Enclosed is the London Borough of Islington/Homes for Islington Leasehold Insurance Policy Powerpoint Presentation made by LBI brokers JLT last night to the ILA meeting. Thanks to JLT and LBI for answering questions. Insurance PPS presentation to ILA by HFI LBI JLT – 04.2012
Leaseholder may find it instructive to confirm their insurance premium is being correctly calculated by multiplying the “rebuild value” of their property by the current premium rate used of 0.1249% to obtain your annual insurance premium cost. eg £200K rebuild cost X current premium rate 0.1249%.= £249.80 You can obtain the “rebuild value” of your property from your relevant managing agent e.g. Council , HFI or Partners.
James Murray ( head housing honcho @ Islington Council) yesterday confirmed that although there would be 4 or 5 councillors advising him as part of the new housing consultation process, he would not confirm that any of them would be Leaseholders.
…unfortunately seems like more anti-leaseholder politics
Islington Leaseholders Meeting
on
Wednesday 11 April 2012
in
Islington Town Hall Chambers
at
7 – 9pm
Hosting the meeting:- Dr Brian Potter
Guest Speakers:- Ms Alison Goodwin (JLT Buildings Insurance Brokers), Mr David Clay (LBI), Ms Kay Morgan (HFI), have confirmed they will be attending.
Please let other leaseholders know of this meeting – it will be their chance to ask general insurance questions about your premiums, level of coverage from the policy etc.
Please view The Islington Tribune Article below which is very interesting which at your convenience.
Dr B. S. Potter
Chairman ILA
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[1] Islington Tribune Article
Despite end of HFI, there’ll be ‘No magic wand’ for council tenants, warns housing chief James Murray
Published: 30 March 2012
by PETER GRUNER
by PETER GRUNER
ISLINGTON housing chief James Murray declared the “end of an era” this week as council property agency Homes for Islington (HfI) was officially dissolved and its functions brought in-house.
The Labour councillor warned that there would be no “magic wand” for residents under new council-run housing but promised a lot more consultation and accountability than was available under HfI.
HfI, which managed the borough’s 21,500 council homes and 8,000 leasehold properties, was set up eight years ago in 2004 as an arms’-length management organisation under chief executive Eamon McGoldrick, who stood down this week.
It has been beset with criticisms of lack of accountability and poor service.
The Town Hall expects to save £1.69million by bringing housing under direct council control.
HfI originally had a staff of 9,000, but several hundred jobs have disappeared over the past few years leaving a workforce of 7,000.
Cllr Murray said: “I won’t pretend that everyone’s concerns over housing will go away overnight. But our priority is to make sure we get the best service for residents.
“We also want to get tenants and leaseholders involved in improving the service.
We are setting up a residents’ improvement taskforce, where they will have the opportunity to talk about changes they want to see.”
We are setting up a residents’ improvement taskforce, where they will have the opportunity to talk about changes they want to see.”
A new housing executive will replace the HfI board and will advise the council.
It will include Cllr Murray and tenants and leaseholders as well as housing officials.
A Residents’ Champion is due to be elected in September.
It will include Cllr Murray and tenants and leaseholders as well as housing officials.
A Residents’ Champion is due to be elected in September.
Islington Leaseholders Meeting
on
Wednesday 14 March 2012
in
Islington Town Hall Chambers
At
7 – 9pm
Hosting the meeting: – Dr Brian Potter
Guest Speakers:- Two Legal representatives from the “LEASE” organisation will be attending to answer leaseholders questions.
Please impress upon any other leaseholder’s that you know that it is in their interest to attend these meetings regularly…
Solar panels fitted by Islington Council criticised
Jon Dean Saturday, March 3, 2012 The Islington Gazette
Solar panels fitted to homes have been criticised for potentially harming property values and saving residents less than 1p a year on their electricity.
Last year, the council fitted 20 panels on buildings in the Elthorne Estate, off Elthorne Road, Archway, to help generate power for communal areas.
The scheme is also designed to reduce bills by selling the electricity generated back to the national grid, known as a feed-in tariff. However external contractors have stumped up the cash for the panels on the condition that they keep the lion’s share of the money the national grid pay for the electricity.
The council refused to reveal the exact details of the deal, but figures shown to the Gazette suggests it saves around £140 per panel per year. With 20 panels fitted under this deal, this means a saving of £2,800, less than 1p a year for each of the 30,000 tenants and leaseholders.
Many residents are angry that their property value is potentially being compromised.
Brian Potter, chairman of Islington Leaseholder Associations, said: “I have had quite a few calls about this, people are very worried.
“They are being misled. There is not going to be an appreciable reduction in fuel bills for the average tenant or leaseholder. All the scheme is doing is making the contractors a load of money.
“Of course people are scared their property value will go down, because their roofs have basically been sold to a contractor for 25 years. It’s crazy.
“There was no consultation on this either – the council has done it because it’s green and sounds good and all the rest of it. But we are building a lot of problems in the future. I just hope they don’t extend the scheme all over the borough.”
“Sedley requirements”: the standards of proper consultation applied by the Courts
13 February 2012 |By insurancetimes.co.uk Newsdesk
Policyholders could be exposed to “significant financial loss”
The Building Cost Information Service (BCIS) has warned insurers that buildings insurance arranged for individual flats carries a significant risk of underinsurance.
Buildings insurance is commonly taken out on the whole block by the freeholder of the property and the premium split between the various leaseholders.
“In a total loss situation, policyholders may receive a payout far short of the market value of their flat but they would still need to continue to pay their mortgage.”
OCASO etc are our guests at the forthcoming April ILA meeting.
Since the start of the PFI 2 contract 926 Final accounts have been issued to leaseholders as part of the Major Works program. Of these 326 have been challenged, about 35%, with an average charge of nearly £7,000 and a total charge of £1.4m. 285 of these challenges have been resolved.
Of these resolved cases 207 have received some form of adjustment to their account, with the majority of these being adjustments of less than £1000 (120 cases).
Categories
Service charges
How are services charges levied by freeholders determined and consulted on – and are they fair? 
review of service charges
BUILDING INSURANCE QUERIES _ILA MEETING_11Jan12 and response from JLTAlison Goodwin from JLT [Jardine Lloyd Thompson Public Sector Risks] who admin OCASA Building Insurance have sent us comments on the queries submitted for the January ILA meeting. The ILA queries and her comments are in the attached document.