insurance: plumbing, drains, water supply pipe.

[Kantwebefriends]

We use a company called Homeserve who will send people to deal with the problem. Their service has been of mixed quality.

Are there competitors who might be better, or better value? Has anyone got any experiences to relate?

[Dicky99]

I believe British Gas have a similar plumbing and drainage service but not having that cover I can't comment on whether they provide good service. My old mum has BG boiler cover and they've been fairly responsive on a few occasions when she's had faults.

[Dod101]

We use a company called Homeserve who will send people to deal with the problem. Their service has been of mixed quality.

Are there competitors who might be better, or better value? Has anyone got any experiences to relate?

I would never buy that sort of insurance. Firstly because it is not likely to be in the least catastrophic, secondly, not only are you paying for the cost of remedying your problem, but you are also paying for the cost of the insurer’s admin and any profit that they might make.

Your best bet is to find a plumber you can trust and hopefully one that has a 24 hour call out service. Do not waste your money buying insurance.

Dod

[Itsallaguess]

]

We use a company called Homeserve who will send people to deal with the problem. Their service has been of mixed quality.

Are there competitors who might be better, or better value? Has anyone got any experiences to relate?

In addition to the valid points already made, the biggest thing that would put me off with this type of 'insurance' is that you would still never know who will knock at your door to do any eventual work, and with something like this related to home repairs, I would always want to have done my due-diligence first, with trusted word-of-mouth providing what will hopefully be a reliable plumber with good workmanship standards, who people locally know by name, and who can be vouched for in terms of previously-completed work.

Self-insure by putting some money away from the 'saved' insurance premiums, and do some local investigation to find a reliable self-employed plumber.

One thing I tend to look out for is tradesmen who don't advertise...

I find that the good ones always have enough 'word of mouth' work in their books to keep them more than busy, so if you're tempted to ring numbers seen in the local press, then try to do some more digging for names locally that aren't in the town paper, and consider why a good plumber would have to advertise...

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Mike4]

Having spent several decades working in the world of domestic plumbing, heating, renovating, building etc, I have come to notice it is always the thickest, least competent tradesmen who run out of work first and resort to doing 'insurance work' for any and every insurance company who will use them.

And eventually, even the insurance work seems to dry up.

[stuartedwards]

As a user of British Gas's Homecare offering, I can say that I am happy to use them. My recent 20 year old discontinued boiler developed a fault and was fixed the next day with a replacement part. BG's MO is to fix as cheap as possible under the terms of the 'insurance'. I am not so sure that a private operator would be so keen to fix, rather to suggest a replacment boiler at significant extra cost. The previous BG engineer advised 'Never replace this, they don't make them like this any more'. You pay your money, you take your choice.

[Dod101]

As a user of British Gas's Homecare offering, I can say that I am happy to use them. My recent 20 year old discontinued boiler developed a fault and was fixed the next day with a replacement part. BG's MO is to fix as cheap as possible under the terms of the 'insurance'. I am not so sure that a private operator would be so keen to fix, rather to suggest a replacment boiler at significant extra cost. The previous BG engineer advised 'Never replace this, they don't make them like this any more'. You pay your money, you take your choice.

The firm I have used for my annual boiler service tells me this every year. The secret is of course to find a firm you feel you can trust and stick with them.

Dod

[Dicky99]

Your best bet is to find a plumber you can trust and hopefully one that has a 24 hour call out service. Do not waste your money buying insurance.

Dod

Depends who the advice is directed to. For me I'd agree with this. For my old mum, for peace of mind, she'd rather have a British Gas employee visiting her than an unknown local tradesperson and I agree with her.

[scotview]

We use the full BG homecare package. I have a heart condition and BG gives peace of mind.

They installed our new boiler (at a reasonable cost) and the boiler 5 year guarantee period meant that the cost of the boiler maintenance was deducted for 5 years. We get a free annual boiler service. Recent call outs/repairs have been:
1 Replacement of two old and embrittled thermostatic valve heads and freeing off of another two sticking valves.
2 Replacement of a smart thermostat backplate, I don't do this type of wiring stuff anymore but I carry a full set of spares for my wired and wireless stats. This was in mid winter, I forced the boiler to fire as needed and the technician came first thing next day, sorted.
3 Replacement of cylinder motorised valve head.
It is generally the same technicians who attend and they are very competent and polite.

We have the plumbing, water and electrics cover but haven't used this yet but this isn't as costly as the boiler/central heating care.

Our home insurer NFU were keen to sell us home care but they were more expensive than BG.

We will probably get BG to install a new hydrogen ready, 5 year warranty, boiler, remove our cold water tank and install a highly insulated cylinder, as we approach the gas boiler cut off date. BG will probably install a 4 zone Hive control system when our smart stats eventually pack in and become unsupportable.

[Stompa]

Your best bet is to find a plumber you can trust and hopefully one that has a 24 hour call out service. Do not waste your money buying insurance.

Dod

Depends who the advice is directed to. For me I'd agree with this. For my old mum, for peace of mind, she'd rather have a British Gas employee visiting her than an unknown local tradesperson and I agree with her.

AIUI British Gas use a lot of subcontractors, so there's no guarantee you'll get a BG employee.

[Dicky99]

Depends who the advice is directed to. For me I'd agree with this. For my old mum, for peace of mind, she'd rather have a British Gas employee visiting her than an unknown local tradesperson and I agree with her.

