Rebuild cost - insurer recommendation vs. BCIS

stuartm

We are in the process of getting a renewal quote for buildings and contents insurance. The broker, who we have been with for a number of years, have recommended this website to get a 'better' rebuild cost. The company is RebuildCostASSESSMENT.com who charge £180 inc. VAT for a calculation.

We've previously used BCIS (https://abi.bcis.co.uk/calculator/calculator.aspx) which is free.

I get that we should be accurately insured (i.e. not over or under insured) but £180 sounds like a lot of money for something we can get free from a reputable source already.
The BCIS site gives a figure but also gives a higher and lower range for the 'quality' of the house.

Has anyone used the (expensive) service above and would you recommend them? Is it just an expensive waste of time or is there any real value-add? They recommend re-doing the quote every 2 years.

Thanks.

Sandtree

If you took the BCIS and added 50% for contingency then the additional premium you are charged is probably less than an extra £90 per year.

Alternatively, take a bedroom rated policy which has a £1m or unlimited cover in which case you can be fairly confident that you'll never be underinsured.

stuartm

That's a good point. Certainly worth getting quotes based on the 'typical' and 'enhanced' quality quotes from BCIS which are about 30% apart.

daveyjp

Most building insurance I have had over many years have a minimum cover for buildings of hundreds of thousands (far more than rebuild for most properties) and in some cases unlimited.

stuartm

Our broker is asking for a number - it is indeed in the hundreds of thousands but the broker is saying that it needs to be accurate and over-egging it unnecessarily will increase the already eye-watering premium

dunstonh

Do you have a property that is pretty non-standard or unusual?    (e.g. listed or has barns, stables, land with buildings on etc)

If its a mainstream property then getting insurance with automatic sum insureds is usually the best way.  

I get that we should be accurately insured (i.e. not over or under insured) but £180 sounds like a lot of money for something we can get free from a reputable source already.

£180 is not much if someone is to come out and detail your property.  The BICS calculator will be pretty useless for an awful lot of people.

stuartm

dunstonh said:

Do you have a property that is pretty non-standard or unusual?    (e.g. listed or has barns, stables, land with buildings on etc)

If its a mainstream property then getting insurance with automatic sum insureds is usually the best way.  

I get that we should be accurately insured (i.e. not over or under insured) but £180 sounds like a lot of money for something we can get free from a reputable source already.

£180 is not much if someone is to come out and detail your property.  The BICS calculator will be pretty useless for an awful lot of people.

It's a standard terraced house.

Why would the BICS calculator be 'useless'?

The £180 is a 'desktop survey'. The company quoted over £500 for a surveyor to come out. Even £180 seems a waste of money if the BICS service is worth using. It's for an insurance quote, not a house sale. 

dunstonh

Why would the BICS calculator be 'useless'?

If you are standard property, it won't be.    It is where you have land and other buildings or historical issues where it won't work.    I just tested the calculator on mine and it was way off what it needs to be.  However, there is a warning in place just as I have said here.

user1977

stuartm said:

dunstonh said:

Do you have a property that is pretty non-standard or unusual?    (e.g. listed or has barns, stables, land with buildings on etc)

If its a mainstream property then getting insurance with automatic sum insureds is usually the best way.  

I get that we should be accurately insured (i.e. not over or under insured) but £180 sounds like a lot of money for something we can get free from a reputable source already.

£180 is not much if someone is to come out and detail your property.  The BICS calculator will be pretty useless for an awful lot of people.

It's a standard terraced house.

So why are the premiums eye-watering? How much are they (for buildings alone)? 

stuartm

Broker has not been asked to quote for buildings alone. Premium for buildings and contents was quoted about 25% more than last year with no changes in any cover, sums insured etc. I'm shopping around...

dunstonh

stuartm said:

Broker has not been asked to quote for buildings alone. Premium for buildings and contents was quoted about 25% more than last year with no changes in any cover, sums insured etc. I'm shopping around...

Were you using a provider that had early year discounting previously?   That was banned as of January this year.  So, providers that had that model have seen their premiums increase significantly as the discount has been removed.