Aviva Home Insurance Reviews

Bad customer service, not very professional. They cancelled my policy without contacting me ahead of time explaining what the situation was, very disappointed and I don't recommend Aviva insurance to anyone.

Giving this company a 1 star rating (minimum required) is over rating Aviva Insurance. MINUS 5 would be more appropriate for the bad experience we had with this company.

The short story:

We had a roof issue this summer that caused a leak in the house and subsequent damage to our ceiling. After contacting Aviva, their own roofer (biased?) gave a repair cost to the six year old roof of $2,000.00 and blamed the failure of the roof to workmanship by the initial roofer, that said, Aviva denied our claim totally, even the ceiling repair. For the $2,000.00 Aviva’s roofer assured us it was an easy repair. After three attempts to repair this “easy repair”, the roof was still leaking (workmanship?). On the fourth attempt the roofer did an overkill repair which drove the bill to $6,200.00 of which Aviva denied all and of course the repair to the ceiling of $800.00 (we called in an independent contractor for this as Aviva’s contractor wanted over $2,000.00). Now we’re out approximately $7,000.00. After escalating this to Aviva’s CEO, his Assistant Vice President contacted us, but didn’t seem all that anxious to help either, trivializing it all by suggesting to us that it’s ONLY $7,000.00…EXCUSE ME???...if it’s ONLY $7,000.00 why does Aviva refuse to pay any part or all of it?

Needless to say we cancelled our policy and found another company that knows the meaning of customer care.

If you’re still going with this company, may you have better luck.

P.S. While waiting for the roofer to find a time to do the repair, we asked him to put up a temporary tarp. Another $350.00 and the tarp leaked as well (workmanship?).

Apt. flooded by the upstairs tenant, she admitted liability---I have FULL REPLACEMENT, ALL PERILS...they have not honoured that. Also paid for coverage to put me up in a hotel if my residence was not liveable during flood mitigation...Aviva did not secure a hotel/motel...excuse--they do not have a direct billing account service or company credit card for that service; my friend used their credit card. Aviva maintains that abnormal destructive humidity levels are not caused by water, pictures, witnesses and expenses verified by a commissioner of oaths, made no difference...badgering, intimidation tactics - phone call after phone call---this company used to be Pilot, named by Readers Digest as "Insurers from Hell"--Pilot is Aviva....Leopard does not change it's spots

Aviva took RBC and ran it into the ground. Their staff is inept. Had a claim. The road adjuster did nothing. No money, no calculation of cost nothing. What Aviva does is send their "preferred contractor". Instead of paying road advisers they rely on this third party to do the quote for repair. Which is BS. Its AVIVAs job to pay their own people to come up with numbers. Not pay 3rd parties out of my insurance limit. This is what happens. Using my claim money to pay this third party to come up with a lowball estimate and do so at my cost for their fee. The truth is, they lowball. Then when the "unexpected" comes up during repair the contractor will amend. Why? So people get less of a cash out option for one. But more important you have the right to hire your own contractor. But the lowball estimate cannot be exceeded. Further pushing clients in favor of the "preferred vendor". Here is what the "preferred vendor" did for me. I had a sewage flood. They DID NOT clean. They DID NOT remove any contents. They DID NOT disinfect. They ripped out 600 sf of flooring and cut into some wallboard. End of them. I had to clean my own house of sewage. I had to disinfect myself and do all the content manipulation myself. Aviva was made aware with a detailed timesheet. They dont care. They waived my $1000 deductable. Gee thanks because you paid your "preferred vendor" $6000. What for? I beleive AVIVA to be 100% without ethics and I believe how they are operating is in contradiction to the laws in Ontario. This is not honest business nor regulation practice. AFter my lowball claim they sent me a letter saying they wont insure my house anymore. You see .... they are there to take money and invest it for their gain. They are not there to insure things.

This company is not operating legally in my opinion.

RBC used to have their own people to assess cost/damage. I had a flood and Aviva sent their "road advisor" to my home. This person did nothing but draw pictures of the rooms. They didnt cost anything out. Aviva now relies on 3rd party "approved" contractors for this. Which is ridiculous. Consumers have a right to use their own contractors. Its Insurance Co's job to have their own people to cost things.

Aviva paid me nothing up front. Its a clown and pony show to get things approved so they will pay. My claim exceeds my coverage so settling is real easy but Aviva refuses to do that. If they just did things like insurance companies have done things up until now (as is actually legally REQUIRED) we could just settle.

