Right now, you probably have homeowner’s insurance that, if a catastrophe happened, would let you build a new house providing similar functionality to your current house, up to a specified total cost.

Here’s the deal. Your new policy will guarantee that any repairs will provide you with an exact replica of your existing house. Every doorknob, fixture and bit of trim will match exactly what you have right now. The specified total cost cap on your policy will have to go up, and your premiums will likely be 3-5 times more expensive.

Like my deal? Perhaps only if I agreed to pay the extra insurance premiums – and even then, it’s not that great a proposition. What if you wanted to reconfigure a couple of the bedrooms during the repairs? My deal prevents that.

It sounds like utter nonsense. But it is what is effectively required, right now, of heritage building owners. After a destructive event, those owners may be forced into an expensive full heritage restoration. And insuring for that is not cheap.

Owners then face a terrible lottery, where the worst case in a disaster is not the building’s destruction but rather its being severely damaged.

If the listed building was destroyed, the owners can build a new structure to suit current needs. If the building has only minor damage, repairs will be more expensive than they would be without the listing – but it should be manageable.

But if the building instead has serious damage, the owner’s position can be very difficult.

Insurance coverage for heritage churches sufficient for a full heritage rebuild can be prohibitively expensive, now that everyone knows just how expensive that rebuild can be. Buildings not insured for full reinstatement can then sit in limbo for years after a disaster: the owner cannot afford a heritage restoration but is barred from doing anything less. As we near the sixth anniversary of the Christchurch earthquakes, the Christchurch Cathedral remains in limbo.

If the government wishes to protect heritage buildings for the community’s benefit, perhaps the beneficiary should pay. The government could cover the extra insurance costs – or buy the buildings outright.

Or to put it another way: If the deal I proposed for you at the outset did not sound that appealing, why is it fair to force it on others?

Further reading: The Initiative’s report Deadly Heritage.