If you own or manage commercial or residential property in Bournemouth, the figure your buildings are insured for carries real weight, and in a coastal town with a wealth of period, Victorian and converted property it is easily underestimated. Bressummer A.R.K. are RICS chartered building surveyors providing professional Reinstatement Cost Assessments (RCAs) to landlords, investors, asset managers, local authorities and block management companies across Bournemouth and the wider Dorset area. We help property owners insure accurately, avoid the serious risk of underinsurance, and keep their cover current year after year.

Why a Reinstatement Cost Assessment matters in Bournemouth

A Reinstatement Cost Assessment establishes the true cost of rebuilding a property from the ground up, including demolition, site clearance, professional fees and compliance with current building regulations. It is not the market value and not the price paid; it is the cost to reinstate the building if the worst happens. An inaccurate figure cuts both ways: underinsure, and your insurer can apply the principle of average, scaling down the settlement on even a partial claim in proportion to the shortfall; over insure, and you pay inflated premiums indefinitely.

Bournemouth makes accurate assessment especially important, because so much of its stock is period, Victorian or converted. The town’s many large Victorian and Edwardian buildings, former hotels and guest houses converted to offices, apartments or care use, and coastal properties all carry buildings that can cost far more to reinstate than a modern equivalent, requiring like-for-like materials and, in places, heritage-appropriate reinstatement. Coastal exposure adds further cost and complexity. Alongside these sit the town’s modern offices in the Lansdowne district, retail, and the substantial stock of residential blocks whose buildings insurance depends on an accurate RCA. With construction-cost inflation having moved sharply, a Bournemouth valuation set even a few years ago may now leave an owner significantly exposed.

How much does a Reinstatement Cost Assessment cost in Bournemouth?

We aim to be transparent with our cost of services and have produced a table showing the range of our fees below, depending on the size of the property.

If you have a number of properties then give us a call or contact us to get a bespoke quote for portfolio work – Contact Us

Property Size (sq ft) Estimated Fees 
Under 1,000 < £500
1,000 – 2,000 £500 – £750
2,000 – 5,000 £750 – £1,000
5,000 – 10,000 £1,000 – £1,500
10,000 – 50,000 £1,500 – £3,500
50,000 £3,500 +

All our fees are fully inclusive of travel, office and disbursement costs in order to carry out our services, with no ‘hidden extras’.

Check out our reinstatement cost assessment page for more information on how we can help – Reinstatement Cost Assessments

 

Commercial chartered building surveyor in Andover writing a report.

A comprehensive building reinstatement survey and report were completed in a timely, friendly and efficient manner - just as we had been expecting and promised. First class service.

A. Graham

It’s good to talk.

It’s important, in order for us to understand your requirements from the outset in order to give the best commercial building consultancy advice we can.

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RICS compliant assessments you can rely on

We prepare every Reinstatement Cost Assessment in accordance with the relevant RICS professional standard for reinstatement cost assessments of buildings. That compliance matters: it means our figures are produced to a recognised, defensible methodology that insurers, brokers, auditors and leaseholders will accept without question. For a Bournemouth landlord or managing agent, an RICS-compliant RCA is genuine protection, the evidence that your sum insured has been properly assessed by a qualified chartered surveyor rather than estimated or indexed from an outdated base. On the town’s tall Victorian and coastal buildings, our roof and high-level inspections use drone technology as standard and at no additional cost, allowing safe, accurate assessment where access would otherwise be slow and expensive.

Built for portfolios: initial assessment, then ongoing accuracy

Most of our RCA clients own or manage portfolios, and they need their insurance figures to stay right over time without commissioning expensive full surveys every year. That is exactly what our service is built around. We begin with an initial full Reinstatement Cost Assessment of each property, based on a physical inspection and detailed cost analysis. In the two intervening years we carry out annual desktop reviews, updating each assessment for changes in construction costs and indices so your sums insured keep pace with inflation.

Then, every three years, we carry out a full reassessment, revisiting the property to capture any alterations, refurbishments or changes and to reset the figures from a fresh baseline. This cycle, a full assessment followed by annual desktop reviews and a three-yearly full review, is the most cost-effective way for a Bournemouth portfolio owner to remain correctly insured. It spreads the cost, keeps every property current, and gives you a clear, auditable trail of professional valuations to hand to insurers and auditors.

Our three step cycle in line with RICS guidance and to ensure continued cover.

Our process to ensure accurate updates to your reinstatement cost assessment over the course of your ownership. All too often RCAs are updated by applying generic inflation rates and this can leave assets woefully underinsured. Our service provides a full review every third year along with annual desktop 'sense checks' in between. This is in line with the RICS's Professional Standards and general guidance.

