Liverpool Victoria

Liverpool Victoria Home Insurance

Liverpool Victoria, also known as LV=, first launched in Liverpool in 1843, selling ‘penny policies’ to poor communities to fund funerals. In 2023, the company now operates out of Bournemouth and offers a variety of insurance products including car and home insurance, as well as investments and retirement solutions.

Types of home insurance with LV

LV offers three types of home insurance:

• Buildings insurance
• Contents insurance
• Combined buildings and contents insurance

Levels of cover

LV offers three levels of home insurance – Essentials, Home, and Home Plus, all of which are available as either buildings, contents cover or combined buildings and contents.

The table below highlights the features of each cover option.

Policy	Policy Type	Buildings maximum sum insured	Contents maximum sum insured
LV Essentials	Building	£500,000	N/A
LV Essentials	Contents	N/A	£50,000
LV Essentials	Buildings + Contents	£500,000	£50,000
LV Home	Building	£1 million	N/A
LV Home	Contents	N/A	£100,000
LV Home	Buildings + Contents	£1 million	£100,000
LV Home Plus	Building	Unlimited	N/A
LV Home Plus	Contents	N/A	£150,000
LV Home Plus	Buildings + Contents	Unlimited	£150,000

What does LV home insurance cover as standard?

LV offers a broad range of cover. And, although LV’s policies are similar those offered by other home insurance providers, they do include some additional cover as standard which most other providers do not:

Fatal injury cover

Provides cover if a family member dies as a direct result of an injury caused by fire or intruders within 12 months of the events occurring.

Contents in a nursing home

Provides cover for the policy holder, their spouse or partner, or their parents (including parents-in-law) for loss or damage of personal belongings kept in a nursing home.

This is provided the individual or individuals resided in the policy holder’s home immediately prior to entering the nursing home.

To see what else LV covers, below is a table showing how each level compares.

What is covered	LV Home Essentials	LV Home	LV Home Plus
Cost to rebuild home	£500,000	£1 million	Unlimited
Alternative accommodation if you can’t stay in your home	£25,000	£50,000	£100,000
Trace and access to leaks	No cover	£5,000	£10,000
12-month warranty on repairs when using LV’s recommended repairer service	Included	Included	Included
Accidental damage cover in case fixtures and fittings are damaged	Optional	Included	Included
Full accidental damage for buildings	Optional	Optional	Included
Personal belongings away from home	Optional	Optional	Included
Bicycles away from home	Optional	Optional	Included
Replacement of locks and leys	£750	Included	Included
Contents in home	£25k – £50k	£25k – £100k	Up to £150k
Accidental damage cover for TVs/DVD players/game consoles and computers	Optional	Included	Included
Full accidental damage cover for contents	Optional	Optional	Included
Plants in the garden	No cover	£2,500	£10,000
Cover for digital downloads to replace online music, movie, and book collection	Included	Included	Included
Business equipment (including WFH)	£5,000	£15,000	Included

Optional extras

Several types of cover included as standard in either the Home or Home Plus policies are available as optional extras for LV’s base level of cover, Essentials.

If you opt for the Essentials policy but find yourself adding in several optional extras, it may be more cost effective to go for either of the upper-tier policies.

Cover	LV Home Essentials	LV Home Cover	LV Home Plus
Home emergency (including boiler)	£1,000	£1,000	£1,000
Legal expenses	£100,000	£100,000	£100,000
Additional accidental damage	Up to amount insured	Up to amount insured	up to amount insured (included as standard)
Personal belongings away from home	£2,000	£2,000	£5,000 (included as standard)
Bicycles away from home	£1,000	£1,000	£1,000 (Included as standard)

Defaqto rating

LV’s Home and Home Plus policies have been awarded a 5-Star rating by *Defaqto.

Excess and no-claims discount

LV has voluntary excesses between £100 and £1,000. It’s important to remember that, although a lower excess may appear cheaper, it will result in higher premiums overall.

No-claims discount

LV does not offer any discount for a no-claims period.

What things can influence home insurance quotes with LV?

When shopping around for home insurance quotes, all providers will stipulate what things can influence the price you’ll be estimated to pay. With LV, there are eight main factors that affect home insurance prices:-

1. The building materials of your home. What materials have been used to construct your property and the way your property has been built.
   
2. Where you live. Where you live can play an important role in the premiums you pay. For example, if your home is in an area that is prone to flooding, LV may consider you as more likely to make a claim.
   
3. The type of building you live in. With your home, the more rooms in your property, the higher the cost it would be to re-build your home or replace your personal belongings.
   
4. Your home security. If your home is equipped with certain security features, you may pay less.
   
5. Government initiatives. Changes introduced by the government can influence the price you pay for home insurance. For example, the flood reinsurance scheme, ‘Flood Re’ introduced by the UK government in April 2016, is designed to help those living in flood-risk areas.
   
6. The costs of repair and labour. If you own a lot of high-tech items, it may be more expensive to fix them, meaning the cost of your home insurance goes up.
   
7. The number of claims being made. If the number of claims being made goes up due to incidences such as extreme weather events, the costs to insure your home could also go up.
   
8. Severe weather. LV assesses the likelihood of severe weather conditions happening in the future and how their customers may be affected.