Allianz Home Insurance: What You Need to Know
Have you visited the Allianz website looking for home insurance and found nothing? You might have even been redirected to LV insurance...what’s going on? We have everything explained right here: from what the future holds for Allianz home insurance, to past policy details and customer reviews. Let’s get started.
Can I still buy Allianz home insurance?
So before diving into the details, let’s make one thing very clear: you cannot currently buy an Allianz home insurance policy (with the exception of high-value home insurance). Since Allianz embarked on its joint venture with LV in December 2017, it has ceased selling personal home insurance.
With this being the case, you may be thinking, why do I need to read an article about Allianz home insurance? What’s the point in reading about something that doesn’t exist? In actual fact, there is still a lot of value in learning more about the home insurance policies Allianz used to offer for two principal reasons:
- Comparing Allianz’s old policies with those currently offered by other providers can help you see who offers a good range of benefits for a decent price (the more policies you compare, the more accurate and useful your comparison will be).
- As of January 2020, Allianz will have sole ownership of LV’s general insurance branch, meaning it will be in complete control of the home insurance policies LV offers. This is also true of Legal & General’s home insurance operations, which Allianz purchased in June 2019 and will integrate with the LV brand.
Seeing the home insurance policies Allianz used to offer can give us a bit of insight into what they might offer through LV insurance very soon.
So, while you might not currently be able to buy an Allianz home insurance policy, it’s still worth taking a look at what benefits they included, the experience of previous customers and how industry professionals ranked them. And let’s not forget high-value home insurance: Allianz still offers this type of home insurance so let’s break down what it includes.
Allianz home insurance policies: what did they include?
Allianz offered three principal types of home insurance: buildings insurance, contents insurance and personal possessions cover.
- Buildings insurance: this protects the structure of your home (as well as permanent outbuildings e.g. a garage) from damage caused by natural disasters, such as earthquakes, storms and floods, as well as fires and theft, up to your sum-insured amount. The sum-insured amount can be different for everyone: it is the full amount you insure your house for based on how much it would cost to rebuild it from the ground up. Find out how to calculate your sum-insured in Selectra’s complete guide to buildings insurance.
- Contents insurance: this covers the belongings in your house from theft and damage caused by events such as a flood, fire or a burst pipe. Find out what type of belongings are included in our contents insurance guide.
- Personal possession: this protects your belongings from damage and theft when you take them out of your house. For example, if you take your laptop to work and it gets stolen when you are distracted on the underground, you will be covered (you can only take this out if you have contents insurance).
Like most insurers, Allianz used to offer customers buildings insurance and contents insurance individually, as well as a combined buildings and contents policy (which is the most typical type of home insurance). Within these policies, it gave customers the option of different coverage levels: from basic to more comprehensive, offering customers more flexibility when it comes to choosing a policy.
Allianz also provided many optional add-ons that you could choose to include in your policy for an extra cost. This again is very typical for home insurance policies and allows you to tailor a policy to suit your needs. Allianz optional extras included:
- Home legal expenses: this means Allianz would cover legal costs if someone pursues legal action relating to an incident that occurred at your house, such as a serious injury.
- 24 hour emergency home assistance: this covers you for unexpected incidences in your home which need to be fixed immediately to prevent further damage, e.g. a broken boiler or a burst pipe.
To help you compare an Allianz home insurance to others on the market, let’s have a look at the standard features included in all Allianz policies (basic to comprehensive), as well as the maximum amount Allainz would cover you for and compulsory excess rates (meaning the amount you have to pay yourself when you make a claim).
| Home insurance cover | Standard features | Maximum claim | Compulsory excess |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buildings insurance | Cover for:
|
£1,000,000 | Normal claim: £50 Water claim: £250 Subsidence claim: £1,000 |
| Contents insurance | Cover for:
|
£100,000 (unless specifically stated in the policy wording, valuables can make up 30% of the total sum-insured amount and any single-item can make up 15%) | Normal claim: £50 Water claim: £250 |
| Personal possessions | Cover for:
|
If making a claim for over £2,500 for a single item, need to provide evidence of value, such as a receipt of purchase | Normal claim: £50 |
Comparing these factors to other providers, Allianz comes out pretty average. The standard features of its policies match that of other providers, as does it’s maximum claim limits. The compulsory excess charges are also on a par with the industry average. So all in all, nothing spectacular to report for the good or bad!
Policies for high value homes and possessions
Good news if you have a high-value home and/or contents, Allianz is still offering high value home insurance policies through Home & Legacy. It has three different coverage levels: Prestige, Ultra and Ultimate. Let’s take a look at what each one includes.
