Hello 🙂
Our house burned down a few months ago. It had to be rebuilt down to the foundation walls. So far, so good.
The house was built in 1936 and is just a typical single-family home. Now we have received a complete restoration quote of over €350,000.
Roof, facade, insulation, masonry, windows, etc. Everything, basically. ^^
Now the question is, is this price justified? Our insurance agent was nearly shocked and can’t believe it costs this much. The masonry alone costs €70,000, which is more expensive than the roof.
So now the question is if this is a rip-off or if prices have simply risen this much nowadays.
Until now, we didn’t have any concerns because everyone said it was all fine and proceeding as expected. But now the insurance coverage is not enough, and everything is on hold for the time being. It’s not too bad because the fire department couldn’t extinguish the fire properly since no water came from the hydrant, and the city has to take responsibility for that (according to the police, it was not an isolated case, and we were advised to contact the city). This was even covered in the newspapers because of water pressure issues.
We actually wanted to avoid all this because now we’ll probably have to go to lawyers, and everything will take ages...
I just wanted to hear your opinion. So far, the project manager has handled everything, including finding the companies and so on. And now this...
Another question: is it even worth it, or would it be cheaper and easier to build a prefab house? Or to completely demolish everything and rebuild from scratch?
Or would that not be much better cost-wise either?
The house should be around 160m² (1722 sq ft), with bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, living room on the ground floor, and living/bedrooms upstairs. It should all cost around €250,000.
We have no experience with this kind of thing. We also heard that prefab houses can have many hidden costs.
Our insurance company is coming again on September 17th. So the question is in which direction we should go: rebuild or new build?
I hope someone can help us and maybe answer some of our questions... the whole thing has become a bit more complicated ^^
Our house burned down a few months ago. It had to be rebuilt down to the foundation walls. So far, so good.
The house was built in 1936 and is just a typical single-family home. Now we have received a complete restoration quote of over €350,000.
Roof, facade, insulation, masonry, windows, etc. Everything, basically. ^^
Now the question is, is this price justified? Our insurance agent was nearly shocked and can’t believe it costs this much. The masonry alone costs €70,000, which is more expensive than the roof.
So now the question is if this is a rip-off or if prices have simply risen this much nowadays.
Until now, we didn’t have any concerns because everyone said it was all fine and proceeding as expected. But now the insurance coverage is not enough, and everything is on hold for the time being. It’s not too bad because the fire department couldn’t extinguish the fire properly since no water came from the hydrant, and the city has to take responsibility for that (according to the police, it was not an isolated case, and we were advised to contact the city). This was even covered in the newspapers because of water pressure issues.
We actually wanted to avoid all this because now we’ll probably have to go to lawyers, and everything will take ages...
I just wanted to hear your opinion. So far, the project manager has handled everything, including finding the companies and so on. And now this...
Another question: is it even worth it, or would it be cheaper and easier to build a prefab house? Or to completely demolish everything and rebuild from scratch?
Or would that not be much better cost-wise either?
The house should be around 160m² (1722 sq ft), with bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, living room on the ground floor, and living/bedrooms upstairs. It should all cost around €250,000.
We have no experience with this kind of thing. We also heard that prefab houses can have many hidden costs.
Our insurance company is coming again on September 17th. So the question is in which direction we should go: rebuild or new build?
I hope someone can help us and maybe answer some of our questions... the whole thing has become a bit more complicated ^^
H
HilfeHilfe31 Aug 2018 21:02Snowy36 schrieb:
But the insurance company doesn't have to provide you with a house full of all kinds of modern technology if you previously lived in a house from 1936 with the standards of that time, right? They certainly won’t replace it with a newly built house with everything included...
If, for example, you heated your old house with a wood stove, you won’t suddenly get a heat pump. Or if you had an outdoor toilet, they probably won’t pay for a fancy, expensive indoor bathroom... I don’t know exactly how they calculate it, but I can’t imagine they would make you better off than before. No, definitely not. But of course, modern standards come at a price.
Snowy36 schrieb:
If you have been heating the cabin with a wood stove so far, you won’t get a heat pump now.Why not? A wood stove like the one you mean is no longer allowed under current regulations.
But I admit, I will have to check my insurance policy. Although I think I’m safe because of the sliding replacement value.
May I ask a quick follow-up question?
Should I take out an insurance policy based on the 1914 value with a fixed sum insured (a maximum limit) that naturally adjusts according to the construction cost index?
Or an insurance that only considers my square meters and rebuilds my house in the same size and condition without any sum limit?
Should I take out an insurance policy based on the 1914 value with a fixed sum insured (a maximum limit) that naturally adjusts according to the construction cost index?
Or an insurance that only considers my square meters and rebuilds my house in the same size and condition without any sum limit?
C
Christian9111 Sep 2018 00:31Exactly. There are legal regulations that must be followed, such as the energy saving ordinance and so on.
Structurally, everything has to be done differently because of the changes in load-bearing capacities and so forth.
The heating system is the only thing that remained okay...
The quotes must reflect the condition as it was or meet the legal requirements, and what is done with the money afterward doesn’t really concern the insurance.
Regarding the insurance, I would first need to get the documents from the insurer...
No one has really said much about underinsurance or anything like that, except that we don’t need to worry.
I think I’ll be able to say more about that later.
Even though the insurance seems relaxed about it, you still can’t help but worry.
As for the city, that will be a more difficult issue. But regarding the damage, they probably have no chance to get out of it since the fire started in the adjacent building first and only much later affected the main roof.
It’s already bad enough that the city has been aware of this for six years but simply has no funds to properly maintain the fire hydrants.
But thanks anyway for the responses. Maybe it’s also important for others to consider something like this regarding insurance...
Structurally, everything has to be done differently because of the changes in load-bearing capacities and so forth.
The heating system is the only thing that remained okay...
The quotes must reflect the condition as it was or meet the legal requirements, and what is done with the money afterward doesn’t really concern the insurance.
Regarding the insurance, I would first need to get the documents from the insurer...
No one has really said much about underinsurance or anything like that, except that we don’t need to worry.
I think I’ll be able to say more about that later.
Even though the insurance seems relaxed about it, you still can’t help but worry.
As for the city, that will be a more difficult issue. But regarding the damage, they probably have no chance to get out of it since the fire started in the adjacent building first and only much later affected the main roof.
It’s already bad enough that the city has been aware of this for six years but simply has no funds to properly maintain the fire hydrants.
But thanks anyway for the responses. Maybe it’s also important for others to consider something like this regarding insurance...