The loss
A commercial unit on an industrial park in east London, destroyed by fire. Total losses are where an insurance claim stops being a paperwork exercise and becomes a construction project: the building must come down safely, the site must be understood, the neighbours’ rights must be dealt with, and the reinstatement must be designed, priced, procured and delivered, all inside the claim.
The brief
Acting in the claim, Avalon’s job was to turn a destroyed building back into a working asset with every step evidenced for the insurance process: costs broken down and justified, works competitively procured, and the statutory and neighbourly obligations of demolition and rebuilding discharged properly.
What we did
- Demolition under contractA full specification of demolition works, let under a JCT Minor Works contract.
- Ground investigatedFoundation investigations informed the reinstatement design rather than being discovered mid-build.
- Neighbours’ rightsThe party wall process run alongside the construction work.
- Specialist inputEnvironmental advice commissioned where the site required it.
- Reinstatement deliveredDesigned, costed, tendered and administered, with CDM duties carried, meetings minuted and the account managed to completion.
The RICS standard
A total loss is also the moment a sum insured is tested. The RICS professional standard Reinstatement cost assessment of buildings sets out how the rebuilding cost should be assessed; where the sum insured falls short, most policies reduce the claim in proportion.
Insurance reinstatement fails in the gaps between advisers. One practice keeps the claim, the cost and the construction telling the same story.
The outcome
A total loss taken from demolition to administered reinstatement by a single practice.
