Having been a loyal customer for the past 4+ years, I now find myself at the other end. Here's my experience with Aviva: - In summer 2021, I notice two big patches of damp on my living room wall which is a shared wall between myself and my neighbour, I hadn't seen it before as it was covered by a bookcase which I later sold - Following the advice of a friend, I used a dehumidifier to alleviate the damp and took 6 months to monitor - Damp worsened so I got in contact with the neighbour, a non live-in landlord who at first seemed amenable to helping, we agreed some initial steps to take to have each side of our property seen by 3x professionals. I delivered on this agreement, he didn't. All three professionals checked both properties as the Landlord's tenants were friendly, amicable people who allowed us to check on their side. It turned out that there was a bathroom on the other side, starting just a few metres up from where the damp was appearing on my property. I have all three professionals' reports, one of which showed the bathroom tray wasn't sealed property and this was likely leaking into my wall. - Fast forward to April, I contact Aviva's Claims team to seek help and they advised me NOT to put a claim in because they needed to know the source of the damp to insure me against damages. At this point, the damp has become mouldy and spread to the adjacent wall. - After five months of contact with the Landlord, where he's tried to manipulate by threatening to evict his tenants so that he can get workers in to his property and get me to agree to cover all of his financial losses, I'm still at square one with no idea where the source of the damp is which stymies me with regards to progressing my case. - In Oct 2021, the landlord asks for my home buyer's report stating his insurers want to see it. I ask him to submit the insurer's request to me, to which he makes a number of excuses and tries to delay the process. He then blocks me and tells me to write a physical letter to him instead! - I get Bristol City Council involved who send a Senior Enivronmental Health Officer to look at my side of the property and arranges to meet the the landlord next door. His results also prove inconclusive. - At this point, I am exhausted and fed up of all the bureaucracy and ask the damp proof expert that I enlisted to come and fix the damp - Following this, I make a claim on Aviva where I am assigned a Claims Mgr - Thomas Munday who makes initial contact with me - Around the same time, a paralegal working for Aviva gets in touch and requests exactly the same information that Thomas Munday has which confuses me. Believing that there has been a duplication of efforts, I respond to Thomas but not the paralegal - Feb 2022: My first call with Thomas is very disappointing and felt like he was gaslighting and dismissing all my efforts over the past (almost) two years. Thomas asked me why I didn't make a claim back in April 2021, when I responded with what they had said his response was "yeah but they're just call centre people, you should have made a claim and then we would have gotten all the appropriate investigators out to your property" and proceeded to gaslight me and make me feel like rubbish - Following the call, within two weeks I've submitted almost two years' worth of evidence including emails, Plumber and Damp Proof Expert reports, WhatsApp screen shots of mine and Landlord's correspondence May 2022 - My claim was declined and when I appealed, that was also upheld. The Aviva guy who communicated the upheld decision was almost coaxing me to appeal to the Information Commissioners' Office, which I will be doing in the next week - In my final discussion with Thomas Munday, he informed me that they would be closing the case but that it could be reopened again if further evidence came to light. He advised me to go back to Bristol City Council and my Damp Proof expert and ask why they hadn't done gas tracer or salts tests (!!!) - Bristol City Council responds and I send further documentation and correspondence to Thomas Munday and desk@aviva.com but no one gets back to me - In the last two months, I've tried to contact Thomas on over 10 occasions via email and telephone. Each time, there is no answer or it goes to voicemail. He is also not answering his emails. - A request to the paralegal to send my Landlord a court order to enter his property and do some more investigations was made by one of Thomas's colleagues but as the case was closed, the paralegal wasn't able to help and has subsequently closed down my case. Now, over two years later and over £1000 out of pocket I am nowhere. Whilst the damp has been fixed, I'm not sure how long it will stay that way as the original cause of the damp is still not known! I'm absolutely appalled by Aviva's service Unfortunately I'm stuck with Aviva for the next 10 months but will be looking to change Home Insurance providers when the time comes as I don't want to be treated like a mug by a bunch of truth twisters who clearly don't talk to each other, try to gaslight the customer and provide awful service. It's pretty despicable that despite you investing so much money on a service that's meant to support and protect you, they turn their backs on you when it actually counts. Double standards Aviva! To quote someone below: "The current situation is simply unacceptable. We don't want 'apologies.' Successful businesses do not excel in excuses or apologies; they excel in RESULTS."