Building Insurance Valuations

Specialising in Strata Title Property

We value Residential, Commercial, Industrial and Retail Strata Title Properties for Insurance Purposes.

We provide Certificates of Value for the replacement cost of the buildings of the Strata Plan in order to comply with s85 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 1996 and Part 3 of the Regulation 2010. Our chief valuer has over 25 years experience including Expert Evidence in numerous Courts and due diligence on the largest property transactions in Australia to the smaller suburban cottage, amongst other things.

There are legal requirements to obtain Building Insurance Valuations from either a registered valuer or quantity surveyor. We have both Quantity Surveyors and Registered Valuers to provide these valuations for you. (Strata Schemes Management Act 1996, s85 - qualification of valuers, s82(6) - the manner of calculating the amount under an insurance damage policy, and s85 - frequency of valuations, each five years).

We are members of a Cover of Excellence® scheme under the Professional Standards Councils (NSW) and we carry $5,000,000 Professional Indemnity Insurance.

Although we have both valuers and quantity surveyors on staff we recommend that a Registered Valuer carries out your Building Insurance Valuation. Valuations can only be carried out by Registered Valuers.

If you are under-insured the insurance company may use the “co-insurance” or averaging clause of the Policy and may only pay a portion of the true replacement cost of the improvements. The short fall may have to be paid by the owner or the Strata Manager if found to be negligent by not getting an updated and current Building Insurance Valuation.

Be aware that building costs can increase significantly greater than CPI. For example, in 2004 concrete and steel costs rose by over 25%. There is a danger of simply applying a CPI or arbitrary increase without being familiar with the movement in construction costs. Use our service to determine an accurate and up to date Building Insurance Valuation for your sum insured and compliance with the legislation.

It is currently a statutory requirement for all Strata Schemes to obtain a valuation for insurance purposes by a Registered Valuer once every 5 years. Good strata managers recommend that a Building Insurance Valuation be obtained at least every 3 years and is some cases each year. This protects against potential loss from under-insurance. We consider that the best solution is to have an annual inspection by a Registered Valuer to ensure that your sum insured keeps up to date with the market changes in building costs.

When we receive your instructions we will,

We also take into account different cost factors such as location (in a more affluent area or less accessible area), different types of construction material, different finishes and the like.

Our Building Insurance Valuations comply with the Strata Schemes Management Act. Our report details the individual components that correctly make up a valid Building Insurance Valuation such as demolition costs, council and other professional fees, escalation in constructions costs, and gst, amongst other things.

We are specialists in this type of valuation work. In 2010 we assessed over $11 billion worth of property.