Insurance Valuations
For an accurate insurance valuation of your property contact CSA Valuers. We provide valuations for both body corporates and residential houses. Our insurance valuations are based on replacement value as opposed to market value. These home valuations provide an independent assessment of the replacement value of your house to assist with insuring your property so you can avoid being over or under insured.
Insurance valuation process
To carry out insurance valuations our valuers perform an internal inspection of the property to get accurate measurements for building cost indicators. We can then use these indicators to calculate your valuation per square metre for the various parts of the dwelling. This is necessary because (as an example) the living area will have a different cost to the garage or covered patio.
Professional insurance valuations include some aspects you may not have considered previously. These include coverage for demolition and removal of debris, an amount to cover professional fees such as architects, engineers and builders and an amount for contingency or cost escalation (basically this covers increases in building costs between date of disaster and date of construction).
Our insurance valuation reports also include GST.
Why have an insurance valuation?
A property valuation carried out by an expert valuer ensures you are paying the correct amount for insurance. It’s better to be over insured rather than under insured but also, value accuracy is necessary to avoid paying excess premiums.
You should be aware that an insurer only pays the cost of replacement and can penalise you for being underinsured so if you then make a claim they might only pay 80% of the claim. Whilst your premiums may end up lower, in the event of a disaster that saving may pale to insignificance.
Peace of mind comes from expert advice.
A question we are asked often:
Is it better to be over or under insured?
It’s definitely better to be over rather than under insured however there is no point paying excess premiums to insurance companies – it’s just not good financial sense.
Here’s an example relating to a valuation for insurance purposes on a residential home.
Mary has her house insured for $600k believing that it’s better to be over insured. However, the true replacement value of her place may be only $500k. What happens in the event of total loss? The insurance company won’t rebuild Mary’s home for $400k and give her $100k change.
Underinsuring is another reason a valuation is a good idea as insurance companies can penalise home owners if they have been underinsured in the past.
When comparing the price of a valuation against the gains made from these scenarios ‘how much is a valuation?’ is the wrong question.
In some cases spending as little as $400 could save or make you thousands.
But also remember the peace of mind that comes from a professional valuation is … priceless.
Find out what a property valuation will cost for your insurance valuation
If you would like to obtain a quote for property valuation or order a valuation, please fill out the form below and we will contact you directly. If you would rather chat please call (07) 3865 6574. NOTE: Information is kept strictly confidential and we do not visit your property without speaking to you first.