LV home insurance | Policies reviewed and compared (2024)

Whenever you take out a contract with someone, it’s wise to read the small print. For insurance purposes, this generally includes a list of exclusions, policy limits, and other important information. Our researchers have examined LV’s small print, and listed below are some details you should be aware of.

Where are you covered?

LV policies cover Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands, while the optional extras for personal possessions and bicycles provide worldwide cover.

Policy exclusions

Exclusions are specific types of damage or loss that are not covered by buildings or contents insurance. As with any other provider, LV has a number of exclusions to consider when deciding which policy and optional extras to purchase. Things that are not covered include:

• Loss or damage if your property is unoccupied for more than 60 days in a row
• Deliberate damage or loss caused by you, your family, or anyone living with you
• Damage to gates and fences caused by storms, floods, or falling trees
• Loss or damage to any device by a computer virus or hacking
• Theft from unattended vehicles unless items are stored securely out of sight and the vehicle is locked
• Damage caused by domestic pets (unless optional full accidental damage cover is selected)
• Warm air, solar or under-floor heating systems
• The cost of replacement parts that wear out over time
• The cost of home maintenance such as boiler servicing
• Normal wear and tear, such as slipped roof tiles or worn carpets
• Full accidental damage for Home Plus excludes damage to computer software and damage caused by someone other than you or your family living in the home
• Full matching sets cover. Instead, if your sofa is accidentally damaged, LV will replace it and give you 50 per cent towards the matching armchairs

LV has voluntary excesses between £100 and £1,000. It’s important to remember that a lower excess, however tempting, will result in higher premiums.

Home insurance purchased from LV has no discount for a no claims period.

The claims process with LV home insurance can be done by filling in the online claim form or by phoning 0330 678 5000. If you have an emergency, there’s also an online notification form.

Online claims procedure

The form itself takes around 12 minutes to complete, depending on the complexity of your claim. You’ll need your policy number and to provide as much information about the incident as possible. If the police have been involved, your crime reference number is also required.

Step 1: The form begins with a warning that you’ll need to pay the voluntary excess when you make a claim, and the act of claiming could affect the price of your insurance.

Step 2: Confirm if you’re claiming for storm damage, flood damage, or something else.

Step 3: You are reminded that if claiming for storm or flood damage, you’re not covered for damage to gates or fences, and tree or branch removal is also not covered unless it has damaged the building itself.

Step 4: You’re asked if anyone in your household shows coronavirus symptoms and/or tested positive for the virus. As part of the same set of questions, you can inform LV if anyone in your household is vulnerable.

Step 5: State if your claim is urgent, and if yes, explain why.

Step 6: Input your policy number and personal information.

Step 7: Give the details of the incident you’re claiming for. There are separate sections to fill in, making the process easier. These include details of each stolen or damaged item, estimated prices, and whether you can provide photos of the damage and proof of ownership if required.

Step 8: LV will contact you by phone or email within 48 working hours, or four hours if it’s an emergency. In some cases, LV will arrange for an inspector to visit your property.

Phone claims procedure

Step 1: For non-emergencies, ring 0330 678 5000.

Step 2: The recorded message gives several options, including if your call regards an emergency or if you just need to talk to someone.

Step 3: A recorded message explained there would be a long wait, but our call was put through to a call line after around 5 minutes. A person answered the phone in four rings.

Step 4: If your call is an emergency, ring 0330 678 5246.

Step 5: A recorded message informs you of the wait time – in our researchers’ case, it was typically a minute. However, our calls were generally answered by a person in less than 3 seconds.

Online emergency notification form

This form is very simple to complete.

Step 1: Click the buttons that are relevant to your emergency.

Step 2: Fill in your personal details.

Step 3: You’ll receive a confirmation code either by SMS or email.

Step 4: Enter the code in the required field.

Step 5: A claim confirmation email comes through immediately with the ID number of your claim.

Step 6: If you requested an engineer for a faulty boiler, gas or water leaks, or an electrical emergency, one will be assigned within 20 minutes, and you’ll receive confirmation when they are on their way to your property.

Claim number: 0330 678 5000

Lines open:

• 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday
• 8am to 4pm Saturday

Home emergency number: 0330 678 5246

Lines open: 24 hours a day, 365 days a year

Customer services: 0330 678 6545

Lines open:

• 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday
• 9am to 5pm Saturday
• 10am to 4pm Sunday

LV’s UK-based customer service call centre is open 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm on Saturdays, and 10am to 4pm on Sundays. The phone number is hard to locate on its website, with the ‘contact us’ button taking you to a selection of reasons why you may want to get in touch. There are contact telephone numbers for changing your policy, making a claim, or if you need legal advice, but locating a number for general customer services is challenging. Click on the ‘general enquiries’ button, and you are given two choices – to leave feedback on LV’s Facebook page or to send a tweet on Twitter.

