LV= Home Insurance Review 2024
LV= Home Insurance Review 2024
Good for
- Defaqto 5 star Rated Home and Home Plus Cover
- Home insurance from £179^
- New-for-old cover
- 24-hour UK emergency helpline, if you need help in a hurry
- Limited Accidental Damage cover included
- Business equipment cover when working from home
- Cover for a longer time (14 days) in storage when moving house
Bad for
- Storm cover for fences and gates not included
- Home Emergency cover doesn't include underfloor heating
The guidance on this site is based on our own analysis and is meant to help you identify options and narrow down your choices. We do not advise or tell you which product to buy; undertake your own due diligence before entering into any agreement. Read our full disclosure here.
With our Home and Home Plus policies we cover underground cables, pipes and drains, and you'll also be covered for breakage and damage to fixtures and fittings (things like windows, toilets and baths), your mirrors and home entertainment equipment are also covered
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How good is LV= home insurance? Their customer ratings are very good, quotes are competitive and both their "Home" and "Home Plus" products have top ratings for features—but are they right for you? Here's what you should know before you buy a LV= home insurance policy.
In This Review
Note: LV= home insurance is also available from comparison sites; that product is called "Select Home Insurance" and may have different terms to the Home and Home Plus products discussed in this review.
LV= Home Insurance Review: What You Need to Know
LV= home insurance has ranked #1 in our analysis of the best home insurance companies in the UK. Our ranking was based on an analysis of independent figures, from Trustpilot ratings (based on customer feedback) a measure of the features offered by a product, and Fairer Finance scores (specifically, their 'customer experience' ratings for home insurance).
So, broadly speaking, their features are good and customers are happy. What more is there to say? Well, their plans typically compete well on price. That said, if you're very budget conscious then choose add-on extras with care as they can increase your premium quite a bit. For example, don't buy cover you don't need (e.g. if you already have cover for home emergencies from another source or if you view your risk of accidental damage to be low). Read more about their premiums in our cost comparison below.
LV= offers three tiers of home insurance, which can be customised to a degree with the optional add-ons mentioned above. That said, someone finding they're adding a lot of extras onto the lower-tier 'Essentials' or 'Home' plans might find they higher-tier 'Home Plus' plan looks more and more cost effective, because it includes some of the features as standard that cost extra for the lower tiers.
Here is an overview of the key features offered by LV= home insurance.
LV= Home Insurance Key Facts
- Defaqto 5 star Rated Home and Home Plus Cover
- Home insurance from £179^
- Choice of three plans: Essentials, Home and Home Plus
- Essentials policies can be customised with up to £500,000 for buildings and from £25,000 to £50,000 for contents
- Home policies can be customised with up to £1,000,000 for buildings and from £25,000 to £100,000 for contents
- Home Plus policies have unlimited buildings cover and up to £150,000 for contents
- Optional Extras include: Additional Accidental Damage Cover (extended protection for accidents such as putting a foot through the loft ceiling, damage caused by children or pets and spills and stains), Personal Belongings, Bicycles, Legal Expenses and Home Emergency
- ^ 10% of customers paid £179 or less Oct '23 - Mar '24.
Moving House? For those moving house within the British Isles through professional movers, LV= contents cover will protect against financial loss due to accidental damage or theft during the move, including whilst in temporary storage for up to 14 days—this is longer than average, as most policies cover 3 days or 7 days. However, loss or damage to china, glass and brittle items is not covered unless these were packed by professional packers.
New for old? LV= will replace items on a like-for-like basis with new items of similar spec, except that items not in a good condition will have a reduction for wear and tear.
Pairs and Sets? In the event that one piece of a matching set or suite is damaged and unable to be repaired or replaced, LV= home insurance will contribute towards the full cost of replacing undamaged items in the group, but they won't pay the whole replacement cost. In that case LV= will contribute 50% towards the cost of replacing any undamaged items that are part of the same set or suite.
Working from home? LV= says their insurance covers work from home because office work is covered under LV= home insurance policies. They provide cover for business equipment (e.g. laptops, PCs and printers) as standard up to £15k on Home or up to your contents limit on Home Plus. But if work has given you office equipment to use from home, this would typically be covered by their business insurance (not your home insurance policy). Note: anyone seeing clients at home should contact LV= to ensure this is covered—this presents a higher insurance risk and your premium might increase as a result.
Cover to rebuild your home. Get up to £500,000 towards rebuilding costs with their Essentials policy, up to £1m towards rebuilding costs with their Home policy, or unlimited with Home Plus.
Flexible contents cover. Because one size doesn't fit all. Not sure how much stuff in your house is worth? No worries, they can help work that out for you with their contents insurance calculator.
