Building Valuations

Helping you build a better business

During a hard market, insurers are less flexible and more selective on the risks they are willing to accept. At Howden, we’ll help you articulate and showcase a risk’s best features and focus on areas that concern underwriters the most.

Our services provide cost-effective solutions that help visualise risks to insurers, as well as provide all the information an underwriter needs to put forward the best terms possible.

Building Valuations

A fundamental part of running a business is protecting its assets and when it comes to insurance, it’s important that buildings are correctly valued. Despite being very common, the consequences of having inadequate insurance cover can be severe, affecting businesses of all sizes and sectors.

We offer two building insurance rebuild valuation services to support your asset management and ensure your building is valued correctly.

With commercial building costs in Ireland continuing to soar, it is possible that your current property or buildings sum insured may no longer be adequate.

Research has shown that almost 80% of buildings insured would not receive sufficient funds to reinstate if there was an insurance loss [1] and that 77% of buildings valued or surveyed were incorrectly insured [2]. Of those, the average increase required was 36%.

If a property is underinsured, the insurer is likely to apply the Condition of Average clause, whereby the amount of the claim is reduced proportionally to the value of underinsurance. It’s also possible that the insurer may be entitled to void the policy if it appears that the risk was unfairly presented.

We highly recommend that valuations are carried out every 12 months and offer two building insurance rebuild valuation services to support your asset management and ensure they are valued correctly.

building on blue sky

E-valuations

An e-valuation is a fast and affordable desk-based method for establishing an accurate rebuild value. 
This virtual Reinstatement Cost Assessment (RCA) allows you to save at least 80% of the cost, compared to a site-based RCA.

E-valuations are created to calculate rebuild costs, estimating the true reinstatement sum insured within 10% accuracy of a surveyor undertaking a full survey. They’re delivered within 72 hours of instruction and are based on:

  • Access
  • Digital planning data
  • Information provided by you
  • Latest digital mapping data
  • Location

This service is supported by some major insurers for average waiver guarantee.

Cost €120 + VAT

This desktop e-valuation is intended for any client who has not had their buildings professionally valued in the last 12 months. Designed for single buildings only, the maximum Building Declared Value must not exceed €5m for commercial property and €2m for residential property.

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On-site surveys

This traditional ‘boots on the ground’ professional building insurance evaluation has been created to establish the correct building reinstatement sum insured. It’s supported by major insurers for average waiver guarantee.

To find out more about this service and the impact of being underinsured, simply get in touch with the team.

This traditional ‘boots on the ground’ professional building insurance evaluation has been created to establish the correct building reinstatement sum insured. It’s supported by major insurers for average waiver guarantee.

An on-site survey of your property is conducted and a Reinstatement Cost Assessment report will be provided to use as guidance when setting the sums insured for your property.

Suitable for properties with reinstatement costs over €5m and for more complex cases where a desk-based approach is not viable.

  • Has a professional reinstatement assessment been carried out in the last 12 months? Covid-19 has had a dramatic impact on the cost of building materials.
  • Does the building have extensive external features such as yards, car parks or gardens?
  • Has the building recently been altered or extended?
  • Has the property been built with new eco-friendly features or designs?
  • Have changing building regulations been accounted for?
  • Is the location of the premises difficult to access (town centres, terraced buildings)?
  • Is the market value being used as the reinstatement value?
  • Is the property listed?
  • What is the age of the property? Older buildings often cost more to rebuild.

[1] Latest figures released by the Society of Chartered Surveyors.

[2] Statistics from research conducted by chartered surveyor Barrett Corp & Harrington.

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