What a rebuild sum has to cover

• Demolition and site clearance costs money in their own right, and a rebuild sum needs to allow for clearing debris and making the site safe before any new construction can start.
• Professional fees for architects, engineers and project managers are usually payable on a rebuild and should be included alongside the construction cost itself.
• Building regulations and planning requirements can mean a replacement building has to meet current standards that did not apply when the original was put up, which can add to the cost.
• Services such as power, water, drainage and telecommunications connections often need to be reinstated or upgraded as part of a rebuild, and this work has a cost of its own.
• Fixed equipment that is part of the structure, such as grain handling gear, livestock fittings or fixed machinery mountings, needs to be accounted for alongside the building fabric.
• Inflation during the rebuild period matters because construction costs can rise between the date a policy is arranged and the date the work is actually carried out, so a sum insured set today needs headroom for that.

Questions to ask a broker or surveyor

1. Does the rebuild figure you have given me include demolition, site clearance and professional fees, or are those extra?
2. Has the rebuild cost been checked against current construction costs for this type of building, or is it based on an older valuation?
3. Does the sum insured include an allowance for inflation while the building is being rebuilt, and how is that allowance worked out?

Building details checker

Choose a building type and enter its length and width to see the floor area. You can also type in a sum insured if you have one, purely so the page can explain how average works when a sum insured is too low. Nothing you enter here is sent anywhere, and no cost, rate or price is calculated.