If your home’s been damaged, the last thing you need is the stress of a lengthy claims process. That’s why we’re making it easier, with the option to register your claim 24/7 online. To get started, simply follow our three-step guide:
It’s best to have all the information about what happened to hand, before you get in touch with us to make your claim. But don’t worry if you don’t, we can still get your claim underway, and we’ll give you all the support you need to help make it all as stress-free as possible.
Remember your home insurance policy won't cover you for damage caused gradually or by wear and tear. A few simple checks could help prevent damage to your home happening in the first place. AXA, along with most other insurers, require homeowners to keep their property well-maintained and won’t cover you for general wear and tear, which can be
Make sure your property is in a good state of repair and that any necessary maintenance work is carried out as required.
Slipped roof tiles and loose cement around chimneys can lead to water damage. Fix these to avoid this leading to further damage.
Flat felt roofs have a relatively short lifespan. Typically, we wouldn’t pay for repairs if water is leaking through it because of its age or condition.
If your home has damage to its rendering, or its pointing is in a poor condition, you should get it repaired as soon as possible. This could leave you vulnerable to water and storm damage, and you may not be covered if you claim.
What will you be asked for when you make a claim?
Keep your documents handy - you’ll need your personal details, and preferably, your policy number - you can get your policy number from your AXA account.
Tell us what happened - and what damage there is to your home, take photos of the lost or damaged items (if you have them), and any related receipts, quotes or invoices. You may also be asked for proof of authenticity for any damaged items.
Let us know if your home is a listed building or not - what type of building it is and when it was built.
Structure and room details - how the building is made, does it have a conservatory, porches or a flat roof. How many bedrooms and bathrooms there are.
Whether you call us or , it’ll speed things up if you have the right documentation to hand. Be ready with your policy details, plus dates, reference numbers and receipts from the incident.
If you , you should receive a follow-up call within 24 working hours.
If you register your claim on a weekend, you'll receive a follow-up call on Monday.
Get started with your home insurance claim
Once you've checked that your policy is in-date you can proceed to making a claim.
What type of claim do you need to make?
Buildings, contents and personal possessions claims
Customers will reach the out of hours service if they call outside of the main office hours, where claim details will be taken and followed up during office hours.
All AXA Home Insurance customers can contact our domestic helpline for expert support regarding an emergency at home. We can arrange for an authorised contractor to help with:
All AXA home insurance customers have access to a confidential helpline for free expert advice about legal issues including:
Breach of contract
Personal injury
Motoring prosecution
Employment disputes
If you have an AXA Premier Home Insurance policy, you can also claim up to £100,000 to help with legal costs and expenses. If you have added legal expenses as a cover option to your AXA Plus Home Insurance or AXA Home Insurance policy, you can claim up to £50,000 to help with legal costs and expenses.
For legal advice or to make a claim, call 0330 024 1278.
Lines are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Claims outcome
We’ll do our very best to get things back to normal for you as quickly as possible. We will explain the next steps and how your claim will progress. This may involve submitting a quote for approval or we may appoint one or more of our approved suppliers or loss adjusters to help manage your claim to settlement. There are no fixed timescales for this process.
Any claim that you make against your policy will have an impact on your premiums at renewal. Rejected claims will have a lesser impact than a successful or paid claim. Your claims handler won’t be able to offer any advice whether it’s worthwhile for you to claim or not. Your renewal premium is calculated 25 days prior to renewal. Having had a claim in the previous year is only one of many factors which is used to calculate your renewal premium.
Each claim is unique. After registering your claim online, you’ll be contacted by a claims handler to discuss the details. We’ll then explain the next steps and how your claim will progress. This may involve submitting a quote for approval or we may appoint one or more of our approved suppliers or loss adjusters to help manage your claim to settlement. There are no fixed timescales for this process.
This depends on what level of cover you’ve selected. Before you register your claim, please make sure that you are fully aware of the extent of your cover. You should read your policy in full along with your policy schedule. Claims handlers are unable to offer advice regarding coverage queries. We’ll only be able to assess the coverage of your claim once we have fully registered and fully questioned the circumstances.
