Unreasonable exclusions to deny claims. Read if you have a lodger. Having had the misfortune of needing to make a claim, I thought I would share my experience. I encourage you to look carefully at these reviews. The positive ones are all about how easy it is to take out a policy, how helpful they are. The negative ones are all about claims, where they do everything possible to deny any payment. I have a house with solar panels. In order to be able to make a claim for damage to solar panels, you must buy Accidental Damage in your Buildings Cover. This also covers your underground water supply, between the meter and your house. I spent over an hour with the agent, to ensure I had the right cover, and was never told that because I have a lodger, I would have no accidental damage cover. I have always been keen to make sure that the cover I have is appropriate, so I was surprised to learn that, when I made a claim for my water supply, I was not covered. "Accidental Damage" was described as for windows, toilets, baths, etc. No mention of Solar Panels, which they knew I had on my house and no mention that my underground water supply would also not be covered. Because I have a lodger. If you can figure out the logic of that, please enlighten me. My Buildings cover refers to "escape of water", and even had a clause limiting claims to £7,500 for tracking where the escape of water is. So I thought I was covered, and initiated a claim. It was denied, because I have a lodger. By doing that, apparently, I now have to report to insurers that I made a claim - even though it was utterly unsuccessful by not being part of my cover - so my premium will go up for a non-existent claim. Go figure... A further update, as my renewal has just come up. My claim was denied because I did not have "accidental damage" for my buildings cover. The reason for that is that BECAUSE I HAVE A LODGER, the standard accidental damage cover WAS EXCLUDED . As my renewal came up, I asked about getting accidental damage cover (even though most policies see your water supply pipe as part of the building, and not requiring such additional cover) - AND IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO OBTAIN, EVEN WITH AN ADDITIONAL PREMIUM. My advice: If you have a lodger, still well clear of Avantia. Or even if you don't, do not support this company with such a slimy pattern of weaselling out of paying claims. Seriously, how does having a lodger increase the risk to your water supply breaking? How did they even determine it was accidental damage since no one, NO ONE even came to look at it. Maybe it was ground movement. Maybe it was an act of god. Whatever, I advise you to not give them your money. The policy of seeing your underground water supply as requiring accidental damage to be cover, and then refusing to cover it because you have a lodger is unreasonable. Not making it clear what you would not be covered for, and making it clear that having a lodger excludes this cover is deceitful.