Do you want a second opinion on the PoA? Feel free to scan and email. If there is a solution under the PoA, then S can deal directly with insurer as Jimmy says, but in an open way thus removing the FM risk
 
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Mike, in all seriousness insurance is a legal requirement for anyone employing workers. Most hotel businesses need a variety of policies to cover against guest injuries, fire, theft, etc.... let alone building damage. But the former is legally required.... they are not a choice. Does you MIL have at least a policy in place to cover her for public liability?
 
Deleted User said:
Well, thats the problem. The building isn't owned by the family but is solely in my MiL's name. My SWMBO has a limited power of attorney over her financial affairs but she doesn't know whether this extends to arranging insurance for her
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Why don't you insure it in her name, then there is an 'insurable interest'.
 
A friend of mine has no insurance on his terraced house at all.
.
Course if it burns down and takes with it the neighbours houses either side !
.......bluddy selfish IMHO.
 
Firefly625 said:
Mike, in all seriousness insurance is a legal requirement for anyone employing workers. Most hotel businesses need a variety of policies to cover against guest injuries, fire, theft, etc.... let alone building damage. But the former is legally required.... they are not a choice. Does you MIL have at least a policy in place to cover her for public liability?
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Yes she has employers and public liability insurance as required for a hotel business, just not insurance for the building and contents
 
Deleted User said:
Yes she has employers and public liability insurance as required for a hotel business, just not insurance for the building and contents
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It would be worth you checking the cost of the EL & PL separate policy.

You could well find the difference between the cost of separate EL & PL cover compared with a combined B&C + EL & PL could be less than £200 and could be a negative.
 
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