Only one excess to pay. If you're claiming under a combined buildings and contents policy
Lock replacement: Keys lost or stolen? They’ll replace your locks so you’re safe and sound in a flash (£750 limit applied to Essentials, up to your contents limit on Home or Home Plus).
Optional Extras
To enhance your home insurance cover, you can add Personal Possessions (i.e., cover for belongings away from home), Accidental Damage, Home Emergency, Family Legal and extended Key and Lock cover. The Home Plus policy includes many of these extra coverages: Personal belongings, Bicycle cover away from home and Full accidental damage.
Home Emergency Cover: Emergency assistance up to £1,000 to help with emergencies such as heating breakdowns (provided the heating system is less than 15 years old and has been serviced in the past 3 years), internal plumbing, electrical breakdowns, roofing issues (e.g., leaks or tiles blown off in a storm), loss of keys, pest infestation.
Legal expenses cover: Legal fee cover up to £100,000 if you have to go to court for a private legal dispute (e.g., homeowner rights, claiming compensation, employment contract disputes, etc.).
Personal belongings cover away from home: Cover for loss or damage to belongings you take with you when you leave the house, such as jewellery, watches, cameras, mobile phones, tablets and golf clubs. Cover entails the UK and Europe, and up to 60 days worldwide. There is a limit of £2,000 (£5,000 with Home Plus) per item.
Cycle cover away from home: Cover for your bicycle against accidental loss, damage and theft away from home, as long as your bicycle is locked to an immovable object or within a locked building whilst away from home. Includes up to 60 days of worldwide cover. There's a limit of £1,000 per bike.
Full accidental damage cover: Cover for things like DIY accidents, damage caused by children, spills and stains, damage from your pet. This is included as standard with Home Plus policies. With their Home and Home Plus policies they cover underground cables, pipes and drains, and you'll also be covered for breakage and damage to fixtures and fittings (things like windows, toilets and baths), your mirrors and home entertainment equipment.
LV= Home Insurance Customer Complaints, Reviews and Ratings
According to Trustpilot, LV= is rated 4.4 out of 5, which is very high for a financial services provider. In fact, 81% of customers reported an "Excellent" experience and just 3% a "Bad" experience.
On Reevo, 99% of customers would buy again from LV= and 90% of customers said enquiries were handled efficiently.
While the vast majority of reviews were very positive, all companies have some complaints so we've scoured through the reviews to learn about what types of problems LV= home insurance customers have. Here is a sample of the complaints we found:
"Online portal seems to be down when I need to use it to access my policy etc."
"Without notifying us they cancelled our Home and Contents insurance as we had suddenly been designated as living in a 'flood area'."
"Premium increased by an inexplicable 18% at latest renewal to uncompetitive level."
"after having storm damage to my roof I contacted them... nearly 3 weeks after the storm damage we are still no further on... told we would not get any money towards the roof repair as it was due to wear and tear."
"LV have a practice of emailing you to confirm that your home buildings insurance policy has been renewed, then if there is a payment problem they just cancel the policy. In my case they had out of date card details. No phone call, no letter just an email to say your policy is cancelled. Which means your home is un-insured."
"We’ve paid extra for the emergency home cover who are an outsourced company who seem to have some issue understanding what their contract with LV entails."
"... I proceeded to buy my policy and the next day my Topcashback account showed my purchase. However it showed cash back due of £7 not the £30 as advertised...."
But there are also plenty of rave reviews. Here's a sample to see what people like about their experience:
"Fantastic. Best price for home insurance."
"I have often insured with LV previously, but moved away from them last year purely based on price...you know what they say about "you get what you pay for"...I've returned to LV this year - the price was quite competitive, but for me it's more about the great service I've had, both in managing my policy and also when it really matters, and I needed to make a claim. If LV stay competitive, I'll not be moving elsewhere in the future!"
"Really pleased with the home insurance policy I have just taken out with your company .. covers much more than my previous company at a slightly cheaper price too."
"Changing home insurer. I was changing our home insurer within a week or so of the renewal date, so it was important the switch went through smoothly and without too much hassle. All done online and with minimum fuss, and at a good price!"
"Easy to start home cover online. All documentation received as promised."
"I did a compare and LV were very reasonable for my home insurance. What I did like was the way everything was laid out, straight forward, easy to read so I knew what I was paying for."
In terms of how features compare, LV= home insurance bought from their website or a comparison site is rated with 5 stars out of 5; LV= broker home insurance is rated between 3 stars and 5 stars.
In terms of formal complaints with the Financial Ombudsman, Liverpool Victoria Insurance Company Limited received 261 new general insurance cases in the first half of 2021, on par with the 263 complaints in the prior 6 months. As discussed in our article on the largest UK car insurance companies, these figures put LV= amongst the best insurers in terms of formal customer complaints.
