How much is your house worth?

Conversely, with bulk discounts and other ways in which insurance companies manage to worm out of paying up, what happens if we over-insure? Do we get a refund, or the balance paid out in the form of reduced or waived excess? A prudent investor or property owner would add an extra $50k to the value, just to protect themselves from the reported inflationary factors and production stresses already mentioned. But this could easily result in a 25-30% premium increase for the insurance companies with no actual increase in risk. An alternative may be where consumers can purchase an indemnity type insurance that could cover any loss due to under insurance on the day. The insurance companies knew what they were in for - that is the job of the bean counters. If they paid more attention to the risks that they already knew of (liquefaction, fault lines, ground structure, marshlands and other risk factor research etc) instead of trying to increase premium income, they would not be in this situation. Much of the information that has been made public was already public 30 years ago, and some as early as 1900 (liquefaction in Kaiapoi and the recommendation that building not be continued in that area, as an example). Sour Grapes - HELL YES! I have been waiting over 2 years to have my house fixed, yet if I had missed ONE premium, the insurance company would have been on my tail like a greyhound on a hare! It is about time the insurance companies stood up and accepted the risk, the same way they happily accepted our premiums without due diligence! Or am I totally wrong?

From what I hear, if your house burns down, it is relacement. Best probably to have a house in Chch as we had our big one!

Dont forget to add in demolition costs as well. This comes out of the agreed value.