Buildings Insurance

Most domestic house insurance policies require that the sum assured is the full rebuilding cost of the property. It is the responsibility of the insured to get this figure right and to keep it up to date. Domestic buildings insurance policies are generally index linked and the House Rebuilding Cost Index is widely used for index linking the sum insured between annual revisions of the policy.

The index is also used for updating the sum insured from one year to the next as the policy is renewed, but BCIS (Building Cost Information Service) recommends that the rebuilding cost is checked regularly (at least every five years), rather than relying on index linking over long periods. The index is based on an average of house types. Therefore it cannot exactly reflect changes in all rates from the house rebuilding cost tables as regional trends, labour and materials contents differ.

 BCIS calculates the House Rebuilding Cost Index for the Association of British Insurers (ABI).