Initial assessment

We will carry out a full blown reinstatement cost assessment as the starting point of our appointment which will include a full survey and inspection of the property, or properties.

A full report will be provided detailing out the full rebuild assessment and valuation along with the full methodology and workings to support the figured arrived at. You can then rely on this figure for obtaining the correct level of building insurance for your asset.

Annual Review

We will contact you a few weeks ahead of time to remind you that an annual review is due. This will be a quicker desktop assessment to review the figures and rates initially used against market indices and to discuss whether there have been any fundamental changes to the property over the year (i.e: extension or upgraded building services) that would materially effect the assessment. An updated report is then issued based off this desktop assessment and discussion.

Three yearly reassessment

On the three year anniversary of the original assessment we will reinspect the premises and carry out another full assessment to ensure the reinstatement cost is kept up to date.

Featured Case Studies

Who we help in Bournemouth

Our Reinstatement Cost Assessment service is designed for those responsible for multiple properties, or for buildings where getting the figure right carries real weight, as Bournemouth’s period and converted stock so often does. We regularly act for property investors and landlords with commercial or residential portfolios; commercial asset management companies responsible for insuring managed buildings on behalf of owners; residential block management companies and their freeholder clients, where an accurate RCA underpins the buildings insurance every leaseholder relies on; and local authorities and public-sector bodies with diverse property holdings. Whatever the size of your portfolio, you receive senior, chartered attention and a service tailored to how you actually manage your assets.

Why Bournemouth portfolio owners choose us

We combine genuine technical expertise, including with the period and coastal buildings Bournemouth is known for, with a refreshingly straightforward, personable approach. Every client is allocated a chartered building surveyor, our assessments are fully RICS-compliant, and we make portfolio programmes genuinely easy to run, coordinating inspections, reviews and reporting across multiple properties so you have one trusted adviser keeping your entire portfolio correctly insured. We have advised on over 500,000 square feet of commercial space and saved clients more than one million pounds across our consultancy work, and we bring that same senior expertise to every assessment, large or small.

What our Bournemouth Reinstatement Cost Assessment includes

A professional RCA is far more than a single headline number, and on Bournemouth’s period and converted buildings the detail particularly matters. For each property we assess the full rebuilding cost, including demolition and site clearance after a total loss, debris removal, and reconstruction to current building regulations, while allowing, on period and Victorian buildings, for like-for-like materials and any specialist reinstatement required. We include professional and design fees, allow for the access and logistics challenges of coastal and multi-storey buildings, and account for features such as basements, plant and distinctive period elements. The result is a clear, documented assessment that sets out how the figure has been reached, giving you, your broker, your insurer and your leaseholders full confidence in the sum insured.

The real cost of getting the figure wrong

It is worth being concrete about why this matters. Imagine a Bournemouth converted office building insured for eight hundred thousand pounds when the true reinstatement cost is one point two million. A fire causes two hundred thousand pounds of damage. Because the building is insured for only two-thirds of its true value, the insurer applies average and pays just two-thirds of the claim, around one hundred and thirty thousand pounds, leaving the owner some seventy thousand pounds short. On period and converted buildings, where reinstatement costs are routinely higher than owners expect, this kind of shortfall is especially common, and especially painful. A properly reasoned RCA removes the risk.

Chartered building surveyor in Andover inspecting a commercial property.

A comprehensive building reinstatement survey and report were completed in a timely, friendly and efficient manner - just as we had been expecting and promised. First class service.

A. Graham

Featured FAQs

  • What is the difference between reinstatement cost and market value?

    Market value reflects what a property would sell for, including land and location. Reinstatement cost is the cost to rebuild it, including demolition, debris removal, professional fees and building regulations compliance. In a coastal town like Bournemouth, the two can differ considerably.

  • Do period and converted buildings need a specialist assessment?

    Yes. Period, Victorian and converted buildings can be considerably more expensive to reinstate because of traditional materials, specialist work and, sometimes, heritage requirements, and a standard or indexed figure frequently understates this. We assess them on their specific characteristics.

  • How often should the figure be reviewed?

    We recommend a full assessment at the outset, annual desktop reviews in between to track construction inflation, and a full reassessment every three years, which is exactly how our standard programme works.

  • Do you cover Bournemouth and the wider Dorset area?

    Yes. We act across Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch and throughout Dorset, within comfortable reach from our base near Winchester.

Two chartered building surveys discussing an RCA survey.

Speak to a Bournemouth Reinstatement Cost Assessment surveyor

If you own or manage property in Bournemouth and want certainty that your sums insured are accurate and RICS-compliant, it is good to talk. You will deal directly with a chartered building surveyor, and get a service built for portfolios. Call us, email us, or book a consultation.

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