IRISH HOMEOWNERS MAY be paying too much for their home insurance.

According to the Buildcost home insurance survey, only 1 in 10 homeowners  had a professional reinstatement valuation carried out on their home, which shows there are discrepancies about the level of insurance paid to cover reinstatement or rebuilding costs.

The survey also found that 74 per cent of homeowners surveyed feel they are adequately or over insured and that 9 in every 10 homeowners either “don’t know” how the reinstatement valuation cost is calculated or have “self-calculated” the reinstatement valuation costs of their home.

Over the past 12 months, Buildcost carried out a number of professional reinstatements on commercial properties which showed that many clients had not reviewed the reinstatement costs of their property, in some cases, for up to 10 years. They found that the majority of the properties  were over insured, because valuations were calculated at a time when construction and re-building costs were on the rise or when tender rates were at their peak.

Since construction tender prices have fallen by 31 per cent since 2007 to the first half of 2012, Jason Tully of Buildcost believe the average saving on an insurance premium could be anywhere between €43 and €133. “These figures are significant, especially if the home has been over insured for 5 years or longer,” he added.

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