Aviva Home Insurance Reviews

I wish I had read some of these reviews prior to switching to Aviva last August. If my experience arranging for a new policy is any indication, I sure hope I don't ever need to make a claim! Two hours on phone getting quote... Not a simple policy, for two properties, three autos and a boat, so I don't begrudge this time spent at all. I provided much detail about the properties, including outbuildings, and the boat - just a small runabout but we want to ensure there is liability coverage. Placed on hold several times while the agent spoke to underwriting for clarification. Again, no problem, in fact, I commented that I appreciated the agent being so thorough. Left with a list of info to provide - driver profiles for my daughters, serial number for the boat, mortgage #, etc. Five days later called back to provide all of the above. Not a quick call. Many of the same questions asked, as though info had never been entered in a file. Finished call satisfied, however, that all would be in place, policy bound, payment arranged... Based on this, arranged to cancel with the current insurer on the renewal date. Since then: NOTHING received by mail (despite expressions of shock every time I tell Aviva CS this, and in fact incredulity - "Well, did you check your mailbox?" - seriously???). Policy documents posted on Myaviva website do not reflect coverage promised both over the phone and clearly documented in emails from contact@avivainsurance.ca. Repeated requests for additional information (that has already been provided), then a demand for a marine survey of a 16' runabout (again, all pertinent details provided - never mention of the marine survey). Most recent call one hour in length, again answering the same series of questions, again a comment, "I'm sorry, someone clearly has not done their job here, I'm going to make it right." Borders on fraudulent behaviour - make promises, get customer under contract, ignore promises. The couple of hundred dollars I've saved are far outweighed by the time wasted and the fact that I have no assurance in writing at all that I have the coverage I've been promised over the phone and email. Shameful.

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?).

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.

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.

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…

My house caught fire in February 2016 and we just moved back in over one year later in March. It is a large house just under 4000sq ft. The majority of the house was completely gutted but key areas were not, including the master bedroom and bath and a couple other areas. The insurance adjustor, Geoff, gave low ball and unfair budgets throughout the process. The insurance company refused to gut the remaining portion of the house and now after only living in the house for a few days we are suffering through flooding damage due to plumbing issues. The insurance adjustor has extremely poor communication with me but I'm sure this is part of his strategy. The cabinet maker Sandy Beach cabinetry installed warped cabinets and in their attempt to rectify the defectives cabinet draws keep reinstalling the same warped drawers. In addition, the values given to our contents are completely inaccurate. For example, the list will correctly identify an item but will assign an extremely low and inaccurate value. These are just some of the issues we've faced and the process is not over yet.

Had a leak into condos below. [ AVIVA ]They would not even come and look, said the condos insurance should pay. Condos ins was aviva also, still fighting with them a year later . Had to get lawyer , lots of fun. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY . This is not just them our goverment is to blame also , they do nothing to protect us from these insurance companies.