AA calculator estimates rebuilding costs

AA INSURANCE has released its sum-insured online calculator to help homeowners work out how much it would cost to rebuild their home.

The country’s insurers are switching from ‘‘open-ended’’ insurance where people are covered for the rebuild of their home regardless of the cost, to sum-insured where they tell the insurer what it will cost to rebuild their home and that becomes the maximum they can be paid in a claim.

The AA Insurance calculator has been created by Australian company Cordell, which provides similar calculators for many of the big Australian insurers.

Users plug in details of their homes, including the location, the numbers of rooms of different types and the floor size, and the calculator generates an estimate of the cost of rebuilding.

The simpler the home, the easier it is to use the calculator, but insurers’ call centres will be there to answer any questions.

When homes are more complex, perhaps having been built in several stages through modern additions to an older home, things can be more complicated.

In some cases, people may feel the need to pay a professional quantity surveyor to provide them with an opinion against which they can judge the estimate produced by a calculator like that of AA Insurance.

AA Insurance chief executive Suzanne Wolton said she had just completed the building of a house and the calculator was ‘‘on the money’’ with its estimate.

But beware: the risk of getting it wrong lies firmly with the homeowner, which could lead to people deciding to err on overinsuring their homes.

The calculator has a legal disclaimer, which cautions that the number it produces is an estimate only, and it does not ‘‘constitute a recommendation or opinion in relation to taking out or replacing an insurance policy’’.

‘‘While every effort has been made to ensure that the information is accurate, AA Insurance, Automobile Association and Cordell accept no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in, or results derived from, or any reliance you place on, the calculator,’’ it says.