Just realised I don't have a copy of the lease at home - we've had another matter that needed looking at so it's with the solicitor at the moment. I alos asked him about the insurance business as our solicitor picked it when when we moved in, but the people who own the flat downstairs didn't know about it. His response was:

My advice is limited to the information which I have in front of me but relating to your question on insurance, that responsibility seems to fall upon the onus of the occupiers under clause 5 (1) where at all times you are to jointly keep the property properly insured against the risks set out in that clause. You are correct in that whilst you are the leaseholders under the long lease, you are also your own landlords and, in effect, let the flat off yourselves. If you want to vary the terms of this Lease then you can do so with the consent of the people below you. My advise on insurance is to get one insurance policy for the whole building and then you and (people downstairs) jointly pay for the premium of that. He has to adhere to that as per the covenants set out in clause 5 (1).

Thanks for replying - we are both the freeholders and the leaseholder! It's an odd set up, but we jointly own the freehold with the flat downstairs and we lease it off ourselves, if that makes sense. I'll dig out the lease and try to find the wording.

Kathryn, the buildings insurance would normally be the responsibilty of the freeholder, and as a leaseholder you (and the ground floor maisonette) would contribute to this via the service charge.

I'd be interested to see the wording that you say stipulates it on your lease (if you can you type it onto here?).

Hi, we live in a two storey 1900's purpose built maisonette (1st floor) and our lease stipulates that we need to insure the building as a whole, rather than insuring both flats individually.

It is proving very difficult to insure both flats together (most insurance companies will only do buildings insurance for individual flats rather than the whole building). Do you know of any companies who would insure both flats together?

Thanks.