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Aviva plc, known as Aviva Insurance, is a British multinational insurance company. It was formed in 2000 through the merger of CGU plc and Norwich Union, and as a result boasts over 300 years of experience. Today, Aviva is a global insurance company with operations in more than 16 countries. Aviva has become one of the UK’s largest home insurance companies, with more than 15 million customers, offering a broad range of products including home, health, life and motor insurance.
Aviva has been recognised by The Good Shopping Guide and The Good Business Charter – two independent organisations concerned with ethical and good business behaviour.
Aviva offers two levels of buildings and contents policies – standard and premium – with numerous optional extras available, allowing customers to customise their cover.
Aviva is a good choice if you need cover for expensive valuables, with an option for a large-sum single item that’s included as standard. Aviva’s policies are fully customisable, and customers can change the maximum insured for each item covered.
Our researchers compared Aviva with six other leading insurance companies and found that Aviva’s home insurance products offered fewer levels of policies compared to others.
Aviva’s customer service was quick and easy to use, unlike its website, which our researchers found does not have all of its home insurance policies in one place for customers to access information with ease.
Our researchers and writers are dedicated to bringing you accurate and up-to-date information so you can make an informed decision when it comes to comparing and buying home insurance.
We will only endorse home insurance products after hundreds of hours of research, policy comparisons and mystery shopping, and after taking into account verified customer feedback and reviews, and the opinions of industry experts.
To write our articles we’ve compared (and continue to compare) hundreds of insurance policies from dozens of the UK’s insurers – big and small. We focus our research on:
All of our articles are verified by industry experts including regulatory compliance specialists, and the policy data verified by the insurance providers themselves, so you can be assured that our content is as accurate and up to date as possible.
Even after all that, we would still recommend that you don’t just take our word for it, and you should compare quotes to get the best deal for you and your home. Find out more in our article on how we cover home insurance companies.
Aviva offers two levels of insurance policies – Aviva Online and Aviva Premium – both of which include contents insurance and buildings insurance options. With both of Aviva’s policies, you can combine contents and building insurance or take them out separately if you only need one or the other.
Aviva provides a variety of optional extras, allowing you to customise your home insurance policy, and premiums can be paid in monthly instalments or as an annual lump sum.
| Policy | Policy type | Buildings max sum insured* | Content max sum insured* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aviva Online | Contents | N/A | £100,000 |
| Aviva Online | Buildings | £1,000,000 | N/A |
| Aviva Premium | Contents | N/A | Unlimited |
| Aviva Premium | Buildings | Unlimited | N/A |
Aviva’s Online and Premium policies include contents and buildings cover, with options to increase the maximum insured and optional extras to customise your policy.
Aviva Premium covers everything that Aviva Online does – plus a few extra features. Its policies cover the following as standard:
| Policy | Aviva Online | Aviva Premium | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cover type | Contents | Buildings | Contents | Buildings |
| Cover | ||||
| Valuables | Up to £10,000 | Up to £10,000 | ||
| Single valuables | Up to £2,000 | Up to £2,000 | ||
| Personal money | Up to £750 | Up to £750 | ||
| Home office equipment | Up to £5,000 | Up to £5,000 | ||
| Contents temporarily removed from home | Up to £5,000 | Up to £5,000 | ||
| Garden contents | £1,500 | £1,500 | ||
| Loss of rent/cost of alternative accommodation | £80,000 (or 20% of the buildings sum insured if higher) | £80,000 (or 20% of the buildings sum insured if higher) | ||
| Theft from garage or outbuilding | Up to £2,500 | Up to £2,500 | ||
| Garden re-landscaping | Up to £2,500 | Up to £2,500 | ||
| Replacement locks | Up to £1,000 | Up to £1,000 | ||
| Food in freezer | Up to £1,000 | Up to £1,000 | ||
| Leakage of heating fuel and metered water | Up to £2,000 | Up to £2,000 | ||
| Alternative accommodation | Up to £10,000 | Up to £10,000 | ||
| Fatal injury benefit | Up to £5,000 | Up to £5,000 | ||
| Tracing and accessing leaks | Up to £5,000 | Up to £5,000 | ||
| Emergency access Up to Buildings sum insured Public liability | Up to £5,000,000 | Up to £5,000,000 | ||
| Household removals up to sum insured | Yes | Yes | ||
| Emergency access up to sum insured | Yes | Yes | ||
| Occupier’s and personal liability | Up to £5 million | Up to £5 million | ||
| Employers liability £10 million | Up to £10 million | Up to £10 million | ||
| Tenants liability | Up to £15,000 | Up to £15,000 | ||
| Content accidental damage | Yes | |||
| Contents matching items for loss or damage | Yes | |||
| Buildings accidental damage | Yes |
Optional extras, sometimes called add-ons, can be included in your home insurance policy for an additional fee on your premium. Customising your policy extends your cover and it can include features that are more applicable to your needs.
