Property Insurance UK – How Much to Insure your Building For?

property takes in to consideration such factors as property age, location, desirability etc whereas the rebuilding cost is solely based on the amount of money required to rebuild the property, should it burn to the ground for example.

The rebuilding cost is often much lower than the market value of the property particularly if the property is in a very expensive area such as London. Many people do not like insuring for the lower amount as often the difference is vast and they feel uncomfortable at the prospect of not having the correct sum insured. There are a number of ways that you can arrive at your building sum insured:-

1) If you have a mortgage on the property, calculating the true rebuilding cost may be academic, the lender will survey the premises and their surveyor will advise the sum insured required. Often lenders will request a sum insured that is higher that the actual rebuilding cost but as they are lending money and want to secure their investment, you will have to accept the amount that they request.

2) If you do not have a mortgage, you can select your own sum insured quite accurately by visiting the Association of British Insurers website and using their rebuilding calculator. This is a very easy process but you will need to take measurements.

3) You can instruct a surveyor to carry out a survey at your premises, advise that you only want a figure to establish rebuilding costs of the