Bharat Griha Raksha home insurance: sum insured

Meera Kulkarni paid ₹65 lakh for a two bedroom flat in Nashik and never insured it, because she assumed home insurance was a rich person's product. The example is illustrative, but her first stumble is the common one: she opened the proposal form, saw the words Sum Insured, and typed ₹65 lakh.

That is the wrong number, and it costs money in both directions. It buys premium on land value the policy will never pay for. It is also the mistake that becomes a valuation fight years later, after a fire, over a figure nobody worked out properly at the start.

Meera's sale agreement shows a carpet area of 82 square metres. She also has a balcony of 8 square metres and an open parking slot of 12 square metres. The policy counts balcony, verandah, terrace and parking at 25 percent of their net usable floor area, not at full value.

She needs one more number: the rate of cost of construction, meaning what a builder would charge today, per square metre, to put up the same structure. She declares ₹20,000.

• Home Building sum insured = 87 sq m x ₹20,000 = ₹17,40,000
• Home Contents, in-built = 20 percent of that = ₹3,48,000, with no list of items required
• The ₹65 lakh she paid never enters the arithmetic

Buy it for five years and the building sum insured climbs by 10 percent of the base figure each anniversary at no extra premium: ₹19,14,000, then ₹20,88,000, and so on. The escalation stops at 100 percent, so ₹34,80,000 is the ceiling. On an annual policy the same 10 percent is added at one three hundred and sixty fifth per day. This applies to the building cover only, not to contents.

1. It is a construction cost, not a property price. The filed wordings define Cost of Construction as carpet area in square metres multiplied by the rate of cost of construction at the commencement date that you declare and the insurer accepts, plus the construction cost of additional structures. Land, undivided share and resale value are nowhere in that formula.

2. Carpet area has a policy definition. For the main unit it is the net usable floor area, excluding the area under external walls, service shafts, exclusive balcony or verandah and exclusive open terrace, but including the area under internal partition walls. Balcony, verandah, terrace and parking are then added at 25 percent. A builder's brochure figure is usually far larger. Use the sale agreement, sanctioned plan or occupancy certificate.

3. Contents are automatic, so stop counting your spoons. Take both covers and general household contents are insured for 20 percent of the building sum insured, capped at ₹10 lakh, without declaring a single item. If replacing your furniture, appliances and electronics would cost more, declare a higher figure and pay more premium.

Insured events run from fire, explosion, lightning and earthquake through storm, cyclone, flood and inundation, subsidence, landslide and rockslide, forest fire, impact damage, riot and strike, acts of terrorism under the attached clause, bursting water tanks and pipes, and sprinkler leakage. Theft within 7 days of one of those events is covered too. Ordinary burglary is not.

Bharat Griha Raksha waives underinsurance. The wordings say it plainly: underinsurance does not apply, so if your sum insured turns out lower than the actual value at risk, the difference will not affect the amount paid. In an ordinary fire policy, insuring a ₹15 lakh building for ₹13.5 lakh means a ₹5 lakh repair bill gets cut proportionately. Here it is paid in full.

That protection has a hard edge, and the edge is where claim disputes are born.

• Under-declare and a partial loss is forgiven. Declare 90 sq m instead of 100 at ₹15,000 per square metre, insure for ₹13,50,000 instead of ₹15,00,000, then suffer ₹5,00,000 of repairs. You are paid ₹5,00,000.
• Under-declare and a total loss is not forgiven. The sum insured remains the ceiling. If that ₹13,50,000 building is destroyed outright, ₹13,50,000 is all you get, and no waiver rescues the shortfall.
• Over-declare and you simply lose money. Claims are worked out on the actual carpet area, capped at what you declared. In the standard example, a flat wrongly declared at 120 sq m and insured for ₹18,00,000 is paid ₹15,00,000 on total loss.
• An honest rate, once accepted, protects you. Declare ₹20,000 per square metre and have it accepted. If the surveyor later assesses the local rebuilding rate at ₹16,000, the standard prospectus says the accepted figure stands and ₹20,00,000 is paid.

Measure the carpet area accurately. Then pick a construction rate you can justify on paper.

The rate of cost of construction is the input most buyers guess, and a guess is exactly what a surveyor challenges later. There is a public, documented number available for the asking.

State Public Works Departments publish a Schedule of Rates, and municipal corporations often hold construction cost rates used for building permission and property tax. File a short application asking for the current Schedule of Rates or notified construction cost per square metre for residential buildings in your area, and the date it took effect. Ask for the sanctioned building plan or occupancy certificate in the same application, since that fixes your carpet area. Draft it in minutes with the AI RTI Drafter, pay ₹10, and file the reply with your policy.

Track the 30 day clock with the Timeline Tracker. If the reply is silence or a brush off, escalate using the First Appeal Builder, and test any evasive answer with the PIO Reply Checker. The habit of documenting before a dispute runs through The RTI Playbook.

