After a house fire, the insurance process can feel more stressful than the damage itself. Reinstatement simply means putting your home back to the condition it was in before the fire, and your insurer is obliged to fund that work if you are properly covered. Here is how the process actually runs in practice, step by step.
Reinstatement is the repair or rebuilding of your property to its pre-loss condition using materials of a similar kind and quality. It is not an upgrade and it is not a cash windfall, but it should leave you with a sound, safe home that matches what you had before, including decoration.
Most UK buildings policies are written on a reinstatement basis, which means the insurer pays the actual cost of the works rather than a fixed sum. If you are underinsured, meaning your sum insured would not cover a full rebuild, the payout can be reduced proportionally, so it is worth checking your rebuild figure against the BCIS calculator on the ABI website before you ever need to claim.
Once you notify your insurer, anything beyond minor smoke damage will usually be passed to a loss adjuster. The adjuster works for the insurer and their job is to confirm the cause, check the policy responds, and agree what work is needed. For larger fires you can also appoint your own loss assessor, who represents you rather than the insurer, typically for a fee of around 5 to 10 percent of the settlement.
The practical sequence normally looks like this:
No. Insurers will often suggest their own network builder, and that can work well, but you are generally entitled to use a contractor of your choice provided the price is reasonable and the insurer agrees the scope. A local firm that specialises in insurance reinstatement will price against the adjuster's schedule, deal with the adjuster directly, and manage the building control and party wall issues that come with fire repairs in London terraces and flats.
In areas like Balham, Tooting and Clapham, most housing stock is Victorian or Edwardian, and matching original details such as lath and plaster ceilings, timber sash windows and London stock brickwork is a genuine skill. A cheap generic repair that ignores those details can knock value off the property, so it is reasonable to insist the scope reflects like-for-like reinstatement.
A small kitchen fire with smoke damage to two or three rooms might take 6 to 10 weeks from approval to completion. A serious fire involving structural repairs, a new roof or full rewiring can take 6 to 12 months, and complex claims sometimes longer, particularly where drying takes several weeks before rebuilding can start.
Costs vary enormously with the extent of damage. Smoke cleaning and redecoration of a couple of rooms might run to a few thousand pounds, while a whole-house reinstatement in South London can reach six figures. The key point is that these are the insurer's costs, not yours, apart from your policy excess, which is commonly between 100 and 500 pounds for fire on standard home policies. If your home is uninhabitable, most policies also cover alternative accommodation, so ask about this on day one rather than paying for a hotel and hoping to recover it later.
The homeowners who get the best outcomes are the ones who document everything and keep the pressure on politely. A few habits make a real difference:
Usually the insurer pays the contractor directly in staged payments, or reimburses you against invoices if you are managing the work yourself. You are normally only out of pocket for your policy excess.
Yes, but the insurer only funds like-for-like reinstatement, so you pay the difference for any upgrades. It is often cost-effective to do this while the property is already stripped back, provided the adjuster agrees a clear split of costs.
Ask for the adjuster's scope of works and get an independent quote against it, as itemised evidence is far more persuasive than a general objection. If you still cannot agree, you can raise a formal complaint and then go to the Financial Ombudsman Service at no cost.
Tell us what’s happened and we’ll come back with a free, no-obligation quote.
Tell us about your project and we’ll get you a free quote.