Home Buildings sum insured valuation and BER

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RiceCakes

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My annual house insurance is up for renewal again and it occurs to me that the amount I've been putting down for the rebuild cost may be way off with current building regulations.

I live in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown CoCo area and I believe all new dwellings must be built to BER "A" standard. My house was built in the 80's with cavity block construction so very poor insulation (saving up to get it wrapped but i digress) by modern building standards.

It's fairly small detached bungalow of about 100sq meters and i've been putting it down as around €180k buildings sum which is supposed to cover rebuilding in the event of disaster. However, i suspect that might be around half of current BER A standard rebuild costs are and another question , say the house gets burnt down, does this include site clearance as well?

I'm concerned I am leaving myself open to having a pile of rubble on my hands that i can basically build a well insulated garden shed on once all is said and done.

What are peoples thoughts around this? Should we take current building regs in our area into consideration and site clearance costs when insuring our homes?
 
You need to look at scsi.ie rebuilding guide which will point you in the right direction.
Your sum insured is inadequate and their guide will help to get a more accurate figure.
 
Take a look at the SCSI advice and calculator here, a few of the insurance companies offer similar tools on their websites.
 
You would give yourself a "betterment" issue. The sums insured should represent the cost to reinstate the buildings to their pre-loss condition. So if you if you had single glazed wooden windows then that is what you get back and not triple-glazed thermal proof windows.

Site clearance costs should be included in your sum insured along with professional fees etc.
 
peteb said:
You would give yourself a "betterment" issue. The sums insured should represent the cost to reinstate the buildings to their pre-loss condition. So if you if you had single glazed wooden windows then that is what you get back and not triple-glazed thermal proof windows.

Site clearance costs should be included in your sum insured along with professional fees etc.
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Thats not correct.The reinstatement costs will cover the cost of rebuilding in compliance with current building regulations.
If triple glazed windows have to be fitted to comply with building regulations that is what will be fitted.
 
Ed054 said:
Thats not correct.The reinstatement costs will cover the cost of rebuilding in compliance with current building regulations.
If triple glazed windows have to be fitted to comply with building regulations that is what will be fitted.
Click to expand...
Except we arent talking about building regulations here. We are talking about an aspirational rebuild to a more energy efficient home.
 
It's not aspirational.You stated that you would create a betterment issue which is incorrect.You cannot reinstate to a pre loss condition-Where are you going to get two year old paint?
You cannot rebuild without complying to current building regulations and the fact that the OP would end up in a better position is irrelevant.
The OP's concern was that his sum insured would not be sufficient to rebuild taking into account building regs.
 
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