A century-old building has hand-plastered walls and ornamental tin ceilings. A policy written on a functional replacement cost basis settles a covered loss by paying to:

a.Deduct depreciation from the tin ceiling
b.Pay market value of the whole building
c.Repair with modern equivalent materials
d.Rebuild with the same historic materials

Explanation

Functional replacement cost pays to restore the property with modern, readily available materials that do the same job, rather than duplicating obsolete or ornamental construction. It keeps the amount of insurance realistic for buildings whose faithful reproduction would cost far more than the building is worth. Reproducing the plaster and tin is straight replacement cost, and taking depreciation off is an actual cash value settlement, which is a different valuation basis.

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