What are Insurance Reinstatement costs?

If you currently have a mortgage or other loan on your home, then you should have buildings insurance to cover the cost of rebuilding your house from scratch should the need ever arise.

This is fine if your house has stayed exactly the same as when you first moved in or last remortgaged. But the sum insured must cover the full current rebuild fee. This does not mean the current market or Council Tax band valuations.

If you’ve paid off your mortgage, or you’ve had extensive building work done (e.g. an extension or loft conversion) or have invested in high end finishes to your building work, you will need to re-evaluate your level of buildings insurance cover. All too often homeowners neglect to do this then get caught out by being inadequately covered.

This is where Insurance Reinstatement Costs come in. Put simply, we will evaluate your home and provide a figure for your buildings insurance cover.

Why does this matter?

The building sum insured is the most that your insurers will pay out under any circumstances. This is why it needs to be accurate and kept up to date and is especially important if you’ve had major structural work done on your home. In any case your house will not be identical to your neighbour’s, which is why it’s vital never to use a generic figure or vague guesses as to what the cover amount should be. If you are underinsured, then most insurers will only pay out a proportion of the total rebuild cost relative to how underinsured you are.

At Donald Leslie & Co we have 25 years’ experience in valuing all types of properties in the Chilterns area for a wide variety of purposes. If you’re not sure which type of valuation is suitable for your circumstances, then please contact us and we’ll be happy to chat through the options with you.