What is buildings insurance?
Our Buildings Insurance protects the structure of your home and any permanent fixtures from damage. So, it can look after your walls and the pipes behind them, to the roof and windows. And things you can’t easily remove, like a fitted kitchen or toilet. We’ll even pay to rebuild your house completely if it’s ever needed. You can also tweak your policy with add-ons like accidental damage and legal services cover.
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Unlimited sum insured
There’s no limit to the overall amount we’ll cover your property for Footnote [1]
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Alternative accommodation
If the damage is covered by your insurance, we'll pay for alternative accommodation up to the value of £100,000 until your home is okay to live in again Footnote [2]
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Finding and fixing leaks
If there’s a water leak causing damage to your home, we’ll cover up to £5,000 to hunt down the problem and fix it
You can take out our Buildings Insurance on its own, or together with our Contents Insurance as a complete Home Insurance package.
Who needs buildings insurance?
If you own a property you should think about getting buildings insurance. You don’t legally need to have it, but if you have a mortgage your provider may insist that you do.
If your property is a house, then it’s up to you to get buildings insurance. If it’s a leasehold flat, this means the building itself is owned by the freeholder and it’s their responsibility. The cost of this buildings insurance will often be part of your service charge. However, if you own the freehold, or you're part of a committee that owns it, you’ll need to sort out the buildings insurance.
Buildings insurance can be there for you if things like fire, theft, flooding or extreme weather damage the structure of your home or any of the permanent fixtures. For example, if a storm blows the tiles off your roof, or a burst pipe causes it to rain in your bathroom. Buildings insurance can help pay to fix the problem so your bank balance doesn’t take a battering.
If you’re a landlord
Our Home Insurance for landlords covers the cost of rebuilds and repairs if your property is damaged. So you and your tenants can get back to normal as quickly as possible.
If you’re a tenant
Check with your landlord what home insurance they already have. If they have buildings insurance, you probably only need cover to protect your prized possessions. Take a look at our tenants and renters insurance.
Working out how much to insure your building for
If you’re wondering how much buildings insurance you need, it’s all about the rebuild value. Which basically means calculating how much it would cost to completely rebuild your property. This is the ‘sum insured’.
The rebuild cost isn’t the same as the price you paid for the property, or how much it’s worth. Normally it’s less than either of these because it doesn’t include the value of the land.
With our Buildings Insurance we offer an unlimited buildings sum insured, so for most homes you won’t need to give us a rebuild value when getting a quote. Footnote [1]
Do you already have home insurance with us?
What our Buildings Insurance covers
We cover the structure of your property against damage caused by things like fires, storms or burglars. Permanent fixtures like kitchen surfaces and built-in wardrobes are also covered, as are driveways and patios.
What’s covered
Cover for damage, subsidence, and even lost keys.
Damage to the structure of your home
Damage to garages and outbuildings
Cost of alternative accommodation (including loss of rent)
Cover for matching items
Replacement locks and keys
Liability protection for injuries or property damage
What’s not covered
Unfortunately, we can’t cover everything – make sure you’re happy with what’s not covered, including:
Take a look at our policy wording for full details of what's not covered.
A buildings insurance quote in three easy steps
You can get a quote for our Buildings Insurance in three simple steps. We’ll ask:
- for your personal details, such as your name and address
- what type of cover you want, when you want it to start and about any previous claims
- if you want to change your excess or include any optional add-ons
Important documents
If you already have insurance with us, you'll find the documents for your policy in MyAviva.
Policy add-ons
Tweak your policy with our add-ons and bump up the cover for your home and contents if you need to.
Accidental damage
Choose between two levels of cover, either ‘extra’ and ‘limited’, to protect items in your home from accidental damage, such as your home entertainment equipment.
Protected No Claim Discount
Protect your No Claim Discount (NCD) and you can make up to two claims in five years without losing any of your hard-earned NCD.
Legal services
Get expert legal advice for a range of issues, from employment law to property disputes, with our 24-hour legal helpline and up to £100,000 in legal costs per claim for you, your domestic partner, and any family members living with you.
Home emergency
Get protected if the unexpected happens at your home, for example, if your heating breaks down. Cover for labour, parts, and materials if there’s an emergency.
The cost of buildings insurance
Just like mixing a cocktail, a little bit of this and a little bit of that goes into deciding how much you pay for buildings insurance.
Some factors are to do with you, like where you live or any past claims you’ve had. Others are to do with what’s happening in the wider world or insurance market. For example, if the weather has been wild and windy recently or there has been a rise in claims overall.
For more information about how we calculate your buildings insurance price, see our home insurance price explained page.
How our claims process works
Whatever happens, we’re here when you need us – online and over the phone.
Keep your documents handy
To make a claim, you’ll need your insurance policy number, any photos of the lost or damaged items (if you have them), and any related receipts, quotes or invoices.
Let us know
You can make a claim over the phone or online if you’re registered for MyAviva.
If there’s been an emergency, eg your home isn’t secure after a break-in or it’s not safe to stay there following damage, get in touch with us as soon as you can.
We’ll respond quickly
We’ll get back to you as soon as we can to sort things out. And if you make a claim online, we aim to get back to you within 2 hours Footnote [3].
Looking for more cover?
We’ve got a range of products to protect what’s important to you
Aviva Home Insurance
With Aviva Home Insurance you can choose Buildings, Contents or both.
Contents Insurance
From gadgets to grandfather clocks, our Contents Insurance can help to protect your prized possessions.
Home insurance knowledge centre
Browse through our reading list of articles in your own time and start building the foundations in your home insurance knowledge.
Ask our chatbot for online help or to connect with our support teams
Still need help?
If you’ve still got a question, find out how to get in touch on our contact us page.