Home Insurance....Company to repair burnt down shed + prevention?

rockykabir

Apologies if this is in the wrong section(!)

A few days ago, our family had experienced an unwelcome incident whereby a fire at the rear of our garden devoured our shed

Although there weren't any high value valuables in there, my father had kept a lot of documentations and my sister's artwork from her past two years of uni had been destroyed

We were not covered for content insurance - but we were told that our insurers would cover the costs of a new shed.

However, after much discussion with our family, we wanted to make a shed which was perhaps a lot more fire/weather/vandal proof - i.e. maybe something out of bricks? (our previous shed was wood based and measured 13' by 10').

Is it obligatory for the insurance company to build it as it was? or can they rebuild as per our requirements? Although it was a freak incident, I presumed that it'll be of their interest as well as ours to build something which is less likely to be damaged and hence reduce any potential payout costs in the future

Wyndham

They will only pay to get you back to where you were before, i.e. with a wooden shed. However, I'd suggest talking to them about what you want to do, and they should give you a contribution to your new-style shed equivalent to the cost of building a wooden one. Of course, you then need to find the rest of the money, but that's the way it works I'm afraid!

To take it to the extreme, you could have a small house that burns down, and you decide to build a much bigger new one at significant extra cost - the insurer would not pay that, and this is similar.

Sooler

rockykabir wrote:

I presumed that it'll be of their interest as well as ours to build something which is less likely to be damaged and hence reduce any potential payout costs in the future

It’d be in their best interest to refuse to insure you – no risk to them what so ever.

The premiums they charged would have taken into the account the possible rebuilding costs.


Perhaps they’ll offer a cash settlement and you can then build what ever you want – but I think the settlement would only cover the costs of clearing the old shed away and building something similar.

mattymoo

Quite a big shed - would you need planning permission for a brick structure of the same size? Might be worth checking before you make your mind up.