I recently bought the ground floor flat in a converted terraced house. I own half the freehold and the leasehold for the ground floor, and a married couple own half the freehold and the leasehold for the first floor. The joint building insurance policy has now expired and the upstairs freeholder is now pushing for its renewal. Am I legally obliged to do this?

The rub is that my solicitor did not inform me of any joint policy, and since the upstairs freeholder was (and still is) living overseas and practicaly incommunicado, I had to take out my own combined buildings and contents insurance when I applied for a mortgage. So if possible I don't want to have to pay for another policy. From comparing the policies it would be cheaper for me to keep my existing policy than pay half of theirs.

To further complicate matters, they rent out their flat. So will their insurance cover be different/more expensive since they are not owner-occupiers?

Grateful for any advice. Apologies if I'm duplicating threads, I have seen similar questions but none that precisely answer my question.