Advice on which plumbing insurance to have

maxi6

Hi

I am wanting to spend about £8 per month on some basic plumbing insurance (pipes, bolier,leaks etc). Can anyone suggest any good companies/policies. I have looked at united untilities / homeserve and do not seem impressed with the feedback plus I cannot seem to make out what the specifics of the policy seem to be.

Thanks in advance

Max

DJBenson

What do you need to know?

£8 will get you little/no cover with any company.

The two biggest insurance providers are HomeServe and British Gas - the policies are very similar in levels of cover and price. British Gas has the advantage on the gas side as they are use a directly employed model (their gas engineers are employee's of British Gas in the main).

Feedback tends to be of a negative type, as with many products or services, people are quick to complain but slow to commend, sad but true. The only way to find out is to "suck it and see" - you can cancel if you are not happy after the 12 month contract.

Also, if your buildings or contents insurance are due soon, look out for insurers that offer "home emergency" cover - this is a package which is looked after by HomeServe and tends to cover plumbing, electrics, boiler (or main source of heating), glazing, locks, roofing and pest. With Cooperative Insurance, it costs 1p for the first year of cover, subsequent year for me was about £23.

Any questions, just shout.

G_M

The Co-op Homerescue plus is as decribed above, but note it is an 'emergency' cover. It will NOT fix your fault, just make the house safe.
I've just called them out to a frozen/burst pipe. The guy drove 40 miles (an hour of his time) to get here but refused to fix it. Just put on a temporary fix and then tried to get me to pay privately for him to cut out/replace the pipe.
I declined and will get a local man or do it myself. Crazy as it's really 10 minutes work and he had all the parts/tools there.
I rang the Co-op who agreed with him saying once the pipe stopped leaking it was no longer an 'emergency'!
So they paid him for his hour+ time, declined to pay an extra 10 minutes, and lost the customer goodwill.
I won't be renewing.

maxi6

Thanks for your replies, really helpful.

DJBenson

G_M wrote: »

The Co-op Homerescue plus is as decribed above, but note it is an 'emergency' cover. It will NOT fix your fault, just make the house safe.
I've just called them out to a frozen/burst pipe. The guy drove 40 miles (an hour of his time) to get here but refused to fix it. Just put on a temporary fix and then tried to get me to pay privately for him to cut out/replace the pipe.
I declined and will get a local man or do it myself. Crazy as it's really 10 minutes work and he had all the parts/tools there.
I rang the Co-op who agreed with him saying once the pipe stopped leaking it was no longer an 'emergency'!
So they paid him for his hour+ time, declined to pay an extra 10 minutes, and lost the customer goodwill.
I won't be renewing.

Correct on both counts :T

Co-Op HomeRescue is operated by HomeServe and yes, it is a "make-safe" policy, not an emergency policy. I agree with the sentiment though, he could have just as easily repaired the pipe. Some of the contractors will go out of their way for the customer, others won't lift a finger.

Cardew

There have been loads of threads on Boiler CH cover and an article by Martin.

Sadly for £8 a month, as said above, you just won't get anything.

My experiences with BG were excellent, but they have effectively priced themselves out of the market as far as I am concerned; and they also seem to want the get rid of older systems - spares not available/system flush at £xhundred required has been reported to often on MSE to be a coincidence.

I am now self insuring!!