1. Take the carpet area from the sale agreement or sanctioned plan. Add balcony, terrace and parking at 25 percent.
2. Get a construction rate you can source: PWD Schedule of Rates, a municipal rate, or a written builder quotation.
3. Multiply the two, then add the construction cost of any garage, compound wall, gate, water tank or solar installation.
4. Check whether 20 percent of that figure really replaces your furniture, appliances and electronics. If not, declare more.
5. Declare a loss of rent figure if you are a landlord, or the alternative rent you would pay if forced to move out.
6. Fill the prescribed standard proposal form, and ask for the prospectus and key features document before paying. Read the minimum premium and any excess in them.

Bharat Griha Raksha was created by IRDAI guidelines dated 4 January 2021, reference IRDA/NL/GDL/MISC/004/01/2021. Every general insurer writing fire business had to offer it from 1 April 2021, on wordings no insurer was permitted to alter.

That founding guideline no longer stands on its own. On 11 June 2024 IRDAI issued the Master Circular on IRDAI Insurance Products Regulations 2024 for General Insurance, reference IRDAI/NL/MSTCIR/MISC/90/06/2024, and its Annexure C repealed the 2021 guidelines by name. The same circular says insurers shall not withdraw or decline to offer any of the erstwhile tariff products in existence before it, and requires every insurer to designate a base retail product in each line of business and display it on its website.

In practice the product is alive. New India Assurance still lists New India Bharat Griha Raksha among its fire products, alongside a newer flexible variant, and the filed wordings under their UINs remain the contract you sign. What has changed is the assumption. Do not walk in believing every insurer is compelled to sell you this exact policy. Ask for it by name and compare it with whatever the insurer has designated as its base home product. The life insurance counterpart is Saral Jeevan Bima, the standard term life policy.

No. If you take both the building and contents covers, general household contents are automatically insured for 20 percent of the building sum insured, capped at ₹10 lakh, with no itemisation. You declare details only if you want a higher contents sum insured, or if you want the optional cover for valuables such as jewellery and paintings.

No. The sum insured is the cost of construction: carpet area multiplied by the rate it would cost to build the structure again today, plus any additional structures. Land is not something the policy can rebuild, so it is not in the formula. Insuring for the purchase price means paying premium on money that will never be paid out.

Underinsurance is waived, so a partial loss is paid in full even if your sum insured was low. On a total loss the sum insured is still the maximum payable, so under-declaring leaves you short. Over-declaring does not help either, because claims are calculated on the actual carpet area, capped at what you declared.

Yes. A tenant, lessee, licensee or employee occupying a home can buy the Home Contents Cover for their own belongings. A tenant liable for insurance under a written agreement can also buy the Home Building Cover. Owner and tenant often split it, one insuring the structure and the other the contents.

One year, or longer, but not more than 10 years. A long term policy is where the automatic escalation earns its keep, because the building sum insured rises by 10 percent of the starting figure every year at no extra premium, up to a maximum increase of 100 percent.

Not under the basic contents cover. Jewellery, silverware, paintings, works of art, antiques and curios fall under Valuable Contents, an optional cover on an agreed value basis that normally needs a valuation certificate. That certificate is waived if the sum insured is up to ₹5 lakh and no single item is worth more than ₹1 lakh.

Up to 5 percent of the claim amount towards architect, surveyor and consulting engineer fees, and up to 2 percent towards clearing debris. It also pays loss of rent, or rent for alternative accommodation, while the home is unfit to live in, for a maximum of 3 years and against a certificate from an architect or the local authority.

Put the arithmetic on paper first: declared carpet area, declared rate, and the source for each. Then follow the escalation route in the home insurance valuation dispute guide, or if the claim was refused outright, the steps for a rejected home insurance claim after fire, flood or theft.

• Home insurance claim rejected after fire, flood or theft
• Home insurance valuation dispute: what to do next
• Fire insurance survey delayed by the insurer
• Fire insurance claim delayed beyond the timeline
• Saral Jeevan Bima, the standardised term life policy
• How to file an insurance complaint with IRDAI
• Insurance Ombudsman complaint procedure
• Consumer court in India: step by step filing guide

• IRDAI, Guidelines for Fire and Allied perils cover for Dwellings, Introduction of a standard product Bharat Griha Raksha, ref IRDA/NL/GDL/MISC/004/01/2021 dated 4 January 2021
• IRDAI, Annexure I, Bharat Griha Raksha standard proposal form, prospectus, policy wordings and key features document
• IRDAI, Master Circular on General Insurance Business, ref IRDAI/NL/MSTCIR/MISC/90/06/2024 dated 11 June 2024, see Annexure C list of circulars repealed
• Filed standard Bharat Griha Raksha policy wordings, UIN IRDAN190RP0010V01202021, hosted by IRDAI
• New India Assurance, Bharat Griha Raksha product page