| Optional extra | Aviva Online and Aviva Premium |
|---|---|
| Protect your no claim discount | Make sure one claim doesn’t make five years or more of hard work disappear |
| Legal services | Up to £100,000 in legal costs and 24/7 helpline |
| Home emergency | Parts and materials – up to £1,000 with no excess to pay Alternative accommodation – up to £1,000 with no excess to pay |
| Extra personal belongings (covers you anywhere in the world) | Personal items – up to £2,000 for any one item (you can take out extra cover for anything that costs more) Cash – up to £750 Credit cards – up to £1,000 Belongings left in a vehicle – up to £1,500 for anything stolen |
| Accidental damage – limited cover and extra cover | Yes |
| Cycle cover | Up to £300 and £5,000 – if you have more than one bike, choose the amount that’s enough to replace the most expensive one |
Before taking out any type of home insurance, it’s always advisable to read the small print, checking for any exclusions, clauses and circumstantial details that may affect your claims.
Our experts have analysed Aviva’s small print and discovered numerous details that you should know about.
There are some restrictions in Aviva’s small print regarding location:
Optional covers:
Aviva Online Contents cover exclusions:
Aviva Online Buildings cover exclusions:
Excluded from both Online and Premium:
Home insurance excess is a pre-agreed amount that you must pay when you make a claim. The excess can be deducted from the claim or settled separately.
Home insurance providers may offer a no claims discount if customers have made no claims over the course of a year, with many providers allowing this discount to accumulate for every consecutive year of no claims up to five years or more. Protecting your no claims discount is most likely to be an optional extra and will incur an additional fee added to your premium.
Aviva offers a no claims discount, as well as the option to protect your discount for an additional fee on your premium. Your exact discount amount and how many years you can accumulate should be explained in your policy documents.
If you need to make a claim on your home insurance, Aviva has an online process to follow. All you need to do is log in to your account and follow the instructions.
Home claims: 0345 030 6945* (open 24/7)
Home emergency cover: 0345 300 3346* (open 24/7)
Aviva home insurance has a UK-based call centre and an emergency phone line (available 24/7) – both of which have an automated process to follow before you can speak to someone. Our researchers found that both phone lines had friendly customer service personnel who were ready to help.
Our researchers found that their emails received replies within a few hours during office hours. If you can’t wait this long, Aviva has an online chat service via its website that gives you instant access to information. Aviva has a downloadable app, MyAviva, available on both iOS and Android.
In just one simple automated step and three rings, our researchers were able to speak to someone on the emergency phone line. For Aviva’s non-emergency home claims phone line, we were able to speak to someone within three to four rings, which was tested at different times of the day.
Aviva has a Truspilot score of 4.5, with more than 26,600 online reviews, and five-star reviews make up 75 per cent of the total. One-star reviews make up just 12 per cent of the total, and our researcher found that most of these reviews were disappointed with the customer service that they had received.
“Nice and easy online application. Clear instructions and lots of opportunities to upgrade the policy. £84 cheaper than my like-for-like renewal offer from the previous insurer. Added bonus of free legal cover and no charges to make any changes to policy as via online portal.”
“Best renewal price for a quality insurer and at least £70 cheaper from my current insurer Esure renewal (that’s with three cars and my home insurance through them, so much for multi car and loyalty!) Will see if they are cheaper when the next car insurance is up! (I have eight cars in my household to insure each year and I always use the comparison websites on renewal, so the prices are always like for like!”
“So far so good…got an online comprehensive home insurance quote. Unsure of some particulars but was put through swiftly to a very polite gentleman who went through the quote with me.”
