Aviva Home Insurance Reviews

Horrible and rude
I have 2 policies with this company. One is owner occupied and other is rental property.
I had ice daming on my owner occupied property not rental. Took 3 days for the emergency contractor to come look. Arrives and sends his findings to the insurance company. After a week back and forth and told emails will be sent I hear nothing... until today. Where I get a call to tell me that my claim was rejected at my policy number (that referenced my rental property) staying I don’t have ice daming coverages on that policy. I advise them it was my owners until separate property and policy she tells me she sees that and will call me back.
Well she calls me back and tells me yes you do have ice daming coverage on my owner unit but the emergency contractor stated it was wind and rain that caused it and not ice daming.
I knew she was wrong cause she was putting contractors worked to what type of policy I had. Doing everything they could not to pay out.
Well lawyer is called. I have it all taped cause I know better when dealing with insurance companies.
Lawyer listen and asked to to call or email them back and ask why their caused changed comlairex to your policy.
I got an email 30 mins later saying they are approving the claim after looking at the weather and findings..
why should I have to contact my lawyer? Why do they push you that far?

Made a claim with them, did the legwork of putting together an excel spreadsheet of my stolen property including costs and age of everything and still 2 months later nothing settled. I send them emails with no replies and get answering machines when I call. Bottom line try another company even if you have to pay a bit more because when you have a crisis you don't need the extra stress of dealing with a company unwilling to help. Your paying for a service and you should get great service, but not here. I had the same issue with my automobile claim last year Aviva caused me more stress and depression in the end.

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.

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!