PROMUS restoration was assigned to my house. They did next to nothing. A few hours tear out. No clean up, no disinfecting, no contents removal/storage. Basically, nothing. I could have torn out floors by sawing it out quick too. Insurance pays them thousands for this then relies on them to do all the cost quoting. This way see YOU pay for it out of your end rather than Aviva paying their employees to do their damn job. Obviously PROMUS has nothing but subcontractors giving ridiculous quotes for simple lipstick things and ignoring what actually needs to be done. Using up the claim in nonsense.

Aviva needs to do what all other insurance companies do and actually cost things out via the computer aided systems that have been in place for decades and are very accurate in experienced hands. Tossing the ball to fly by night claim raping "restoration" companies is a joke.

Stay away from Aviva. RBC wasnt the greatest but it ran like an insurance company. Aviva runs like children playing pretend insurance company.

I don't even know where to begin. We were told that the contents of our basement were not going to be removed, yet they were. They packed up my wife's family or heirlooms and lost them. They broke the vase that held the sand from a sand ceremony from our wedding. They crammed us in a tiny little two bedroom apartment that didn't have enough beds, parking spaces, or even storage for food, and then complained when we submitted grocery receipts and receipts for eating out. The hired an incompetent company called Claims Pro to handle our claim. The claims adjuster was rude and inconsiderate. She only cared about saving money. The accommodation center that they placed us in after I complained about the small apartment called us constantly with frivolous noise complaints in the middle of the day. High Street Accommodation = Horrible! Our claim experience thus far has been absolutely horrifying. I will be canceling my insurance with Aviva as soon as our claim is complete and will never do business with them again. I strongly recommend finding another home insurance company.

Worst experience of my life was and still is dealing with Aviva. They made so many mistakes, disposed of all my hard contents without my consent and the original adjuster was fired. It's been one and a half years and my claim is still not settled. They did not take pictures of the contents that were removed from the house or at the warehouse. The soft contents were evaluated by a man who is not qualified to assess the damage of textiles. He strictly writes in his reports whatever Aviva tells him to and is extremely biased. The way Aviva conducts itself as a company and the staff employed should be sued and their incompetence dealt with by an entity with the financial power that they do. The little people get screwed, insulted, made to wait. The way they conduct themselves should be considered criminal by the proper channels!!! Extremely disappointed with Aviva and the HELL they have put me through as a single mother of 3. I lost my Job due to the emotional stress and trauma caused by the original adjuster whose main goal was to patronize and instigate conflict with me!

One disaster after another. A flood that clearly happened outside my unit and my insurance company not only does not support me, they make my life a living hell. Take well over 8 weeks to repair flooring that was sitting in my unit 2 weeks after the flood. The approval process is ridiculous. And the claims adjuster I had did not know the meaning of customer service. Worse yet, I put in a complaint to their head office and to the supervisor of the claims adjuster I had. 2 and a half months later I have not heard from either of them. Aviva doesn't even handle their own claims. They contracted me out to someone in Ontario. I live in BC. the 3 hour time difference made it impossible to get any real customer service out of him. He didn't even visit my home to see the damage.

The worst part about this, the flood not only effected my unit, but my neighbour's unit. As I was going through hell to try to get my claim approved, her adjuster approved her claim and her place was repaired and back to normal in 3 weeks. It did not cost her a penny, not even initially. I am out almost $8,000 as my adjuster would only pay 60% up front, then he said he would reimburse me the rest once he received proof of payment. I sent that along many moons ago... still have not been paid anything - who's ever even heard of someone having to pay out of pocket for an insurance claim anyway?

I would never ever in a million years recommend Aviva to anyone. Save yourself the hassle and go elsewhere.

20% increase in premium this year even though I NOW have a age, loyalty and no claims discount. Rude and non english speaking employees waiting to not help you.

Very disappointing, my case was considered urgent, through Aviva it took two weeks to let me know that there was one clause in the contract stating that I was not qualified for a claim. Meantime, no help for helping me to clean up the water or giving any hints on how to proceed specially from their specialists, when i was two weeks after the claim doesn`t qualify because of a detail. The specialists for floods. wanted to recuperate their machines right away half hour after i hung up with Aviva, so no furniture was compensated for the damage either meanwhile, there were mushrooms growing in my walls. It was smelling very humid in the house, but Aviva doesn`t care about their customers, they want your business and nothing else… I have two houses with them, and two cars also…