Fines and the Guardia Civil

Can anyone advise me on property insurance - I have taken out both building and contents insurance with MAPFRE however I have received a letter today from the administrator advising that the building insurance for the property is with MAPFRE.  They were supposed to enclose a letter from MAPFRE but have omitted to do this.  Am I correct in having my own building insurance or is this already covered?

Thanks

You need to check out which Insurance the administrator has. I presume it will be the Community insurance.................if this is so it will probably only cover Communal areas, but you need to check this out just in case your Community has opted for one which covers individuals.

There are 184 apartments where I live and it would not be cost effective for the Comminity insurance to cover individual apartments, so we each are advised to purchase our own building insurance, as well as contents insurance.

Hi
         All you need is contents insurance as you are covered by buildings insurance in your community fees with Mapfre. If you have private buildings insurance, go and cancel it, as it is illegal to have two lots in Spain.

If you have any more questions on this subject email Kerry (El Rincon president) his email is

kagenco@arrakis.es

Happy to help

                           Col &  Bev

Hi everyone,

I personally think it has been a bad use of funds to have the buildings insurance included within our community fees.

What this confirms is that our community fees were set too high in the first place. It's alright cancelling existing policies but there are few companies that will offer a refund on fees already paid (annual policies).

I personally feel that we should have been consulted about the buildings insurance and if there are funds available because we pay too much ( basic maths no increase in our community fees means we are paying too much if the buildings can be insured without an increase in our monthly fees) then maybe look at paying for our own securty guard, or someone to clean the communal areas on the walkways or even how much to heat one of the pools in the winter months !!

For my sins I work in the insurance industry and commission is always paid on any policy taken out including general insurance, so I would like to know, was any commission paid to whoever brokered this deal or was any commission refunded 100% back into the policy to reduce the premium ?

HI Col, where did you get the info from about it being illegal.  In all the communities (mine and friends) we all have our own insurance which covers contents and the building structure of your own apartment, ie (internal walls, doors, windows, balconies, fitted wardrobes anything fixed) and then contents insurance.  When I first went and insured our apartment Knights told me I had to have this insurance and the committee would arrange insurance for the communal areas.

The committee have insurance which covers all communal areas, which I assume covers lifts, passageways, swimming pool etc.

Does the insurance your committe arranged cover the complete rebuild of all apartments including the above and the communal areas as well.

Karen any advise?

Lesley

Hi Lesley
 Yes our President told me to cancel any buildings cover that insures for rebuild because this is now included in our community fees, and to only take out contents insurance to cover against burglary.

To have two policies covering the same thing is illegal as it is in England.

                                                                  Stay Happy
                                                                                             Col 

Hi Col, thanks for the reply, but our individual policies only cover internal walls, doors etc, the community policy covers communual areas, surely this is not the same cover on the buildings policy, I have emailed Karen, she will probably be able to answer.

Lesley

Hi, just found this on another thread on this forum

Regarding buildings insurance we were told that it is a requirement as any damage arising from the inside of your apartment is your responsibilty. Say for instance you had a leak that went through to the apartment underneath and damaged his walls,tiling etc then you are responsible for the repairs.

Your community buildings insurance covers everything outside of your property and stops at you front door.

Confused?  I am?

Lesley

I  would tend to agree with Lesley, having not seen the English version of the policy then contents cover alone may not be sufficient, as Lesley has mentioned not all fixtures are covered by contents insurance, therefore buildings insurance is required  internally as well.

Finally I do not believe that it is illegal to have 2 insurance policies covering the same item, however it is illegal to claim on 2 for the same damage or loss (basic fraud). Think about how your travel insurance policy covers items such as a camera being lost,but so does your extended home contents insurance, you would only make one claim if the camera was lost and you would choose to claim on the policy with the least excess for example, therefore 2 policies is not illegal but as you can only claim on one it is not sensible to have 2 policies covering the same items.

As I mentioned earlier I do not believe this has been a sensible use of our monies and may cause a degree of confusion and possible under insurance !!

Hi All, I can only comment on the Insurance we have in La Mirada.

Our Community Insurance covers ALL Community aspects only. Owners need to have their own personal buildings insurance for their OWN property, which is everything within their own apartments, plus contents insurance.

I have no idea what the Insurance covers at El Rincon but I am sure the Presidente will have a copy of the documentation which you should all have access to, however, this will probably be in Spanish so you will need to know exactly what is or is NOT covered and it is not always clear what IS actually covered!!

Just out of interest, La Mirada went to Mapfre and asked about their Community Insurance and they gave us a quote for the Community areas ONLY and a quote for the Community elements plus the 184 apartments..............the latter was astronomical........so it was decided that the owners should be responsible for their own insurance.

I don't know if it is illegal to have 2 insurances for the same area BUT it is not economically sound as you can only claim once anyway so it would be a waste of money.

All I would say, is check with your Presidente or your administrator and ask to see the documentation so you are sure. If you have any concerns about the way monies are spent in your Community, then you should voice your concerns and log them in writing to your Presidente with a copy to your Administrator and bring them up at your next AGM.................remembering that unless an item is actually on the AGM agenda, it cannot be legally voted on.