Renewing my mortgage ; life insurance and flat insurance

Other

Firstly life assurance - I don't think that's necessary just because you're letting a property. It may be a good idea generally but depends on your overall situation. Do you have anyone financially dependent on you? If something nasty happened to you how would they stand? A life policy could for example be put in place to pay off the mortgage and leave the flat to them.

As for property insurance, presumably buildings cover is already in place for the whole building and you pay your share as part of the service charge? That leaves insurance for landlords fixtures, contents, and possibly loss of rent etc. I think you should go to an independent insurance broker for proper advice on this. I've been horrified recently to find that substantial damage and theft by a tenant wasn't covered by a so called "comprehensive" landlords property insurance policy from a major insurer. So you need to ask in some detail what you will be covered for. Read the list of exclusions in the small print!