AXA Home Insurance

My full review of Axa and Hastings who they underwrite with is over at Trustpilot with updates finally at financial ombudsman dated 10th December 2023 titled "DONT TRUST THESE ROBBING word removed!" go find the review and make your own mind up. I simply won't ever use these again.

The subcontractors used on my toilet damaged the soil stack pipe and resulted in damaging also the toilet making it also leak waste into my kitchen and forced us to move out of our property with a young family and a disabled person. When taking this to the final stage of financial ombudsman they sided with them in the end due to insufficient evidence yet I ask who did the damage to my property, wasn't me in the end?

Avoid Axa and Hastings at all costs their customer service is terrible, their contact info is terrible, their app is terrible, their products are terrible and their whole operation is terrible.

They shouldn't be doing business in the insurance industry. I'm out of pocket and was forced out of my home. This also had an impact on my overall health and I suffered with having to take time off work unpaid to deal with this also on top of resolving the damage Axa/Hastings did to my house.

Read my trustpilot review and make your own minds up????

My mum had a house fire 12 months ago and the claim is still not finalized.

My mum has been a loyal customer with AXA for several years and has her home and contents insurance with them. Last August 2022, she had a house fire which started in her bedroom caused by a mirror.

Crawfords were appointed as AXA's loss adjuster and claimed some ridiculous things such as all the wooden floorboards and wooden furniture could be sanded down and wouldn't need to be replaced. All items are badly damaged and black from fire damage.

She was living downstairs in the house without any central heating or gas for 4 months before she was offered alternative accommodation.

It's taken 12+ months to get to the point where my mum has been offered a settlement from AXA and the settlement won't cover the building costs quoted and the contents settlement offered is 2/3 of the contents value.

The worse is that AXA will not extend the alternative accommodation after December 2023 which means my mum is being forced into accepting a settlement which is not correct and won't cover the costs to put her house back to how it was prior to the fire.

I am absolutely disgusted at the treatment of AXA and would advise strongly against using them for an insurance provider.

It seems almost impossible to get through on their so called emergency numbers. I've just spent all morning trying to do this.

They have a number of exclusions which are not spelt out in policy documents. I had a drain blocked with roots which they would not deal with, describing it as accidental damage!

TAKE CARE AND READ OTHER REVIEWS

Appalling service so l have tried for 2 hours to contact the emergency service number. I have a health issue of which l need hot water. This is just a trickle from my tap.

I am a pensioner with a medical condition.

Absolutely disgusting service.

I would not renew my policy or recommend this company.

The issue that I have experienced was: I originally made a claim under my Saga Home Emergency through Axa Home Assist on the 29th of November 2021 and Axa Home Assist assigned the job to K&M Maintenance for the Emergency Roof Repair to make my home safe and secure.

I contacted Axa Home Assist and K&M Maintenance directly number of times but K&M Maintenance informed me that they were too busy to come out so I contacted Axa but without much of a direct assistance and they informed me I could get my own roofer to carry out the essential works and claim back from them once the work had been carried out.

Therefore I had no choice but to call out an independent roofer who could carry out the work to prevent further damage to the property.

It occurred on: 29/11/2021

This meant that Once the Temporary Emergency work had been carried out on my roof I was informed by Axa Home Assist they are only willing to pay for scaffolding as they feel it was a permanent repair.

A temporary emergency roof repair was carried out to prevent further damage and further leak into the property by fixing a hole in the roof, replacing the broken slates, temporary fix to chimney flue pipes, bed & point ridge tiles, and scaffolding for a three storey property for main roof.

As a registered disabled person it is very difficult to take time out to chase up my claim and organise my own repairs on behalf of Axa Home Assist who was not much of a help when it came for them to assist in an emergency.

I feel I had been badly let down by Axa Home Assist and now they are making a "Drama out of a Crisis" by refusing my claim other than scaffolding even though I went ahead with essential works after they approved to go ahead with the necessary work which was needed to prevent further damage and leak into the property.