We may repair, reinstate or replace the lost or damaged property. If we cannot replace or repair the property we may pay for the loss or damage in cash or cash alternative (including vouchers and/or store cards). Where we can offer repair or replacement through a preferred supplier, but we agree to pay a cash or cash alternative settlement, then payment will not exceed the amount we would have paid the preferred supplier. If no equivalent replacement is available, then we’ll pay the full replacement cost of the item with no discount applied.
We won’t pay more than the sum insured for a claim. The amount we pay will also depend on any limit shown in the policy. Your cover limits won’t be reduced by any claim. Where an excess applies, this will be taken off the amount of your claim. We won’t pay for loss of value to any item or buildings resulting from repair or replacement following a claim. We may appoint an approved supplier to act on our behalf to validate your claim. They are authorised to arrange a quotation, a repair or a replacement.
AXA will usually pay up to £5000 for Trace and Access cover. This is for the removal and replacement of any part of your property to find the source of water escaping from, pipes, tanks, appliances or fixed heating systems which are causing damage to your property. However, it does not cover the repair or replacement of the pipes, tanks or heating systems themselves.
Each claim is unique and we have various methods of settling your claim, depending on the type, severity and size of the damage or loss. All claims start with the claim notification where the circumstances will be assessed and you will be given a claim reference number. Then the claims handler will triage your claim via the most appropriate route and explain the next steps and timescales. We may ask you to provide a quotation for repair or replacement. We may appoint one of our approved suppliers or loss adjusters to validate and manage the claim on our behalf. Some claims will benefit from the video streaming app which means we can survey the damage without you needing to take time out of your day to wait in for a surveyor.
No. But your AXA policy will cover you for any resulting damage caused by the escaping water. We don’t cover the cost to repair the leak. If you have chosen the additional Home Emergency cover, you can register a claim with the home assistance team and they can arrange for an emergency plumber to come out. If you have not selected this cover, you will need to arrange your own emergency plumber. The cost of the plumber is not covered. Trace and access cover is in place up to £5,000.
Here are some of the most common situations where a claim might not be paid. We're sharing these to help you understand why this is, and help ensure that this does not happen to you.
Accidental damage and personal possessions cover
The most common reason contents insurance claims are not paid, is that the right cover to suit your needs wasn’t chosen when the policy was originally taken out.
Accidental damage covers most situations, however, there are some situations such as damage caused by general wear and tear, or for an electrical fault that stops an appliance from working that will not be covered. Please refer to your policy wording for a full list of exclusions.
To protect any items you take with you away from your home, you’d need to take out Personal Possessions cover. This covers items up to £1,500 each and you will need to select the total value you require ranging from £1000 - £15,000.
Higher valued items may also be specified for an additional premium (items valued at more than £1,500 will not be fully covered unless specified).
Take reasonable precautions to protect your property, as we won’t typically cover something that has been left unsecured in the open.
Make sure you’re insuring your contents and buildings for the right value
Although not a common situation, if you haven’t insured your property for the right value, this can lead to your claim being reduced in value, or in extreme cases, rejected in full.
The value of things like jewellery may have increased since you first took out your policy, and you may find that you could be under insured.
And over time, you can easily increase the value of your general contents in your home as you may buy more things, or new technology, which is more expensive to replace.
High risk items worth more than £1,500 each, and bicycles worth more than £350 each, must be specified on your policy if you want them fully covered.
Anyone will tell you that if you have to make an insurance claim, it can be a very stressful time, especially when your life’s already busy. And we get that, that’s why we’re committed to making the claims experience as clear and as smooth as possible for you.
At AXA, we understand that no-one wants to make a claim on their home insurance. But with our professional support, we can help make a difficult time feel a lot easier, at the time you need it most, our claims specialists will be there to help you every step of the way.
Our UK-based team is here to give you expert care, whether registering a home insurance claim quickly and efficiently, keeping you up-to-date with everything going on, or organising an authorised contractor to help you with your home emergency.
Contacted by a fraudster or fallen victim to a scam?
Report this to us right away and we’ll take it from here and let you know what to do to stay safe.
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1 Data relates to home insurance claims for policies underwritten by AXA Insurance UK plc from January to December 2022.