AIUI British Gas use a lot of subcontractors, so there's no guarantee you'll get a BG employee.

Maybe if I explain to mum about the variety of contractual relationships BG has with it's Engineers she'll prefer to get the yellow pages out when her boiler packs up in winter.

[Dod101]

Your best bet is to find a plumber you can trust and hopefully one that has a 24 hour call out service. Do not waste your money buying insurance.

Dod

Depends who the advice is directed to. For me I'd agree with this. For my old mum, for peace of mind, she'd rather have a British Gas employee visiting her than an unknown local tradesperson and I agree with her.

I can understand the thought process but you would rather your old mum was visited by an unknown BG employee than un unknown local tradesperson? Do noy see the logic in that.

Dod

[Dod101]

AIUI British Gas use a lot of subcontractors, so there's no guarantee you'll get a BG employee.

Maybe if I explain to mum about the variety of contractual relationships BG has with it's Engineers she'll prefer to get the yellow pages out when her boiler packs up in winter.

I am very fortunate in that I have lived in the same area since I moved back to this country on retirement nearly 30 years ago. I have used a variety of local plumbers since then and settled on one firm. Not the cheapest but totally reliable with a call out service if you need it over holiday periods. They service my boiler annually and do any other plumbing jobs I need. Ditto other tradesmen, painter and decorator, roofer, electrician. If you can, that is a much better way to go than taking out insurance because you are not so much buying insurance as ensuring (more or less) that you have a reliable call out service. In insurance parlance all you are doing is swapping dollars but ensuring that the contractor has a nice revenue stream, mostly at the customer's expense.

Most of us are answering the OP, not particular circumstances where other factors may come into the equation, such as an elderly parent who has not got much idea where to start.

Dod

[scotview]

Maybe if I explain to mum about the variety of contractual relationships BG has with it's Engineers she'll prefer to get the yellow pages out when her boiler packs up in winter.

I have used a variety of local plumbers since then and settled on one firm.

Dod

Did you not post recently about a problem that you had with a section of your central heating that wasn't heating up. You asked folk here for advice and eventually got a plumber in. You were "lucky" enough to get in a young lad, newly in business, who solved the problem. Being "lucky" kind of contradicts what you have written.

[Dod101]

I have used a variety of local plumbers since then and settled on one firm.

Dod

Did you not post recently about a problem that you had with a section of your central heating that wasn't heating up. You asked folk here for advice and eventually got a plumber in. You were "lucky" enough to get in a young lad, newly in business, who solved the problem. Being "lucky" kind of contradicts what you have written.

I did indeed write about a problem I had over the winter but I called my usual plumber and they sent one of their newish employees, the lad in question, who had ambitions to get experience and then maybe set up his own business. I had forgotten him but he was a good man.

Dod

[Dicky99]

Maybe if I explain to mum about the variety of contractual relationships BG has with it's Engineers she'll prefer to get the yellow pages out when her boiler packs up in winter.

Most of us are answering the OP, not particular circumstances where other factors may come into the equation, such as an elderly parent who has not got much idea where to start.

Dod

Buf the OP has presumably chosen the insurance based option based on their own considered particular circumstances. The question was whether there are other competitor providers of such a service not about the merits of such a choice.

[Dod101]

Most of us are answering the OP, not particular circumstances where other factors may come into the equation, such as an elderly parent who has not got much idea where to start.

Dod

Buf the OP has presumably chosen the insurance based option based on their own considered particular circumstances. The question was whether there are other competitor providers of such a service not about the merits of such a choice.

Indeed

Dod

[didds]

Depends who the advice is directed to. For me I'd agree with this. For my old mum, for peace of mind, she'd rather have a British Gas employee visiting her than an unknown local tradesperson and I agree with her.

The three things that immediately spring to mind are

1) If its the guy that does the boiler service annually presumably it wont be an unknown
2) The plumber that gets called out by a british gas insurance policy wont necessarily be a BG employee of course.
3) And that plumber will very likely be an unknown arriving at the door.

Just my 2p/thoughts.

[funduffer]

I too get regular requests to insure my plumbing via Homeserve.

The water company send me an invite every couple of months.

I resist them, as they are expensive.

My mother used to use the BG scheme for her heating and that was expensive too.

A better option is to look at your house insurance. You can usually add 'Emergency Cover' to the policy for a fraction of the cost of Homeserve or the like. It can cover water plumbing, gas, boiler and electrics.

This is what I do when I renew my house insurance each year.

Now I can't say how good the service is when things go wrong as I have never exercised a claim for an emergency. It may also vary depending on which insurance company you use.

But it is a cheaper way to get peace of mind.

FD

[Kantwebefriends]

A better option is to look at your house insurance. You can usually add 'Emergency Cover' to the policy for a fraction of the cost of Homeserve or the like. It can cover water plumbing, gas, boiler and electrics.FD

Thanks for that. I find my house insurer remarkably uncommunicative. I suppose I should take the initiative and phone them. Or maybe I should shop around for a different insurer. Does anyone have any recommendations? I'd be looking for good service at a reasonable price with the sort of emergency cover that funduffer recommends.

Afterthought: is there any risk, when moving house insurance, that if some problem emerges then the old and new insurer will both refuse to pay while arguing that the cost should fall on the other?