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Multiple-occupancy buildings insurance

Are you a freeholder or leaseholder with a complaint about a multiple-occupancy building insurance policy, also known as a MOBI policy?

On this page you'll discover whether you can bring a complaint about your MOBI policy to our service – and how we will approach it if you do.

On this page

  1. What is a multiple-occupancy building insurance policy?
  2. Can I complain about a MOBI policy?
  3. How to complain about a MOBI policy
  4. How we settle complaints about MOBI policies

Handling complaints about MOBI policies?

See our guidance for businesses on multiple-occupancy buildings.

What is a multiple-occupancy building insurance policy?

A multiple-occupancy building insurance (MOBI) policy provides insurance cover for a building or development containing individual properties, such as:

  • houses that have been divided into flats
  • blocks of flats, or
  • an estate with a mix of buildings and houses.

A MOBI policy covers costs to:

  • repair damage, usually to walls, floors, roofs, and fixtures and fittings, for example, in kitchens and bathrooms
  • repair or rebuild the structure of a building after a significant event, such as a fire or flood.

Although MOBI policies are usually taken out by a freeholder, they may provide some cover for both the freeholder and leaseholders of the property.

If your problem is about a structural issue with a newly built or converted home, please see our guidance for consumers on building warranties.

Can I complain about a MOBI policy?

Rules introduced in December 2023 influence:

  • who can bring complaints about MOBI to us
  • the types of MOBI complaints we can investigate.

If you’re complaining on behalf of a business – such as a property company – please see our eligibility criteria for micro-enterprises and small businesses.

  • We can look at your complaint if it concerns:

    • the sale or renewal of a MOBI policy
    • information that the insurer or broker provided, if you bought or renewed the policy after 31 December 2023
    • a claim you made for damage to parts of the building that you’re responsible for.

    If you live in Scotland and own a share of the freehold, we can look at your complaint if all the freehold owners bring the complaint. If only some of the freehold owners bring the complaint, we'll look into that complaint as if you were a leaseholder.

  • We can usually look at complaints about claims for damage to a leased property. 

    And, if the policy was sold or renewed after 31 December 2023, we may be able to consider your complaint if it’s about:

    • the sale or renewal of a MOBI policy
    • information that the insurer provided.

    However, if your complaint is about something that could affect several leaseholders or the freeholder, we may not be the best organisation to help you. In these circumstances, we would advise you to contact the Leaseholder Advisory Service in the first instance.

    See the Leasehold Advisory Service’s guidance on insurance

How to complain about a MOBI policy

  1. Before bringing your complaint to us, you should complain to the company involved.
  2. If they don't send you a final response letter within eight weeks – or you're unhappy with their response – you can complain to us.
  3. Our complaint checker will ask you a few questions about some of the things we need to know to get started. This will help you make sure you’re ready to send us your complaint.
  4. Fill in our online complaint form. Your case will be assigned to a case handler who will contact you when they start to investigate.
  5. To help us consider a complaint fairly, we may ask you for more information later.

Use our complaint checker

How we settle complaints about MOBI policies

We’ll assess what happened using evidence from you, the financial business and any relevant third parties. We'll also consider the relevant law, and any regulations and industry codes of conduct that applied at the time. We may ask you for copies of:

  • the policy terms and conditions
  • the policy schedule
  • the lease agreement.

To find out how we approach complaints about damage to a property, select the relevant category in our guidance for consumers on homes and buildings insurance.

  • If you’re a freeholder, we can look at your complaint.

    If you’re a leaseholder, we can’t investigate your complaint if the policy was sold or renewed before 31 December 2023. If the policy was sold or renewed after 31 December 2023, we may not be able to investigate your complaint if:

    • you’re a leaseholder, and
    • the complaint is about price, value or policy terms.

    If you own a share of the freehold, we can look at your complaint as long as all the freehold owners bring the complaint. Otherwise, we will need to assess it in the same way we would if you were a leaseholder, and may not be able to investigate.

    When a leaseholder comes to us with a complaint about price, value or policy terms, we need to assess whether we can investigate by considering:

    • how many people may be affected by the complaint, including other leaseholders and the freeholder involved in the property
    • how likely it is that everyone affected will be:

    We will also have to take into account:

    • how investigating the complaint – and joining all leaseholders and the freeholder to the case – might affect our operations
    • the supply chain in the MOBI policy – these policies may involve insurers, brokers, property managers and others, whose firms may not be regulated by the FCA. This would mean that we can’t investigate the part they played in events that led to your complaint.

    We would therefore advise you to contact:

    Complaints we can’t help with.

  • If your policy was sold or renewed after 31 December 2023, the rules require brokers and insurers to provide information as soon as reasonably possible to you:

    • as a freeholder, when the contract is complete
    • as a leaseholder if you request it.

    If we find that they didn’t give you the information, provided it late, or not in line with the rules, we may ask them to:

Once we’ve investigated, we'll tell you whether we believe you've been treated unfairly or not. And we’ll explain how we reached our decision. 

If we uphold your complaint, we'll tell the broker or insurer to put things right.

We may also ask them pay you compensation for any financial loss or distress or inconvenience you have experienced.

What to expect