You can, however, access your LV online account and ask questions through Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant-enabled devices.

If you do ring LV’s customer services, this is what to expect:

Step 1: You’ll hear a recorded message giving you several options – car insurance, home or landlord insurance, or multi-cover.

Step 2: After pressing ‘2’ for home insurance, there’s a long recorded message, followed by an option to get a new quote or one to retrieve a quote.

Step 3: Both of the options take you through to a person, with the call being answered within two to three seconds.

The customer service personnel are polite and helpful – only one out of the 10 we contacted sounded rushed. The others were happy to take time explaining the policies to our researchers.

Trustpilot has awarded LV insurance products a 4.6, rated ‘excellent’, with 94 per cent of reviews being four and five stars and 3 per cent giving one-star reviews. This is out of more than 60,400 customer reviews.

Many reviews mention how easy it is to get quotes and make an online claim. However, several customers express surprise or displeasure at large premium price increases, although they are in the minority.

“In May 2022 we came home from holiday to 90 per cent of our home flooded due to a burst pipe in our bathroom. We were devastated. From the first phone call to LV, they were fantastic, they reassured us and were caring, they even phoned us a few days later to ask us if they were doing everything we needed. Louise, our loss adjuster, came the next day from a company called Sedgwick and was brilliant. She showed empathy and was so professional. Louise explained what would happen and how long it all could take, and she was there if ever we needed her… My friends and family have seen how we have been treated and they too have started to use LV. I couldn’t have asked for a better service. Thank you so much LV. We will continue to use you for all our insurance needs. Also, you give great quotes!”

• Angie, via Trustpilot

“Let me be clear, this review relates to the company as a whole, not to the agent who just helped me renew my car insurance. I used to have home, car and travel insurance with LV. Now it’s just car and that’s because they are cheapest. Once they’d got me to move all three policies across, they whacked up my home insurance by a massive 40% one year with no reason or explanation. I pushed back and it became evident that they couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything so I voted with my feet.”

• Ian Lovatt, via Trustpilot

“Ended up switching cars from a multi car policy to individual LV policies (cost less for some reason). And moved house insurance to LV; the cover on the house insurance was way better than what others were offering.”

• Ian, via Trustpilot

Defaqto is designed to guide consumers, financial advisors, and institutions towards making informed decisions on products and services. Its experts provide impartial ratings based on in-depth analysis of market developments, consumer reports and consultations with industry professionals.

Defaqto awards LV home insurance policies:

★★★★★ LV Home Plus cover policies

★★★★★ LV Home cover policies

★★★★ LV Essentials cover policies

Out of the six home insurance providers compared, LV has the highest Trustpilot rating, closely followed by Aviva, with Admiral featuring the lowest score of 3.3. Defaqto awards several providers and their policies five stars, including LV, Admiral, Axa, and Aviva.

Taking the two highest scorers on Trustpilot and Defaqto – LV and Aviva, both exclude damage to the garden or fences in the case of a storm. Aviva lacks any matching sets cover, while LV will cover 50 per cent of the cost of replacing any undamaged items in a set. LV also offers cover for contents whilst in a nursing home. Tracing a water leak is only included in LV’s Home and Home Plus policies, but Aviva provides this as standard across all levels of buildings insurance. Whether these factors are important depends on your own circ*mstances.

However, one aspect that we feel gives Aviva the edge over LV is the no claims discount, which the latter lacks completely. Not only does Aviva include this, it offers the optional extra of a protected no claims discount with its buildings and contents policies. This allows you to make up to two claims in five years without losing your discount. No claims discounts can make a significant saving on your home insurance premiums, so this could give Aviva the advantage over LV.

Offering three cover tiers, which include buildings, contents and a combined policy, allows LV to deliver affordable home insurance to those with a wide range of requirements. It also provides a number of optional extras, meaning that a fully tailored policy is easily achievable.

The claims process is straightforward, with many customer reviews agreeing with our researchers’ findings. We did find it hard to locate the customer service contact details on LV’s website, however, although the people we spoke to were helpful and took the time to explain the policy details clearly.

Overall, we feel that LV offers good home insurance policies, especially if you have a requirement for nursing home contents cover, but the lack of a no claims discount across any of its three policy levels lets it down.