Why Should I Include BCIS?.
We have had a few enquiries lately about the BCIS and why it should be included in the HCS report, when it adds to the survey time.
The BCIS was included in the original Home Condition Report after consultation with consumer groups.
The benefit of the BCIS is making sure the buildings sum insured is correct. Many home insurance policies these days don’t use a BCIS calculation to arrive at the reinstatement cost, but instead a default sum for the type of property. This can lead to either paying a higher premium and being over insured or conversely the premiums not providing adequate cover. One of our surveyors relayed an experience of a client paying nearly £1000 per year for buildings cover, as the re-instatement sum insured was about 4 times the actual re-instatement cost calculated using the BCIS, by calculating the BCIS and informing the insurers the premium was drastically reduced. Cash buyer also find the BCIS useful for insurance purposes as they often do not get a valuation. As a property needs to be insured at the point of exchange, knowing the re-instatement costs can help when finding cover for the new home.
In addition to the benefits for the consumer, the BCIS forms part of the standard format of the Home Condition Survey. If you check the Terms and Conditions of Engagement and you’ll see the client is informed about BCIS and its exceptions in section 3.1. Up to date versions of this document can be found on Sava EDGE: home-condition-survey-documents
More information about how BCIS data supports reinstatement cost assessment can be found on the RICS website here.