Buildings Insurance

Your home is your castle – we’ll help you protect it

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What is buildings insurance?

Our Buildings Insurance protects the structure of your home and any permanent fixtures from damage. So, it can look after everything from 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.

Unlimited sum insured

There’s no limit to the overall amount we’ll cover your property for Footnote [1]

Alternative accommodation

If the damage is covered by your insurance, we'll pay for alternative accommodation until your home is ok to live in againFootnote [2]

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, a football smashes through your window, 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.

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]

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

  • Caused by events such as fire, flooding and theft
  • We also cover subsidence, heave of land and landslip

Damage to garages and outbuildings

  • The structure of your garage and any domestic outbuildings are covered as standard
  • We’ll also cover swimming pools, ponds and fountains, hard courts, terraces, and patios

Cost of alternative accommodation (including loss of rent)

  • We’ll pay for accommodation if your home can’t be lived in due to damage covered by your policy
  • And if you’re a landlord we’ll pay you either for lost rent or for alternative accommodation

Replacement locks and keys

  • We’ll pay to fit replacement locks to external doors if your keys are lost or stolen, as well as alarm systems or safes in your home (up to the value of £1000)

Liability protection for injuries or property damage

  • Protection for injuries or property damage (if you’re legally liable as the homeowner)

What’s not covered

Unfortunately, we can’t cover everything – make sure you’re happy with what’s not covered, including:

  • Wear and tear
  • Wet rot, dry rot or frost damage
  • Fences, gates or hedges damaged in a storm
  • Claims for poor workmanship or faulty design

Take a look at our policy wording for full details of what's not covered.

 Read our policy wording (PDF 347 KB)

A buildings insurance quote in three easy steps

You can get a quote for our Buildings Insurance in three simple steps. We’ll ask:

  1. for your personal details, such as your name and address
  2. what type of cover you want, when you want it to start and about any previous claims
  3. if you want to change your excess or include any optional add-ons

Ready to get cover?

Simply select the cover you want when you get your quote.

Policy add-ons

 Tweak your policy with our add-ons and bump up the cover for your home and contents if you need to.

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.

Step 1 of 3

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.

Step 2 of 3

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.

Step 3 of 3

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

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Still need help?

If you’ve still got a question, find out how to get in touch on our contact us page.