Looking into these.

They seem to cover a good amount of scenarios – stuff you could, but given the excess and penalities, would not want to claim on home insurance.

For instance on boxing day my father in law ripped the head of a tap and I had water pouring out everywhere. Luckily I managed to stop it and fit a spare tap (took me 4 hours with the old pipework and the wrong tools). For a few quid a month, given the age of the house, it sounds like it would be good for our situation

But, do they try to claim back on your home insurance as well? As such negating the benefits?

Don’t know that specific one, but they tend to cover the fixing of the problem (i.e. replacing the tap in your case), where your home insurance wouldn’t cover that, but would cover the resulting water damage.

Hope that makes sense, I’m typing quickly on my phone, before a meeting!

I used the British Gas one…it was absolutely brilliant, time and time again they came to sort our old bedraggled boiler, replacing part after part after part..

I used the British Gas one…it was absolutely brilliant, time and time again they came to sort our old bedraggled boiler, replacing part after part after part..

But at what point would it have been cheaper to invest in a new boiler that is more efficient (ie cheaper to run) and not have the additional cost of an insurance policy to pay for as well?

I had Homeserve 8 cover a couple years ago when there was a massive topcashback deal so it only cost me about £30 for the year (after cashback)
They replaced a leaky tap no problem, we didnt want the standard tap they offered so there was the option to buy our own and they would fit it FOC
Cover and service seemed good but cancelled it after the year as our intention was to replace our boiler so a large part of the cover wouldnt have been needed

I think they hike up premiums massively in the 2nd year regardless of you claiming on it so its possibly not something I would want to rely on long term

Everyone likes an anecdote so here goes.

BIL had an overflowing manhole in the garden Xmas eve (sunday) morning. Phone Homeserve they said someone would be there within the hour.

Several hours pass. Many phone calls and lots of apologies but no action.

It’s now sunday afternoon/early evening and the BIL is told no-one’s available. This is the Premier 24/7/365 cover *roll eyes*

<snip>

Severn Trent attend on Xmas morning and fix it