Your home sum insured is the most we’ll pay to rebuild or repair your home if it gets damaged or destroyed, excluding any special features.
Driveways, swimming pools or retaining walls up to $50,000
Building materials, labour, demolition
Compliance, professional fees and GST
The rateable value of your property provided by your council
The purchase price of your home
The market value or land value
Inclusive of special features (like jetties, bridges over $15,000 and cable cars) unless you add extra cover to your policy
If your home is damaged or destroyed by fire or explosion, replacement cover can help ease the uncertainty at claim time, as it covers the cost to repair or rebuild your home up to the same floor area, even if the total cost is more than your home sum insured.
To qualify for replacement cover, use the Cordell Sum Sure calculator to help you choose a sum insured that’s equal to or greater than the estimate for your home. If you need more information on replacement cover, call us on 0800 100 200.
There are limits on some items with our home insurance policies. For instance, retaining walls are covered up to a limit of $50,000, but if yours are worth more, you can list them on your policy as a special feature with their own sum insured amount. Certain features, like cable cars or jetties, won't be insured unless listed on your policy with a separate special feature sum insured amount.
You'll need to let us know the rebuild value of your home without its special features and the value of those features to ensure you have enough cover for both.
Your total sum insured is made up of your home sum insured, plus the sum insured for any special features you buy cover for.
The Cordell Sum Sure calculator makes it easier to work out your home or rental home sum insured. This is based on things like building materials, labour, professional fees, demolition, and GST.
The calculator is a guide only and doesn’t replace a professional valuation or quantity surveyor estimate. It’s important that you make your own decision on the sum insured amount you choose, and it’s up to you to ensure it’s correct.
If you need to arrange cover for your home, we’re here to help. You can get a home insurance quote online or by calling us on 0800 100 200, and to help work out your sum insured amount, use the Cordell Sum Sure calculator.
If you’ve got home insurance with us, it’s a good idea to regularly review your sums insured to make sure you have the right amount of cover and avoid being underinsured.
When your policy is due for renewal, we’ll let you know. We may also adjust your sums insured for rising costs, but if you’ve made improvements to your property, it won’t include these. You know your home best, and it’s up to you to choose the right sums insured that adequately covers your home and any special features.
The cost to rebuild a home can greatly vary from the cost of buying one. For this reason, we don’t recommend using the purchase price or market value to work out your sums insured. If you built a house recently, you could use the build cost, but make sure to factor in things like demolition and inflation. The Cordell Sum Sure calculator is an independent tool that can help you work out the total rebuild cost.
