House and content insurance

RicardoSmith

What kinda value should you put on this. The cost of rebuilding your house or the cost of rebuying it? What about contents how much should that be for?

sceptre

This is going to be a pretty simplistic answer from me but anyhoo:

Insure your house and contents for the cost of replacing them. House burns down? You're going to be rebuilding aren't you? And buying new stuff to replace the burned stuff? That's what you insure it for. You're not going to be rebuying your old burned house at the previous value so it's pointless paying over the odds for insurance at that figure.

If your house and contents are destroyed they're not going to give you more money than it's worth (one of the principles of insurance is that the insured shouldn't make a profit on the policy) so by insuring your house for the sale value they'll be charging you an increased premium based on your inflated value and still won't pay you that much in the event of a disaster.

Pretty simple then: insure everything for the cost of replacing it. Don't be underestimating the amount (builders/time spent renting if the worst happens all cost money too) but don't waste your time overvaluing as insurance companies are remarkably good at estimating actual values for houses.

RicardoSmith

But how much does it cost to rebuild a house? The way costs have gone up in the last few years I have no idea.

sceptre

Oh, now there's a pertinent question. Lest I be accused of just ignoring a question where I've no idea of the answer, er, I've no idea and will pass the question on to m'learned colleagues.

RicardoSmith

In theory it could cost the same to buy one as to get one rebuilt!

dahamsta

I'm also looking at house inn-sewer-ants at the moment. I'm convinced that the house, contents and "extras" are grossly overvalued, so I'm trying to find a way to get it valued on the cheap, but in the meantime any advice you can give us will be very much appreciated sceptre.

adam

RicardoSmith

Who values it? Mines up for renewal and I'm basically setting mine. The MV has changed quite a bit since I bought the house so I thought I should increase the value. But this raised the premuim by 100 yoyos so I was wondering is there any point if the value isn't the MV

Borzoi

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
In theory it could cost the same to buy one as to get one rebuilt!

No (unless you have some sort of houseboat) as the buy price includes a sizable chunk of dough for the bit of ground your house/apartment sits on. Obviously that doesn't need to be rebuilt, so insurance value is less than the masrket value

dmeehan

to insure it, get a valuation, pretend that you want to sell
take off about 10%-15% for the site and whats left should be the cost of replacing your house...

i think http://www.myhome.ie have a section on this

sceptre

Originally posted by dahamsta
in the meantime any advice you can give us will be very much appreciated sceptre.

Really don't know enough about it on a practical level but I've sent a few mails to people who should know - when they reply I'll pop what they had to say in here.

uzami

Ok.

When did you get your mortgage?

Prior to drawing down the mortgage the bank would have carried out a valuation on the property and insisted that they be issued with a letter of indemnity from an insurance company to cover the reinstatement cost of the property (ie rebuilding if it gets burnt down).

Now market value may have increased, but the reinstatement cost will not have increased that much........welcome to the property bubble.

As was suggested, phone around estate agents and pretend you are selling, then deduct a sizeable % (up to 50%, depends on how overvalued your property is).

Ask your mortgage lender. Tell them that you want to change insurance companies, and that you need to find out the reinstatement cost so that you can get a new letter of indemnity for them. Ask them for advice!

sceptre

This is what I've got back:

The insurance companies automatically work out such splits on average rebuild costs etc. - If you have a total value for the house they assume site is worth €30,000 etc.

On the valuation - again they use average tables if you provide the purchase price in a particular year; they apply a index for the town etc.

A valuation will cost over €100 euro and the insurance would probably be between 3 and 4 hundred euro on an average family home - the impact of disagreeing with an exact value or site cost would be negligable I'd imagine...

Most companies will give quotes based on approximate value and location...

Victor

Originally posted by dmeehan
to insure it, get a valuation, pretend that you want to sell
take off about 10%-15% for the site and whats left should be the cost of replacing your house...

Absolutely useless, you might have a cottage on an acre in Dalkey where the building is worth only 5% of the site or a terrace house in an interface area in the North where rebuilding will be more expensive than buying new.

Try these:
http://www.scs.ie/publication/hri.asp
http://www.scs.ie/publication/hritoc.asp

Links from boards.ie
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?postid=790497#post790497

/me will do valuations in exchange for internet time

trurl

Hell o *.*,

Is there any way to insure the content of the house only? - if the landlord doesn't want to put your stuff under his house insurance

Thanks
Trurl

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by trurl

Hell o *.*,

Is there any way to insure the content of the house only? - if the landlord doesn't want to put your stuff under his house insurance

Thanks
Trurl

This has been asked before and the answer was no.

trurl

Thanks

Victor

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
This has been asked before and the answer was no.

This is wrong, there are a few companies doing it, including AXA, take a look here. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?postid=790497#post790497

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Victor
This is wrong, there are a few companies doing it, including AXA, take a look here. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?postid=790497#post790497

When this was discussed before no company would insure the contents of a house which you didn't own. Where in that thread or the links does it say that renters can get house "contents" insurance?

uzami

i have contents insurance only through royal sun alliance.

try www.insure.ie , that's who I used

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by uzami
i have contents insurance only through royal sun alliance.

try www.insure.ie , that's who I used

And you are renting the property?

uzami

yup...renting a 3bed in dublin

Victor

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
When this was discussed before no company would insure the contents of a house which you didn't own. Where in that thread or the links does it say that renters can get house "contents" insurance?

It doesn't, they guy who put me on to AXA was renting.

Why would you want contents only insurance if you owned the house? I think it would be a very small market for people splitting their insurances.

Borzoi

Originally posted by Victor

Why would you want contents only insurance if you owned the house? I think it would be a very small market for people splitting their insurances.

It's really for apartment owners like me where the rebuild cost of the place is covered in a block policy, wheras the contents is up to the individual apartment owner

trurl

Originally posted by uzami
yup...renting a 3bed in dublin

Hell o,

Do you share the 3bed with others? Did they have to insure their stuff with your insurer too?

Thanks
Trurl

uzami

Do you share the 3bed with others? Did they have to insure their stuff with your insurer too?

shared with my daughter and a house mate, and all contents are insured, including theirs.

trurl

Originally posted by uzami
shared with my daughter and a house mate, and all contents are insured, including theirs.

Hell o,

Could you give me the contact info to the person/broker you have the insureance with (in PM)?

Thanks
Trurl

zAbbo

More quotes here:
http://www.quoteline.ie/house/default.asp