How To Insure A Maisonette

Insuring a maisonette is more complicated than insuring either a standard house or a flat. The reason is structural: a maisonette shares part of its building with at least one other dwelling but typically has its own front door and its own legal title. Where the responsibility for the roof, walls and structure sits depends on the title deeds, not common sense.

This guide walks through how to insure a UK maisonette correctly, in three scenarios: when you own the freehold, when you share the freehold, and when you hold the leasehold.

Step 1 — Confirm What You Actually Own

Pull the official copy of your title from the Land Registry (£3) before requesting any quote. The title number tells you immediately whether you hold a freehold, a leasehold or a share of freehold. The plan attached to the title shows what is included in your demise.

Maisonettes fall into three common patterns:

• Freehold maisonette — you own the structure that contains your unit outright. Rare and increasingly avoided by mortgage lenders because of the flying-freehold or party-wall complications.
• Share of freehold — you and the other maisonette owner jointly own the freehold, usually through a company. You insure the whole building together.
• Leasehold maisonette — you own a long lease; the freeholder arranges the building insurance and recharges you a share of the cost.

Step 2 — Match The Policy To The Ownership

The right product depends entirely on which of the three above applies:

• Freehold maisonette owners need a maisonette buildings insurance policy that covers their part of the structure, plus property owners' liability and ideally a contribution to communal items such as shared roofs or drains.
• Share of freehold owners need a policy in the joint company's name covering the whole building. One policy, two beneficiaries.
• Leasehold maisonette owners should only need contents insurance plus liability inside their own unit. The buildings cover is the freeholder's job.

Mixing these up creates either double-insurance (wasteful) or gaps (catastrophic). The lease and title are the deciding documents.

Step 3 — Define The Buildings Boundary

For a maisonette, the buildings boundary is rarely "everything inside the walls" the way it is in a house. Read the lease or transfer deed carefully. Typical splits are:

• Plaster line inwards is the maisonette owner's contents and decor.
• Inside of external walls and roof structure is the freeholder's buildings cover.
• Window glass and frames are commonly split: glass to leaseholder, frames to freeholder.
• Communal entrance halls, stairs and external drainage to the freeholder.

If the lease is silent or ambiguous, take the safer position and insure to the outer face of the demise, with a clear note on the policy schedule.

Step 4 — Set The Rebuild Cost Correctly

Maisonettes are typically valued for rebuild at £1,500 to £2,800 per square metre depending on construction and region. For a 70 square metre upper-floor maisonette in the South East, that is a rebuild of £130,000 to £200,000 — usually a fraction of the market value.

If the building has two maisonettes sharing a roof, the rebuild cost on the policy needs to reflect that you may be liable for the whole roof, not just half. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors publishes guidance on apportioning shared structures.

Step 5 — Pick A Specialist Insurer

Mainstream home insurance products often quote maisonettes as if they were houses and then refuse claims involving shared structure. Specialist freeholder and maisonette insurers underwrite the asset properly and will accept:

• Flying freeholds and overlapping demises.
• Mixed-tenure buildings (one flat let, one owner-occupied).
• Conversions of older terraced houses into upper and lower maisonettes.

Disclose every relevant detail. Non-disclosure on a maisonette policy is the most common reason claims are reduced or declined.

Step 6 — Review Annually

Rebuild costs in the UK have risen sharply since 2021. A maisonette policy that was correctly insured in 2022 is almost certainly under-insured today unless the sum insured has been index-linked or revalued. Diary an annual review and a professional reinstatement cost assessment every three to five years.

Get A FAST Quote