Do you own a
leasehold flat?

The claim seeks to recover commission payments shared between landlords and their insurance brokers without the leaseholders’ knowledge. These commissions are included within the insurance premiums for buildings and terrorism insurance. These commissions are paid for by leaseholders, all wrapped up inside the service charges that you have been paying.

Since the late 1990s, large landlords and brokers have added these commissions on to insurance premiums. In a 2023 report, the Financial Conduct Authority found that commissions ranged between 10% and as much as 60%.  

The Financial Conduct Authority also found that most insurance brokers could not justify the level of the commissions charged for the amount of work done in relation to the insurance.

In most cases, insurance brokers have assisted landlords in a breach of trust by including excessive commissions in the insurance premium. Landlords and brokers were not entitled to receive these profits from leaseholder funds without leaseholders’ informed consent to the charges before placing the insurance.

In the rare cases where landlords have disclosed these commissions, the disclosure has been only after the fact.  In most cases the disclosure is partial or inaccurate.

You are likely to have been affected if : (i) you live in a flat you own (with or without a mortgage), (ii) you pay for insurance via your service charge (or make a separate payment to your landlord or your landlord's broker) and, (iii) your building is not owned or managed by the people who live in it. If these three criteria apply to you, you may be eligible to join the claim.

In some buildings where leaseholders are in charge of management, it may be that they still do not control the placement of insurance.

No. We will ask target landlords for these details on your behalf. 

If the claim succeeds, leaseholders could receive between £1,500 and £3,500 each in compensation.  

The precise amount will depend on the sort of building you live in, how long you have lived there, the extent of the secret commissions, whether we can claim interest and the period for which we are able to claim.

See the sign up page.

Velitor Law is proud to support this claim on behalf of leaseholders against landlords and insurance brokers.