What can I do if my downstairs neighbours (landlord) do not pay their share of the building insurance?

Questioner

3 years ago I bought a house above a commercial property (rental). The previous owner of my house and the then landlord of the commercial property had an agreement that the building insurance would be shared 50/50. This agreement is also stated in the deed of transfer of my house: 'Buyer declared to be aware that there is an obligation to pay fifty percent (50%) of the joint building insurance, [...].'. The commercial property was owned by Dan Vastgoed (Zwolle) at the time, but as far as I know it no longer exists and has become De Woningwinkel (Zwolle), but I am not entirely sure about this. Shortly after I bought the house, I emailed De Woningwinkel to ask whether they indeed owned the property under my house in connection with the joint building insurance. Based on the response I subsequently received, I strongly suspect that they are indeed the owners of the commercial property. Although they did not answer my question directly, they were able to tell me which insurer the insurance was with and who their contact person was there. They referred me to the insurer in question for questions about the building insurance. I then sent a message back to say that I was concerned about the costs of the building insurance that would have to be shared. I did not receive a response to this. Due to recovery after an accident, I did not put any more energy into it after that. I did try to get some certainty about which party owns the business premises, and I had to ask the tenants about it. Unfortunately, they did not want to tell me and advised me to arrange the building insurance myself, because according to them, the landlord has not arranged his affairs as it should be. Unfortunately, that is not an option because the house and the business premises are housed in a VVE and the building insurance cannot be taken out for my house alone. So I have to do something about this. On October 17, I sent De Woningwinkel the insurance invoice for 2021 with the friendly request to transfer half of the premium to me within 14 days. Again, no response. I am now wondering a few things. Firstly, what steps can I best take now to still get back the part that they have to pay. Secondly, I am wondering whether I am still entitled to get back half of the premium for 2019 and 2020. Finally, I am wondering whether it would be possible to have De Woningwinkel pay the building insurance in the future in the first instance and then pay my share to them. I do not feel like having to fight every year to collect their share of the premium. I hope my story is clear enough and that you can give me direction on what to do. Thank you in advance for your response.

Lawyer

I think you need a completely different insurance, namely a building and contents for living. The insurance may not pay out because it is not being used commercially at the moment. I think that you should therefore notify the owner of the property downstairs to adjust his building. Unless the combination of living/commercial activities downstairs is in the policy. Answer your questions briefly: yes, you are certainly entitled to half of the costs for building and perhaps even a different distribution than that in proportion to the risk. You can start a collection procedure if you outsource the assignment to a third party (lawyer, lawyer, your neighbor's office) collection costs can also be claimed.