We are having to change brokers for home and contents insurance and the new ones are making a big job of it.

My Home Buyers Survey from March 2014 has an estimated reinstatement cost included.
Is there a simple uplift figure I can apply to the 2014 cost to give todays reinstatement cost?

How does the ‘quality level’ of fixtures and fittings get factored into that figure?

Seems a simple enough equation to me just don’t understand why a broker is unable to arrive at a figure or that I am expected to come up with a figure for them. (And breath)

Is there something funny about your house that means you need to use a broker? If not, sack them off and just do a normal search

I had that from my broker at the last renewal. My thought was that it was just a money making scheme. Sure it’s bad news if you’re under insured but I just searched the web for a free estimator tool rather than pay their surveyor.

They are asking you to define the value so that if you have a problem and the bill is over that limit then you pick up that piece. Most insurers do something similar using blanket values as opposed to them saying yes to covering all bills.

Unless you have a fire, or a gas explosion, a total loss is not a scenario that will ever manifest itself. Even horrible flood damage or a major windstorm removing your roof will not exceed that “limit”.

Unless you live in a very special building just use another insurer

Use the same calculator the insurers do: https://abi.bcis.co.uk/calculator/calculator.aspx

As above, total loss is a rarity, unless your living on the edge of a cliff, next to a tnt factory or 3m below a big river I can’t see the drama. How do “brokers” justify their costs in these days of comparison sites?

It’s not about exceeding the limit necessarily. It’s about underinsurance and what that means is when you have a large loss and the insurer discovers you are underinsured, they may reduce the amount of the claim in proportion to the amount you’re underinsured by.

Me? I’m on a ceiling policy because it’s easier to find and buy for a boggo house. They aren’t perfect though!

I think they’ll pay out to the policy limit (minus your policy excess). The more underinsured you are the more it actually favours them in terms of a large loss.I’m not convinced they’d pro-rate your claim as some kind of punitive measure in the age of social media (probably would have in the past).
Having sad all of that, being insurers they’ll do their very best not to pay anything. Claim repudiation is a big thing within the industry. Theoretically they could even say that your insurance was void if you were way off with the estimated rebuild costs because it could look fraudulent in their eyes.

This is where brokers can be a menace as they usually offer a service without advice (or wash their hands of any blame should bad things happen).

Avoid using BCIS if you can. I’ve seen silly low re-build values that bear no resemblance to real life.
I always go for unlimited or at least twice the market value of the house. Remember the re-build cost has to include for clearing the site and professional/local authority fee’s if you need a total rebuild.
Also if you are under-insured and the claim is substantial the Loss Adjuster will apply an average based on the amount your are under-insured by.