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A Rebuilding Cost Assessment is often called an Insurance Valuation, and is a calculation of how much it would cost to rebuild a property after total destruction, or damage, warranting a claim under a Buildings Insurance policy.
A Rebuilding Cost Assessment is the basis adopted by the Insurance Industry, from which the annual premium is calculated, by them, based upon the ammount of the assessment, and of the risks presented by the constructional techniques used in the building fabric, the location of the property (is it in a flood, or mining risk area, for example).
It is very important that the true Rebuilding Cost is assessed professionally as, if the rebuilding cost figure presented to them is less than it should be, or indeed greater than it should be, any payment arising from a claim might be questioned, reduced, or refuted completely.
A properly undertaken Rebuilding Cost Assessment requires detailed measurement of all aspects of the building itself, floor area, storey height etc., aspects of the materials, and techniques used within the structures, an assessment of external elements such as garages, outbuildings, driveways, patio areas, lengths of boundaries and their materials, length of drainage systems and much else besides. This would therefore usually require an inspection of the property, to allow the relevant data to be gathered.