Rang axa up (they provided home emergency cover for my ensure home policy) about a leak in my down pipe which was spraying water over my electricity meter cabinet. The policy doc said it coveted damage to rainwater pipes/ drainage however the person in the claims team took to refering to updated policy documents that weren't the version I was issued with to state otherwise. I stated the docs I had which formed the contract said different, she couldn't be bothered to seek these out and stood by her position. I asked to raise a complaint, she said she would so we will see. Anyone in an emergency be prepared to soebd 30 mins arguing your case, total joke, avoid them.

ATTENTION

Through my Halifax bank I got introduced to AXA assistance and Damand services.

My boiler was cutting off and pressure was dropping so I called the home emergency insurance provided by Halifax bank who I have been paying for the past 7 years. An engineer came out and said the boiler needs a new expansion vessel and a pressure relief valve and the boiler needs to come off the wall. He left saying the insurance company AXA will contact me. 1 day later no call, so I called them AXA asked for my service document which I emailed right away. AXA said the insurance does not cover the repairs and I need to pay £182 on top. When I asked how much I have left to spend they said £98 of the £250. So after managing the extra £182 I called back and said yes please go ahead with the job. Damand called took a payment of £185 and said the engineer will call before they arrive. So next day they arrive and detach the boiler off the wall they replace the expansion vessel and start saying that gasses are leaking. They cap the boiler off and pack up saying that the insurance company will call you and the boiler is dangerous you can't use it.

The insurance company AXA phone me and say that the service document is not correct its a gas safety certificate and we need a service certificate. So no work can be carried out until we give a service document. The service provider informed me it is a service document and it clearly states a service was carried out and the carbon monoxide had a safe reading of below 0.0007. Damand have damaged my boiler and broke the condense pipe. They get to keep my £185 for 2 parts and to repair my boiler. They have capped my boiler off. I have no hot water or heating and have 6 children under 10 years old youngest is 5mths. Damand and AXA now have the audacity to blame others for damaging my boiler. They are using the excuse of my service document so they don't have to repair my boiler. If we can't trust our insurance providers who can we trust.

42 minutes on hold for the line to then be disconnected. I call back to find you can't get through. I understand that because of the weather you are busy but this is lousy customer service.

We are a family of 6, of which 4 are young children. Here is our tale of woe, that has involved countless telephone calls, emails, wasted time and cost us a lot of money.

We had an escape of water in a small ensuite bathroom last November where the shower tray had cracked unexpectedly. The water travelled as it was trapped underneath the vinyl and continued across the house. It reached the main family bathroom and spilled out where the vinyl there met the hallway carpet soaking it. A lot of water subsequently came through our kitchen ceiling causing the ceiling to crack and bend.

We contacted AXA and were initially impressed, they told us they would send a surveyor from BVS to assess the damage within a couple of days. The surveyor offered a cash settlement to fix the repairs and advised us the hall way carpets could be replaced. A company specialising it drying properties was sent out to try and stop further damage, they left dryers on in our home for almost 2 weeks to remove as much moisture as possible. To aid the drying process they removed segments of the vinyl to expose the wooden boards. Unfortunately, this was where things started to go wrong.

We had humidity tests done on our kitchen ceiling and bathrooms after the drying company finished and they were still showing high levels a month afterwards. We got a series of quotes for the repairs and found that the settlement would only cover about 10% of the cost.

Given AXA didn’t seem to want to accept the quote as “fair” we decided in January that we would get our own contractors in to fix our kitchen ceiling as we wanted to avoid future issues and would reclaim the additional costs later. Our contractors repaired that damage professional and promptly, however we were now £300 out of pocket as the settlement (before the excess was deducted) hadn’t been sufficient. We challenged AXA on this and eventually they accepted the repair cost for the kitchen ceiling was greater than initially believed and increased the settlement amount for this aspect, although we were still out of pocket for it.

