The most important question you will answer when getting your building insurance is the one about your building sum insured (BSI). This figure is also referred to as the reinstatement value of the property and should be representative of the full rebuilding cost of the home. A common mistake made when getting this type of insurance is to provide the value of the building.
There are many calculators available for people to generate the BSI of their house, but these all provide different figures and cannot be relied on as correct. The only accurate way to obtain this figure is from an up to date building survey from a professional surveyor of buildings.
Sum insureds that are wrongly provided can lead to problems in claims. If you under insure your property by 20%, for example, then the insurer may reduce the payout on a claim by this same percentage or they may even refuse to pay out altogether. The same doesn’t happen in reverse but it is certainly better to over insure than the former.
Many people do not know their sum insured, mainly because they do not have a current building survey. Although we understand this is costly, it is even more costly when your house burns down and you don’t have the adequate cover. Some insurers can help with this by providing a policy with either an unlimited sum insured or one of a very high limit (say £500,000). These policies are very much a new thing but are becoming more the norm with many of our property insurers.
Check your building insurance policy now before it is too late. Remember you can change your details at any time so don’t wait until renewal. Act now!