With building costs on the move it is important to consider the type of house insurance you actually have.
After the earthquakes in Christchurch the insurance companies made some big changes to how they covered rebuild costs. Prior to this most insurance would cover you for whatever it would cost to rebuild. Now days most house insurance policies have a cover which is at agreed levels, meaning the actual payout might be capped below the market rebuild costs. There are some companies which have moved to providing full replacement cover (old type) under certain circumstances such as fire. So it pays to check your level of cover.
How much cover should I have?
This is a moving target, there are online tools which try and estimate todays rebuild costs. You can also get a rebuild valuation done or talk to a trusted builder. It might pay to over insure a little in times of inflation and diary to review things once a year.