As AXA didn’t feel the quotes we sent them for the bathrooms were reasonable and we couldn’t come to agreement we agreed that AXA could instruct its own contractors to carry out the repairs, as if additional damage was incurred this would be covered. After several visits to scope the work we were expecting the works to be agreed by the end of February. However, AXA spent over a month negotiating the costs with the contracts and the works weren’t agreed till the later end of March. The expected date for the works during Easter came and went and still nothing had been done.

We complained and subsequently the contracts had to do another site visit (why we have no idea!), and a date for the works was agreed for July.

However, as they did not order the replacement vinyl they did not turn up nor notify us in advance, which wasted the time we booked of work. A later date at the end of July was agreed, the work should have taken 2 days as per the scope of works, however when the contractors turned up at 8am they did not have all the necessary materials they had to go pick up this, in addition they didn’t seem interested in carrying out all the works on the scope and had to be challenged on this. They left our house at 11:30am the same day as they had “finished”.

However, their definition of finishing involved them causing thousands of pounds of damage to our bathroom tiles, as they had failed to show due care and attention at our property. In their rush to “finish” the job they had caused more damage than they been sent to fix, they could not connect soil pipes correctly and our sinks aren’t level (they are about 1cm higher on the right hand side). When we complained to the contractor they told us that new scoping would be needed for the tiling repairs so they wouldn’t be fitting the vinyl, so at this point we had been 8 months without proper covering for our bathroom floors!

We complained to AXA about this, according the “Claims Manager” the contractors had been trying to “minimise disruption for our family” which was why they hadn’t been there that long. The damage to the tiling was “incidental” and wasn’t the contractors fault. Personally I’m shocked by such a claim as normally if you are experiencing difficulties you would advise the home owner, or stop and inform them after damage is incurred, not carry on and destroy the other bathroom before informing the home owner! AXA is refusing to cover the cost of repairing he bathrooms to their former state, they also want to use their contractors again and follow a suggested plan (which we have been advised by other contractors is unlikely to work without incurring further damage). Apparently AXA has no other contractors who service our area (North Essex) except the ones based in East London so we’re limited to them, or a cash settlement. When told they could use their own contractors again on the provision they agree to cover further damage as a result of the repair attempt I was told that AXA could not agree to this condition.

Our only recourse now has to been to seek new quotes for the repairs and once supplied we will be initiating small claims court action as AXA has no intention of fulfilling their contractual agreement.

Absolutely disgusted with the service and "cover" provided by AXA Home Insurance. Our home was flooded by a burst water main through no fault of our own (thank you Southern Water) and our basement was submerged by nearly two feet of sewage infested water. After the kindly fire service pumped out the worst of it we placed our claim with AXA. A loss adjustor was duly sent to assess the damage

which was mostly electrical goods, spoiled furniture, flooring and personal effects (including wedding and family photos spoiled beyond repair) after nearly 3 months of waiting there had been no follow up from them.

Eventually, I was contacted by email with an entirely condescending message to say that they are rejecting the claim. We were dumbfounded. The reason given that our home was not kept in a state of repair that was to their satisfaction. I'm sorry but there is no possible 'state of repair' that would have kept several thousand gallons of unhygienic sewage infested water from invading any type of property.

I contacted AXA to dispute this and after being on the phone for over an hour with laughable excuses we were still given no real valid reason why they would not process our claim. The way we've been treated has been criminal. We had taken a premium package with AXA and it's not worth the paper it's written on. We feel completely let down. Their customer service, or rather lack it, is atrocious. their staff, when they eventually deem to contact you are patronising and insulting.

Regardless how much AXA spends on building their brand image through advertising or sponsorship do not go near this company. Insurance is bought on trust to give you peace of mind that if anything ever happens to your family or home in incidences like this you will be taken care of. With Axa this is most definitely not the case. The way we've been treated is bordering on criminal and all we can now do is take our dispute to the governing bodies. No matter what deal you may be quoted by AXA do not touch it. What is the point of paying for insurance that doesn't provide your family with any protection whatsoever?