{"id":10141,"date":"2025-09-09T15:18:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/10141\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T15:18:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:18:11","slug":"nine-out-of-10-irish-commercial-properties-are-underinsured-chartered-surveyor-claims-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/10141\/","title":{"rendered":"Nine out of 10 Irish commercial properties are underinsured, chartered surveyor claims \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Businesses across Ireland are leaving themselves exposed to financial disaster by failing to properly insure their premises<\/a>, according to an industry expert.<\/p>\n

Underinsurance is a growing problem for businesses of all sizes and in all sectors, says chartered building surveyor Trevor Kelly. <\/p>\n

\u201cAcross the country, many companies believe they are adequately protected, only to discover after a major loss that their policy covers only a fraction of the true cost of reinstating their property,\u201d said Mr Kelly, whose company Rebuildvaluation.ie acts both as a loss assessor and as a consultant offering guidance on reinstatement costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the past four years, we have been conducting on-site reinstatement cost assessments for commercial properties as Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors-regulated chartered surveyors. Our findings show that nine out of 10 commercial properties are in fact underinsured, and not by small amounts either,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

He points to two recent assessments carried out by his company to illustrate the potential cost of such underinsurance. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Irish homeowners have \u20ac39bn underinsurance problem \u2013 AvivaOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In one, a waste management operation had insured its several buildings for a total of \u20ac8.5 million. On the basis of current building costs, his team assessed the actual cost of reinstating the buildings at \u20ac36.5 million. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat business was exposed to an underinsurance gap of 77 per cent. In money terms that is a shortfall of \u20ac28 million,\u201d Mr Kelly says.<\/p>\n

\"\"Why are some independent Irish breweries turning off their taps and closing?<\/p>\n

Another case saw a large logistics warehouse complex underinsured by about 82 per cent or, in money terms, approximately \u20ac20 million short of what it would cost to rebuild. <\/p>\n

It is not just theoretical losses. Hundreds of business are left out of pocket every year when they have to make claims on their insurance.<\/p>\n

Mr Kelly recalls one recent case where a hospitality business made a claim for close to \u20ac1 million but, because it was underinsured, just under \u20ac350,000 was paid.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn most cases, that scale of shortfall would result in financial ruin,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to see how a business could get back on its feet when it was left having to find something like \u20ac600,000 just to reopen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rising construction costs, changes in building regulations and the complexities of some modern facilities mean that, for many businesses, \u201cthe sums insured on many policies have simply not kept pace with reality\u201d over recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderinsurance is often seen as a technical detail, but its consequences are very real,\u201d Mr Kelly says. \u201cIt is policies paying out only a fraction of the reinstatement cost, severe funding gaps that threaten business stability and huge knock-on effects for employees, local communities and supply chains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Kelly says the problem is not confined to certain subsectors, with his team identifying what he says as \u201csubstantial gaps\u201d across sectors ranging from manufacturing and hospitality to apartment complexes and professional offices.<\/p>\n

The issue of underinsurance is in the headlines of late, as owners of apartments in Creeslough<\/a>, Co Donegal, which were destroyed in a gas explosion almost three years ago with the loss of 10 lives, are battling with the building\u2019s owner and its insurer over recovering their losses.<\/p>\n

The building was underinsured<\/a> and the insurer, Aviva, is now seeking High Court guidance on how the claims should be settled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Businesses across Ireland are leaving themselves exposed to financial disaster by failing to properly insure their premises, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[983,61,5167,60,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-10141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-creeslough","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-insurance","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}