Your insurance company only does an estimate of rebuild cost based on current market prices by square footage. The insurance replacement estimate may or may not be entirely accurate depending on factors such as Build grade and finishing option's.
Homeowners Insurance, Replacement Value Verses Actual Cash ValueIt really depends on your situation.If you have a newer home, then ACV is probably fine for you and will save you a little money. Your recent purchase price or Market value is much higher than the cost of building your home. A builder would not typically build the house and then sell it to you for less money than it cost him to build it.If the home is an older home or has depreciated to the extent that it would cost more to build than it is currently valued. Then you should choose a homeowners policy with replacement cost.
No, insureable value or 'stated amount' is the MAXIMUM that will be paid for that item. replacement cost is the amount it will cost to actually replace the item.
You should only have coverage on your homeowners insurance policy to cover the REPLACEMENT COST of the house. Market value incudes inflation as well as the land. These items are not covered in the policy.AnswerWe own two houses, one in a small town in western Kansas and the other in a small city in central Kansas. If they were both in the same location, they would probably be valued approximately equally, but in the small town that would be $45 - 50 thousand while in the city either would bring almost twice as much. However, the insurance on each is about $75 thousand, which is the insurance company's estimated cost to rebuild a similar home. Yes you should increase your your insurance coverage for replacement value at least. Some policies have platinum policies which are 110% of replacement value. The coverage is for the physical home. Most homeowners insurance policies include an escalation clause that will increase the coverage on your home periodically. This will occur due to rising supply building costs as well as labor. Both contribute to home costs that must be considered.
In a word... Co-insurance penalty. Not every property insurance policy has a co-insurance clause, but most do, and it is one of the least explained but potentially most important things policy holders should understand. The co-insurance clause is represented by a percentage - 80% or 90% are common. This percentage represents the amount of coverage you are required to carry in relation to the replacement cost of the property insured. For instance, if have a warehouse of stock worth $1,000,000 and a property insurance policy with an 80% co-insurance clause, you would need $800,000 of coverage to be compliant. The co-insurance clause only becomes relavant at the time a loss occurs. At that point the insurance adjuster must determine if you adequately insured, to the co-insurance requirement. The formula to determine co-insurance is as follows: Coverage Carried / Coverage Required x Amount of Loss For example, suppose you had an inventory worth $1M and only carried $500k of insurance, with a 90% co-insurance requirement. You have a devastating fire and suffer a loss to half your inventory. Co-insurance would work like this: 500,000 / 900,000 x 250,000 = 138,889 The $138,889 is the amount your insurance company is obligated to pay you. Does seem like craziness? You paid for $500,000 of coverage any only got $138,000? Let me further explain.... Believe it or not, the purpose of co-insurance is to keep things fair for the insurance company. Most consumers and business owners know that the odds of them ever having total loss - that is the entire sum of their property destoyed - is extremely low. Many insured only want to buy enough coverage for what they perceive is their average potential claim. The problem is, they also want the policy to provide coverage on a replacement cost basis. Insurance companies, for their part want to insure the property for its entire replacement cost - for real estate this is the cost to rebuild the structure; for stock or personal property it is the cost to replace old with new. The purpose of property insurance is to protect the policy holder from the possibility of a complete and total loss. Co-insurance is an in-elegant way of forcing policy holders to insure their stuff for its full replacement value in the event of that total loss occuring. Now, what if you don't want to insure your stuff for replacement value? No problem, just buy a policy that pays on actual cash value basis. Or, find a policy with no co-insurance clause built in (expect to pay more). Or, use something called "blanket" insurance to eliminate the possibity of a co-insurance penalty. Don't let all this scare you though. In the real world of claims adjusting, co-insurance doesn't come up all that often. Policies often have clauses built in to accomodate seasonal fluctations of inventory values. Buildings are typically inspected to determine an estimated replacement cost. However, as the policy holder it is still your responsibility to ensure the policy coverage limit is appropriate to prevent a co-insurance penalty.
Renter's insurance Renter's insurance
HOAIt means our policy is based on actual value rather than replacement cost. It means that the insurance company is not guaranteeing you the replacement of your home if it burns down. For example, your insurance policy limit is $200,000, but the cost of replacing your home is $210,000, if you had a replacement policy, the insurance would pay for the replacement of your home despite the fact that your insurance limit is only $200,000. However, the insured value at the time of the loss is usually required to be at least 80% of the replacement cost before your policy is covered on a replacement cost basis.
Yes.
Insurance companies ONLY pay for Replacement value when you have paid for an additional endorsement to insure your car for its "replacement" value. Otherwise, they pay Actual Cash Value, using blue books, fair market prices, your car's condition, i.e miles, etc, all of it is a factor to determine actual cash value, etc.
I heard that Metropoliton insurance was starting to offer this. Has any one else heard this?
Renter's insurance Renter's insurance
Yes, but generally at Actual cash value (either market value or replacement cost minus depreciation) instead of replacement cost. However, the insurance company will generally pay to reconstruct at another location.
It would normally be part of the comprehensive coverage.
Insurance companies usually use the property tax value when estimating a propertys value. Insurance estimating software will help them in the even of a loss to estimate the replacement costs.
Insurance Companies do not generally insure market value when it comes to personal property lines. Market Valuated Insurance policies are most often found in Commercial Insurance Lines, they require a more complicated rating system which may need to take into account current and or future markets conditions. These variables make Market Valuated Insurance Lines much higher risk. Insurance company personal line policies are designed to protect the insured's "Actual Value" or "Replacement Value", Not the "Market Value". Insurance contracts are designed to "Indemnify" the claimant after a covered loss, not to enrich them. an Enrichment approach to an insurance contract fosters insurance fraud. Under most current Insurance statutes in the United States any enrichment of a claimant beyond legitimate losses could be construed as fraud. Market Values are indefinite, they fluctuate with supply and demand as well as all other economic and emotonal factors, Market values can change daily or even hourly making it difficult to quantify a risk. Actual Value and Replacement Value do not suffer these problems. and actual or replacement value should be comensurate with you property investment or you may be over paying, Unless of course you are a speculator. Actual Value can be more or less than the Market Value, due to the wide swings in the market. Actual Value and Replacement Value prove to be a steady and reliable method of providing indemnification.
The Insurance Companies use ACV or Actual Cash Market Value. The ACV for any private passenger vehicle can be found at Kelly Blue Book.
There is no such thing as "replacement cost" for auto insurance. Values are actual cash value - most similar to a trade allowance. However, insurance companies use different means to evaluate vehicles, so it may vary a bit.