how do you guys calculate your home and contents insurance?

ricflairandy

How am i supposed to know how much my house would cost to rebuild?

Tiggs_2

your insurance company will know a rough cost.....otherwise go to B&Q and ask.....

"i'd like....37,000 bricks, 8 windows, 4 ton of timber...." keep going till you have a house in your trolley.

oldwiring

Tiggs wrote:

your insurance company will know a rough cost.....otherwise go to B&Q and ask.....

"i'd like....37,000 bricks, 8 windows, 4 ton of timber...." keep going till you have a house in your trolley.

:rotfl:

Seriously you could look here http://abi.bcis.co.uk/ for a calculator
or https://www.bcis.co.uk/costass.html

Wyndham

Many companies will help you with this, so if you say 'I just bought it and I paid £x for it' then they will be able to translate this. Alternatively, they will know what they would expect to be 'average' for your type of house in your area. However, if you do that, be careful - if you have an extension, or something else which means your house isn't 'typical' you may end up being underinsured, in which case they would only pay a proportion of the claim.

I think as a general rule (and with rising house prices it's hard to be sure) then somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 of what you would pay for the house on the open market is about right.

mattymoo

Wyndham wrote:

I think as a general rule (and with rising house prices it's hard to be sure) then somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 of what you would pay for the house on the open market is about right.

The market value and rebuild cost do not bear much relation to each other so this rule followed with care.

The ABI website produces info on their website . www.abi.org.uk

Market value takes land price and proximity to ammenities into account. Things like a good school, transport links etc. These do not affect the rebuild cost.

You can have an inner city terraced house in a run down area that is on the market for £50k but will cost £90-100K to rebuild. Likewise, you can have a good quality house set in a couple of acres and with a market value of £1m but a rebuild cost of less than half.

There are some additional factors that affect rebuild costs -
listed building status.
type and availability of material e.g. local stone
site access - restricted parking / lack of land space means traffic control may be needed and builders will factor in to cost.
Unusual features - e.g. indoor pool.

Kay_Peel

Here's the link to the calculator if you want a 'proper job'

http://abi.bcis.co.uk/index.cfm#calculation

KP