2008, 2009 and now 2010 – if you haven’t already noticed, then it is becoming more and more obvious that the recession has absolutely shot to pieces the high property valuations that we saw in 2007.
Property prices were the hot topic, how much had yours grown in the past month! Anyone with any sense, or a memory of previous crashes, knew that it was not going to last, but nobody quite believed it would be such a sustained growth.
But, as with businesses, the bigger they are the harder they fall and boy, property prices, particularly commercial, where big, big, big. As property prices increased so did the rebuilding costs, which is a major factor in any commercial property insurance policy.
If you don’t insure for the correct building sum insured then, you could lose out in the event of a loss. You can over insure, but under insure and you are penalised.
In 2010 though, we are seeing something unprecedented in the business building insurance market. 0% index linking has arrived and it looks like it will stay for a few months. Now though is a good time to review the amounts you are insured for. Not, to reduce them but, shock, horror to may be increase them. We are still finding many policyholders with sums insured that are inadequate, but with the property market still being in the doldrums, now is the best time to get a professional survey undertaken because the costs will never be so low.
It may cost a few hundred pounds (for an independent survey) but you really should, at least every five years, get an independent valuation.