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My mother's house was destroyed in a fire, and she died from her injuries. I was living with her at the time, and was rescued by the firefighters. I am the executor of her estate and have 2 siblings.
I hired a public adjuster and am happy with the settlement on the contents and structure (100% of coverage for both.) After reading some of the horror stories here, I have no complaints.
After crunching the numbers, I was moving forward with the rebuild b/c of the money that would be lost, or non-recoverable if we didn't. (My estimate is $100K+, for deprec., code upgrades, etc. that - I thought - were only available for the original structure.) The house will be sold anyway, either as-is or after the rebuild.
I recently found out that depreciation (and possibly code upgrades?) on a replacement value policy can be recoverable if the money is spent on a different property - but I don't understand how.
The insured house was a large house in the suburbs, and the replacement would be a smaller property in the city. The overall values would be roughly the same, but it's a 2bds/2ba condo vs. 5bds/3ba house and the breakdown between land and building values would differ.
I've weighed the pros and cons of the hassle in rebuilding, the uncertain r.e. market, and possible future problems (septic, etc.) but my feeling is that the money lost on an as-is sale is worth the rebuild.
If the depreciation (and code upgrades?) were recoverable on a new property, I wouldn't go through the hassle of the rebuild.
Thanks, and please let me know if add'l info is needed.
