Joint insurance

From the tenant’s perspective, the ideal position is that the premises are insured in the joint names of the landlord and the tenant. The advantages of this for the tenant are:

1. •

   both parties will be informed before the policy lapses

2. •

   any insurance money will be paid jointly to the landlord and tenant, giving the tenant some control over the spending of the insurance money (and, therefore, the reinstatement of the premises)

3. •

   there are no adverse consequences if the landlord goes into liquidation before reinstatement is completed

4. •

   the insurers cannot exercise their right of ‘subrogation’ (see Subrogation below) against the tenant in relation to damage caused or contributed to by the tenant

However, in many instances insurance in joint names will not be practical. All joint tenants need to be involved in any claim, which would mean that:

1. •

   if the landlord owns multiple properties, all of which are insured with a single insurer under a single block policy on which all the landlord’s tenants are named as joint insured, the landlord would