LV= Home Insurance Price Comparison
According to our sample quotes, if you're not adding on any extras, LV= Home policies seem like a good deal with premiums well below average. But, of course, if you'll be adding extras like Extended Accidental Damage and Personal Possessions or opting for the Home Plus policy then you may find your quote can rise noticeably. The company reports that 10% of customers paid £179 or less between May and October 2023.
We gathered pricing data from the LV= website for Home and Home Plus plans for a 30-year-old policyholder living in a mortgaged, 3-bedroom semi in SN11 who hasn't made any home insurance claims in the past 5 years. Insurance quotes can vary significantly from day to day and according to your individual details, so please just use the following data for educational purposes only; your quotes may reflect a large degree of variation. The excess on these policies is £100.
LV= gives the option to choose your excess between £100 up to £1,000. A policy with a higher excess will have a lower premium, because you're committing to pay more towards any valid claims. While a lower premium is certainly enticing, before signing up for a policy with a higher excess be sure you'd be equipped to pay the excess in the event of a valid claim.
LV= Home (Buildings and Contents) Insurance Add-On Costs
Here are estimated costs of add-on extras for a mortgaged, owner-occupied, 2-bed property in London when you buy an LV= buildings & contents home insurance policy. It can be useful to have an idea of the approximate cost of these optional features when you're deciding what cover to buy. But again, your prices might vary.
| Optional LV= Home Insurance Cover | |
|---|---|
| Legal expenses cover | £24.89 |
| Home emergency | £49.99 |
| Extended accidental damage cover (buildings) | £29.05 |
| Extended accidental damage cover (contents) | £14.53 |
| Personal belongings cover away from home (up to £2,500) | £19.01 |
| Personal belongings cover away from home (up to £5,000) | £31.25 |
| Cycle cover away from home (up to £2k) | £17.68 |
LV= Home Insurance Notable Exclusions
LV= home insurance exclusions include (but are not limited to) storm damage to fences and gates, loss or damage if you've been away for 60 days or more (occasional visits don't count), frost or rot damage, damage by pets, caravans or mobile homes, computer viruses, subsidence (due to coastal or river erosion, escaping water, structural alteration, repair, etc.), etc.
A few exclusions stood out to us as particularly mentionable. You may want to keep them in mind if you go with LV= or as you're comparing different home insurance plans. It's always a good idea to read through the full list of exclusions in the policy documents as we've only mentioned some exclusions here and others may be more relevant to you.
- 1. Building cover doesn't include loss or damage to fences and gates caused by storm, strong winds or falling trees/branches.
- 2. Contents cover doesn't include loss or damage during household removals to china, glass and brittle items, unless packed by professional packers.
- 3. Theft or attempted theft from housing while attending full time education is excluded, unless forcible and violent means are used to gain entry or exit.
- 4. For policies including Pedal Cycles, theft of unattended bicycles is excluded unless locked in a building or to an immovable object.
- 5. For policies including Personal Possessions (i.e., away from home cover), theft from a vehicle is only included if the items were hidden from view in a glove or luggage compartment, all windows are closed and the boot and all doors are locked—note, as far as we can tell the policy documents do not specify an inner "theft from vehicle" limit (we frequently see a £1k or £2k limit from many other insurers).
- 6. Those who leave their homes unoccupied for more than 60 days at a time won't have cover for malicious damage or vandals, theft or attempted theft or leaking water or oil, accidental damage, any home emergencies (even if you have Home Emergency cover), etc.
LV= Buildings & Contents Insurance: What's Covered?
LV= home insurance protects against calamities such as fire, flood, storm, theft, escape of water, subsidence (depending on cause) and other similar causes.
| LV= Home Insurance Cover Benefits | Essentials | Home | Home Plus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buildings | £500,000 | £1 million | Unlimited |
| Alternative accommodation | £25,000 | £50,000 | £100,000 |
| Trace and access | No cover | £5,000 | £10,000 |
| 12-month warranty on repairs by recommended repairer | Included | Included | Included |
| Accidental damage for fixtures and fittings (e.g., windows, toilets, baths) | Optional | Included | Included |
| Full accidental damage to buildings | Optional | Optional | Included |
| Personal belongings away from home | Optional | Optional | Included |
| Bicycles away from home | Optional | Optional | Included |
| Locks and keys replacement | £750 | Included | Included |
| Contents | £25k - £50k | £25k - £100k | Up to £150k |
| Accidental damage for TVs, DVD players, game consoles and computers | Optional | Included | Included |
| Full accidental damage for contents | Optional | Optional | Included |
| Plants in the garden | No cover | £2,500 | £10,000 |
| Digital download replacement (e.g., music, movie and book collection) | Included | Included | Included |
| Business equipment - including if you work from home | £5,000 | £15,000 | Included |