Buildings insurance

[kelfoan]

What is the difference between a buildings 'rebuilding price' and market value. How can I find out the curent rebuilding price for insurance purposes. Is it more or less than the market value of purchasing the property?

Also any tips on valuing your contents for contents insurance

[lady_p_gold]

The cost of rebuilding is usually less than the market value and if you have a survey when you buy a property the surveyor will give you an estimate as to how much the rebuilding cost would be and this is the amount which you tell your insurer when they insure the property

[kelfoan]

Thanks for response. If the property is 10 years old would you have to request a surveyors report each year to find out rebuilding cost or is it usually a%ge of the market value?

[Yorky Lass]

Most insurance sites offer to give you a calculation. All you do is type your estimated current market value and type of house - semi, terraced, detached, no of bedrooms etc. Think they ask for post codes too. But beware you'll be inundated with phone calls and letters. I tried it a couple of years ago and am still getting letters from some of the insurance companies.

[dzug]

You may find it easier and not necessarily more expensive to get a policy that covers you for a flat �400-500K - far more than the average or even above average house would cost to rebuild. Likewise for contents go for a policy that's based on the number of bedrooms rather than an actual value - there will still be a maximum but it will be high.

Once you've got a value you can just add a % each year for inflation - far less than the market value inflation.

I did at one time have a leaflet that gave rebuilding costs per sq ft for different types of property in different areas of the country - your insurance company or lender may be able to supply an up to date version. Measure the outside of the property.

[buildersmate]

Agree with the above, especially Dzug's comments. Many insurers now work in rebuilding cost bands. So they will offer you a policy that covers rebuilding costs up to say �450k even if the rebuild cost is only �250k. It doesn't mean you can get a bigger house rebuilt if total disaster occurs. They find this easier to administer. As a VERY starting rough guide, use �100 per square foot of floor area of the house - not the footprint - the floor area, for a two storey dwelling. Then use this to compare to what the web calculators say. In expensive parts of the country, the rebuilding cost is a SMALLER percentage of the market valuation, because the rebuilding cost bears no relationship to the market cost. The 'make-up' figure is the value of tha land on which the building sits.

[gammaray]

450K..??? you can knock up a three bed semi for around 60 -80 grand!

[gammaray]

That's the size of an average three bed semi.... you couldn't just tack on a semi to someone elses detached!!

[gammaray]

I'm going for a lie down now!

[themas]

Go to www.bcis.co.uk and use their calculator - its probably more reliable than some of the insurance company ones.