Prestige home
- Minimum contents sum-insured amount: £75,000
- Alternative accommodation: 2 years
- Property owner’s and personal liability: £5 million
- Claim limit for unspecified item:
- £15,000 (fine art, antiques and collectables)
- £5,000 (jewellery and watches)
- Home emergency cover: £500
Ultra home
- Minimum contents sum-insured amount: £150,000
- Alternative accommodation: 3 years
- Property owner’s and personal liability: £10 million
- Claim limit for unspecified item:
- £25,000 (fine art, antiques and collectables)
- £10,000 (jewellery and watches)
- Home emergency cover: £1,000
Ultimate home
- Minimum contents sum-insured amount: £250,000
- Alternative accommodation: 5 years
- Property owner’s and personal liability: £10 million
- Claim limit for unspecified item:
- £25,000 (fine art, antiques and collectables)
- £25,000 (jewellery and watches)
- Home emergency cover: £1,000
Don’t know if you qualify for high-value home insurance? Selectra’s guide to all the different types of home insurance should clear things up for you.
Allianz home insurance reviews
Unfortunately, Allianz home insurance reviews are pretty scarce online, making it hard to determine what current customers think of the policies in general. In our overall guide to Allianz, we collected some reviews of Allianz insurance as a whole (not just home insurance) and it did not fare too well. Customers principally complained about poor claims management and inefficient customer service.
However, a notable number of customer on review site Feefo do praise Allianz home insurance, stating the service they received was quick and all communication was easy.
I had a fire in my kitchen and I couldn't have wished for a better insurance company. They took charge while I looked on, helplessly. In next to no time my house was restored, so I would like to say a big thanks to all concerned. James McVey
Reviews also hint that when it comes to price and value for money, Allianz home insurance customers were pretty satisfied.
Very competitive pricing. Fast, friendly and efficient, would certainly recommend. Anonymous Allianz customer
Obviously, as Allianz has not been offering home insurance since the end of 2017, these reviews are quite old (some of them were posted 3 years ago), and unfortunately we could not find more recent ones from current Allianz home insurance customers (perhaps this is because there aren’t that many anymore). A general trend we did not notice on Feefo however, was that more recent reviews of Allianz Insurance tended to be more negative than older ones.
What did the experts say?
In 2017, Defaqto (an independent financial comparison site) awarded Allianz’s most comprehensive home insurance policy 4/5 stars and its most basic policy 2/5 stars.
Defaqto awards its star ratings based on features and quality (price is not taken into consideration). With this in mind, it implies that Allianz’s basic home insurance policy did not really offer satisfactory cover, but perhaps this can be expected of a basic coverage level (you get what you pay for after all).
4/5 for comprehensive seems pretty good, suggesting that the benefits offered were fairly extensive but not the absolute best on the market for quality of coverage.
Policy prices
As we cannot get a quote for Allianz home insurance, it’s impossible to do an accurate price comparison with other insurance providers. What we can gather from customer reviews and Defaqto’s 4/5 star rating for comprehensive cover, Allianz home insurance was good value for money.
In light of Allianz’s deals with LV and Legal & General, experts have suggested that the insurer will most likely play it safe on policy pricing to begin with, but it also has the advantage that it could offer lower prices than other insurers.
Allianz has a low expense ratio (price spent on creating policies compared to amount earned from selling them) which means it has more flexibility when it comes to pricing than many other providers. This means Allianz’s new home insurance policies offered through the LV brand could be significantly cheaper than others.
Existing Allianz home insurance customers: claims, renewals & cancellations
If you had already taken out an Allianz home insurance policy before December 2017, you will be allowed to keep this policy until it runs out. Let’s break down what you need to do if you want to make a claim, renew or cancel your Allianz home insurance policy.
Make a claim
If you want to make a claim on your policy, you will need to get in touch with Allianz directly. You can find all the contact details you need in our Allianz contact guide.
Renew your policy
You will not be able to renew your home policy with Allianz. Before your policy is due to come to an end, we suggest you shop around for new policies and find the right one for you. Read our guide to switching home insurance to see the key points to bear in mind when comparing policies.
If you have a Cornhill Direct insurance policy, you will be able to renew it. Just be aware that your new policy will be underwritten by LV not Allianz.
Cancelling your policy
If you want to cancel your Allianz home insurance policy as you have found a better one from a different provider, you can. You are able to cancel your policy at any time, but with the following conditions:
- If you are within 14 days of buying the policy, you can cancel for free and get a full refund. As Allianz has not offered home insurance policies since December 2017, this will not apply to anyone wishing to cancel their policy now (sorry!).
- After these first first 14 days, you will have to pay a £50 exit fee, plus insurance premium tax to cancel the policy. You will then be refunded for the unused period e.g. if your policy is from September to September and you cancel in March, you will be refunded for the 6 unused months.
Although you can no longer buy an ‘Allianz home insurance policy’, you will soon be able to buy a home insurance policy created by Allianz, it will just be sold through a different name: LV home insurance. Keep an eye on our LV home insurance guide to see what these policies currently offer and if/how they change.
Data and information correct as of July 2019.
All material on this page and the selectra.co.uk website is for information purposes only and does not constitute any form of financial advice. Selectra.co.uk is not responsible for any consequences that might arise from your use of the information provided.
Other providers are available and the best deal for you will depend on your individual circumstances. Please do your own research and seek professional advice if necessary (moneyadviceservice.org.uk offers free, independent advice on all financial issues).