Aviva Home Insurance Reviews

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?).

Lubnow restoration is a preferred company with Aviva for my area...being london ontario and I was extremely unhappy with the entire experience. The project manager that was assigned to assist with the flood that ocured in my basement is named Lisa K. After first meeting her and her tear, I called her up to touch base and when the conversation ended and before we had hung up, I overheard her speaking with someone, making fun of my accent and that apparently, 'I wasn't very bright'. I decided to ignore this as I wanted my home restored as soon as possible, I then had two bad experiences with the accounts Manger the office. Her name is Terra C. and she was very rude to me on the phone and even discussed with me her personal dislike for the project manager which I thought was very unprofessional. I spoke with the receptionist soon after this and told her my concerns. She expressed that those two individuals can be very negative and to not let it get to me, that the service provided to me would be over soon and to use a different company on the repair. Thankfully, I was able to take a cash settlement so I didn't have to see that woman again. Spoke with a few others that I have located on Facebook that were not happy with the company either and that they hope Aviva chooses a different company to prefer.

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.

My townhouse got water damage due to a leak in the outer wall, aviva refused to pay just to fix the floor, our condo mgmt company took responsibility for the rest of the damage. I should note, our neighbour had the same issue, he had no problem with his insurance company. It was a struggle even to get someone out to look at the problem (several weeks and many phone calls and emails). Even the contractor and broker are baffled that they refuse to pay. It's been a frustrating experience overall, I feel like there is no recourse to challenge them at all. I wish I had never signed on with them.

Here's a good one. Despite my multiple inquiries with the company as to how this happened, all I've received from Aviva is that "nobody has ever experienced this before."

The following is the quintessential example of problems with companies like Aviva cutting costs wherever they can and contracting everything out.

I've had an Aviva home insurance policy in place for two years now, and have never made a claim with them. My premiums have been faithfully paid and there hasn't been any issues. That is, of course, until last weekend when I received an e-mail from Aviva asking me to do a "satisfaction survey" based on a recent claim I had made with them.

I judged this e-mail as suspicious, so I called their 24-hour claims line to obtain some information. First off, their after-hours claims folks are notoriously useless and are really unable to do anything except take details and file a new claim. They were, however, able to look at my file, and subsequently notified me that it looked as though I had made a claim relating to a basement flood I had in September 2015.

Now here's where everything gets very interesting. You see, I never made such a claim. After conveying this to the after-hours rep., she made a note and promised someone would follow up with me via phone during the next business day.

Well, nobody called. As luck would have it, I had been outside doing some yard work, and noticed that my neighbour was busy moving his washer/dryer into his garage. I asked what was going on, and he told me that after dealing with his insurance company (a different company than mine which I will not name, but will say the name of it corresponds to a common last name or a nickname for a male body part) for a month, they were finally able TO START FIXING THE FLOOD THAT HAPPENED IN THEIR BASEMENT.

Putting two and two together, I spent the next several business days trying to get in touch with someone from Aviva that could actually help me - which was a less than easy task.

In short, what ended up happening was that somehow my neighbour's home insurance claim was processed, closed and paid out UNDER MY POLICY, despite the two policies being issued by two separate and unrelated companies, associated with two different addresses and with different names on the policy.

Once Aviva management and my broker found out about this, they sprung into full-on panic mode realizing the extent of the mistake that had been made. The cheque which had been issued was cancelled immediately, and after relentlessly trying to prove my story true with this giant behemoth of a company and the associated bureaucratic inefficiencies, I've been informed that the claim was removed from my account and no longer exists.

So, I suspect you still may have one big question, somewhere along the lines of "How could this happen if the two respective policies were held by two separate and unrelated companies which would not have access to each others records?" Well you see, it turns out that in my neck of the woods, these two large insurance companies subcontract a company called "Claims Pro" to do their adjusting. Of course Aviva can't be bothered to have its own representatives in a major Canadian city with over one million residents. That just wouldn't be cost efficient. The Claims Pro adjuster would have had access to the records of each company and for whatever reason, whether it be sheer laziness or plain stupidity, opened a claim for a different property under my home insurance.

Another point to consider is that I would never had become aware of this issue had I not randomly received that customer satisfaction e-mail. Renewal would have come along, with the increased rates associated with a claim, and who knows whether or not I would ever have realized what happened. Add all this to the unauthorized disclosure of personal information and you've got quite a problem, resulting in my well-deserved one star rating.

It would take far too long to go into the details of the nightmare that was my home insurance claim with AVIVA.

Some of the highlights; a small claim took 9 months; they sent unqualified, unlicensed contractors to do the work. The contractors all but destroyed my home (certainly devalued it), including a number of areas not even affected by the claim. I had to pay for and/or provide the supplies, including paint and tools for the contractors as they did not have tools (not even rags), and instead of purchasing the proper paint said they could mix a number of different odds and ends of paint they had together and "that would do".

I had to take almost a month off work and live in a home with no kitchen, living-room or dining-room for 9 months.

Throughout the entire process they showed absolutely no respect for me or my home.

I can honestly say it was one of, if not the worst experience of my life.

I would highly recommend you avoid this company, at least if you live in the GTA area of Ontario.

I would honestly give them no stars if I could.

It's been over a year since our fire and still, no work has started. Their "preferred vendor" kept delaying and eventually declined the job for fear of not being paid. Now they are telling me to find another contractor and restart the process all over again. Meanwhile, my parents have been out of their home this entire time and haven't received any compensation, while struggling to pay the mortgage for a house they can't live in. What is the point of insurance? Is this even legal?

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.

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…