Renewal day, again
The block policy renews. The broker sends a schedule showing the premium for each building, terrorism cover, loss of rent cover, insurance premium tax and the broker's fee. Someone in the landlord's office opens the recharge spreadsheet, types the new figures in, splits them by tenant, and raises demands. Half the tenants pay. The other half ask for a copy of the policy, a summary of cover, or an explanation of why the figure went up.
Mid-year, a building is revalued and the premium changes, or a unit becomes vacant and its share is now the landlord's. The spreadsheet gets another tab.
Why the recharge is harder than it looks
- The broker schedule arrives as a PDF, in a layout that changes from year to year.
- Leases differ on which elements are recoverable, and how the split is worked out.
- Premiums for a portfolio policy have to be allocated to buildings before they can be allocated to tenants.
- Tenants arriving or leaving mid-term need part-year shares.
- Mid-term adjustments and refunds have to flow back to the right tenants.
- Tenants ask for summaries of cover and certificates, which someone emails by hand.
What is recoverable from each tenant is set by the lease and your advisers. The mechanics of applying it are where the errors come in.
The cost of getting it wrong
Undercharging means the landlord pays insurance it could have recovered. Overcharging, or charging an element the lease does not allow, leads to disputes and refunds. Demands go out late because the spreadsheet takes days to update. And tenant requests for policy documents sit in an inbox, which feeds a sense that the landlord is hiding something.
The recharge process we set up
- The broker schedule is read with AI extraction into building-level lines: sum insured, premium, terrorism, loss of rent, tax, fees. A person checks the extracted figures against the schedule before anything is used.
- Each lease's recoverable elements and split method are held on the tenant record, as set by your leases and advisers.
- The premium is allocated to buildings, then to tenants, with part-year shares for arrivals and departures and vacant shares shown as landlord cost.
- Demands are produced from your template and posted to your accounts system, with a note showing how the figure was arrived at.
- Mid-term adjustments, refunds and revaluations are applied from their date, and credit or supplementary demands are raised to the right tenants.
- Tenants can download the summary of cover and certificate for their building from a portal, or receive them automatically with the demand.
| Renewal task | Manual process | Automated process |
|---|---|---|
| Reading the broker schedule | Retyped into a spreadsheet | Extracted and checked |
| Splitting by building and tenant | Spreadsheet formulas | Rules per lease |
| Part-year tenants | Worked out individually | Calculated from occupation dates |
| Tenant document requests | Emailed on request | Available with the demand |
After the next renewal
The schedule arrives, the extracted figures are checked, and the demands are ready soon after. Tenants get their share, the working and the cover documents together. Mid-term changes are handled when they happen rather than saved up for the year end.
Your property manager stops being the go-between for insurance paperwork. When a tenant's own insurer or lender asks for evidence that the building is insured, with their interest noted, the tenant downloads the certificate instead of emailing you. When the premium rises sharply, the letter that goes with the demand already explains which building-level elements changed, so the conversation starts from the facts.
Does your insurance recharge look like this?
- The broker schedule is retyped every renewal.
- You are not sure every recoverable element is being recharged.
- Tenants regularly ask for policy summaries and certificates.
- Vacant unit shares are not clearly separated.
- Mid-term premium changes are not passed on or refunded.