“It has been two months since the house insurance claim was put through. The case manager is so unprofessional. He is only now asking for documents two months later to process the claim – surely admin is at the start of a claim? No dehumidifier provided, no settlement offered, won’t answer any questions, no tradespeople offered and we are expected to live in a house with wet floors causing damp and mould in winter. I genuinely have never seen such poor and unprofessional service and will never recommend Aviva again.”
Defaqto compares financial products and provides unbiased ratings and in-depth information on services and products, allowing financial institutions and consumers to make better-informed decisions. Defaqto conducts consumer research and analyses the market, as well as meets with industry experts to formulate its results.
Defaqto awards:
★★★★★ Aviva Online
★★★★★ Aviva Premium
Our experts compared five other home insurance companies to Aviva.
Other home insurance companies offer more levels of policies than Aviva. LV, Axa and Admiral offer a wider range of policies and with that comes more varying price points, unlike Aviva, which has two levels of policies available.
Aviva also does not offer a specific combined policy, but LV, More Than and Admiral do offer combined packages for contents and building insurance. Although you can still take out contents and buildings insurance at the same time with Aviva, the policy wording still won’t be combined.
Aviva’s 4.5 Trustpilot rating is one of the highest out of the six companies compared. LV has the highest Trustpilot rating of the companies analysed and offers three levels of policies, all of which include a combined option.
However, ratings may not always reflect what a company has to offer. Esure has one level of buildings and contents cover, but customers have rated Esure 4.1 on Trustpilot.
Aviva’s Defaqto score is among the highest, along with Admiral, LV, Axa and Esure.
| Policy name | Buildings | Contents | Buildings and Contents Combined | Defacto score | Trustpilot score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aviva Online | ✓ | ✓ | ★★★★★ | 4.5 | |
| Aviva Premium | ✓ | ✓ | ★★★★★ | 4.5 | |
| Admiral Cover | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ★★★ | 3.3 |
| Admiral Gold | ✓ | ✓ | ★★★★★ | 3.3 | |
| Admiral Platinum | ✓ | ✓ | ★★★★★ | 3.3 | |
| LV= Essentials | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ★★★ | 4.6 |
| LV= Home Insurance | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ★★★★★ | 4.6 |
| LV= Home Plus | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ★★★★★ | 4.6 |
| AXA Essentials | ✓ | ✓ | ★★★★ | 4.3 | |
| AXA Plus | ✓ | ✓ | ★★★★★ | 4.3 | |
| AXA Premier | ✓ | ✓ | ★★★★★ | 4.3 | |
| esure Buildings | ✓ | ★★★★★ | 4.1 | ||
| esure Contents | ✓ | ★★★★★ | 4.1 | ||
| More Than Primary | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ★★★ | 3.8 |
| More Than Upgraded | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ★★★ | 3.8 |
Aviva’s home insurance has two levels of policies and is designed to suit a variety of budgets. Its more affordable policy, Aviva Online, offers a standard level of cover, whilst Aviva Premium provides a more comprehensive level of cover for a higher price. Both policies come with a good range of cover, and customers can choose optional extras.
Throughout the research process, Independent Advisor’s researchers found that Aviva’s website was not the most user-friendly. It was difficult to source the policy wording documents for both of Aviva’s levels of cover. Information surrounding no claims discount and excess was also not easy to find and the very little information provided did not answer all of our questions.
Compared to other providers, Aviva is rated highly on Trustpilot and over 75 per cent of its reviews are five-star. Defaqto’s team of experts has also rated Aviva with five stars, and we would agree with this on the grounds of customer service, products and optional extras – but not for its website.
Overall, we found that Aviva offers a comprehensive range of home insurance products with a good level of cover available as standard, making it one of the best home insurance companies on the market.
Aviva, Axa and LV all feature highly on customer satisfaction rankings. Answering queries, providing good value for money, and rapid claim resolution were mentioned by customers of all three home insurance providers.
Home insurance quotes are tailored to your personal circumstances, and providers look at a number of factors, including the location of your property, the approximate value of your possessions, and whether you’ve claimed before.
More Than, Axa and Aviva typically feature favourably compared to other providers, and often receive good customer reviews.
Customers who are over 50 years old are generally considered more financially secure, and therefore less of a risk by insurance providers. As a result, their premiums tend to be slightly cheaper, but not by much. Statistically, fewer claims are made by the over-50s, and those claims are frequently for smaller amounts. For alternative ways to save money on Aviva home insurance you can explore discount code websites.
