'Gap insurance' for classics?

As I wrote previously, two of the most common forms of insurance - house buildings and contents - do precisely that. One can even argue that insuring against a person's death is a third example.

Can you quote a house insurance policy which allows the insurer to "write off" a house, and say to the owner "Buy yourself another one, and we'll keep the land"

I think it was pointed out to you that house insurance covers rebuilding costs precisely because they are LESS than the market value. No insurance company is going to buy the house next door for =A3300k when they could rebuild on the smoking ashes for =A3100k. Otherwise precisely the same opportunity for fraud exists: I burn my house down, get the house next door bought, sell it, rebuild my own house and laugh all the way to the bank with =A3200k.

An equivalent goes for contents as well: you don't get some arbitrary value of your own, but a market value. You can agree that it's the market value of a new replacement ("new for old"), but that's as far as it goes.

No. Precisely.

Ian

The message from Ian contains these words:

Don't be absurd.

Rebuilding costs have frequently been in excess of the open market value of the property. Insurance companies protect themselves by not offering a write-off option and no doubt rook their customers by insisting that they will only pay out to build a house to the original specification and require the captive customer to pay the extra knowing full well that building regulations would require a house rebuilt to a higher standard unless it was very new.

And new for old contents insurance is now so common it must be difficult to actually get the old fashioned 'subject to average' type insurance.

Thank you for that answer. It would have saved fifty-odd posts if that could have been the *initial* response, but hey, it was an interesting thread anyway. Thank you also for agreeing it was a reasonable question, despite the posts earlier in the thread that suggested it was a stupid one and that I obviously knew nothing about insurance, or classics.

I still think that a subtle difference exists between the question in my mind and the question in the minds of those who replied - I'm NOT looking for my insurance company to pay out more than the GV, but was instead looking to pay MORE MONEY for an ADDITIONAL policy on top of that. Still, as we've all agreed now, it isn't available. Shame, but thems the breaks

Phileaus Leaius gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

The question is reasonable. The same answer - "No, you can't" - was given in the first handful of responses.

Everything since then has been an expansion as to why it's a stupid _idea_

In some special cases that may happen. In general, however, and for very obvious reasons, it costs more to buy a house than it does simply to build it.

In exactly the same way that the OP's insurance company is reluctant to allow him to insure to have every bump, ding and shiny bit he has put in over the years recreated at their expense.

Indeed. It's still a market value, though.

Ian

The best route is to push hard at agreed value time. I know of one super-concours (think autistic levels of anal retention) Citroen DS which is insured at an agreed value of =A380,000. That's four times more than you'd pay for a superb one ...

Ian

Ian gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

True, but I know he's turned down unsolicited offers of close to that in the past.

The message

from Ian contains these words:

Which is absurd and saying so in not personal abuse.

It might have been getting that way in the recent past but historically total rebuilds (which of course include the cost of clearing the site) for houses would often exceed the the OMV of the property before total destruction. Even today outside the property hotspots like London the value of the land is a relatively small proportion of the typical house.

And you have to insure at a realistic rebuild cost otherwise you will get crucified on a partial loss which is far more common than a total rebuild event.

I suspect that the real reason for not finding such a policy is that the demand for it is so small that the insurance company can't rely on statistics to predict the extent of claims and with such a small potential market can't be bothered to even quote an inflated premium to cover the lack of predictability.

It is difficult to see how getting a new piece of kit costing £1000 to replace something several years old and worth say £500 has anything much to do with the market value of the original piece.

Up here - rural south west Scotland - building plots cost about 40% of the value of the house. And there are - or were - still a LOT of builders making a LOT of money by putting up houses. Which they wouldn't, if building costs were more than the market value.

Last time I checked, I was insured for unlimited rebuilding costs.

That, too. Plus the excess amounts will vary wildy. The chap who does bodywork for me is doing a Mini Cooper (proper) for a local landowner. He has already spent over twenty five thousand on bodywork ...

It's the market value of the new piece. As I pointed out initially, and reiterated with "a market value" above.

Ian

You know it then? I heard a Well Known Citroen Nut say that he's helped the guy prepare it for a contest and had found - shock, horror

- some dried traces of polish in the corners of the part numbers moulded into the rear lenses. At which point I realised that concours at that level is not a hobby. It's a mental illness, pretty closely related to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Seriously.

Ian

Ian gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

It's taken you this long to realise that?

I hadn't realised just quite how ludicrous it gets. When you're down to traces of polish in 3mm high letters it any sensible - ie non mentally ill - person would say "Fuck it. It's perfect. Ten out of ten. You can share the prize and KEEP YOUR HANDS ON THE TABLE WHERE I CAN SEE THEM."

Ian

theres no such thing as gap insurance for classics, you obviously dont understand what gap insurance actually is?