ABSTRACT
Agricultural valuers may often be asked to produce “valuations” for insurance, whether as part of a valuation for finance security purposes or to assess the cover required as part of insurance renewal. The fee basis and time available to surveyors undertaking finance valuation work is such that they cannot produce a detailed cost assessment and thus these should simply be seen at best as a check on the present level of insurance cover provided for the security property. The turn, require some further adjustment to the cost assessment on the part of the valuer. Furthermore, in these circumstances the agricultural valuer should give very careful consideration to whether he or she has sufficient relevant experience and expertise to provide a comprehensive and accurate building cost assessment, particularly where there are any historic, listed or specialist buildings involved. Developments in the insurance industry may also create difficulties for those involved in assessing the rebuilding cost of fixed equipment.
