£1.99 Plumming and Drainage Insurance Cover

BeninRutland

I read an article in a national newspaper sometime ago that said that 2 Jags had insisted some years ago that the drainage and plumbing on your property [not internal] was the responsibility of the utilitiy company, so I have always avoided this type of insurance.

DJBenson

isayoldchap wrote: »

Remember Homeserve recently pulled out in buying Domestic and General Ins. so they want your business.

...because they saw an opportunity to launch their own domestic appliance policies (I work for Homeserve).

I have two policies with Homeserve - one Plumbing & Drainage policy (free to employees) and one Home Emergency policy (free with my house insurance) and have made claims on both. They have been out twice to my boiler and saved me a fortune and came out to a suspected leaking drain. I would say they are far from perfect, but we are currently undergoing a massive restructure which will see our position as number one home emergency provider ratified.

scheming_gypsy

Seriously DJBenson..

it's the other way round. I worked for Homeserve for over 7 years and since the restructures the company is going downhill..
Everything is being pushed through the head office rather than each arm running itself like it used to. All the IT has been centralised with crap results and HR has gone the same way. People not being paid overtime and the ones who did get paid it had it taken off them a month later because the other people got cheques.

I'm glad i got out of there and so are many other people. When they started world domination of emergency insurance they forgot what was important

advin

I've just had my second year renewall notice from Homeserve it's now shot up to £82 so beware!!!

richardajh

I have boiler cover with Homeserve, the boiler stopped working on Thursday night (before the Easter Bank Holiday weekend). I phoned Homeserve on Thursday night expecting to have an Engineer call the next day (Good Friday). I was told that they could not send an Engineer on a Bank Holiday! They could do Saturday however, unfortunately we were going away Friday evening returning Sunday evening. The best they could do was Tuesday. So I took Tuesday off work. I've had cause to call out Homerserve before and recieved a call first thing to say roughly what time the engineer would call. This time there was no such call, I phoned to check the engineer was coming and was told between 3 and 5. Shortly before 3 I received a call from the engineer asking for directions - there are roadworks going on at one end of our road - so fair enough - although surely eith sat nav you can figure out an alternate route? Once he'd got onto my road he phoned saying he couldn't find a parking space. Granted parking is diffficult outside my house but you can find a space within a two minute walk. I really got the impression the engineer didn't want to make this visit. I asked for his mobile so that I could scout out a parking place for him and he refused! I had to reschedule for Thursday. Not at all impressed and now looking at British Gas offerings.

hethmar

I have had the plumbing and drainage policy for some years. But I am concerned reading above that the drainage is only covered if its an emergency - as in, no water or whatever? If my drainage gets blocked I assumed that this would be covered, also if the pipes collapsed or something we would be covered - is that not so then please anyone in the know?

paintpot

I have a Homeserve policy for a rental property. I have had mixed dealing with them.

They attended for a blocked toilet - I had to force the issue for it to be dealt with the same day.

I also had a blocked kitchen drain that was spewing out and at the same time discovered there was a blockage in the sewer drain. They attended the same day (evening) but the guy said he couldn't unblock it with his equipment and that a tanker would be sent out that evening. No tanker came so after chasing the next day the tanker came. The tanker driver informed me that the guy who had attended before had told me a load of rubbish. However, they did sort the problem out.

A neighbour a few doors up had a sewage issue and they also have a Homeserve policy. Homeserve came onto my property unbeknown to meand stated the blockage was under my manhole. So, I rang Homeserve on my policy and I was told it wasn't an emergergency so they wouldn't attend!

I only use them because the street as a whole has drainage problems.

hethmar wrote: »

I have had the plumbing and drainage policy for some years. But I am concerned reading above that the drainage is only covered if its an emergency - as in, no water or whatever? If my drainage gets blocked I assumed that this would be covered, also if the pipes collapsed or something we would be covered - is that not so then please anyone in the know?

hethmar

So what makes a sewage problem an emergency or not?

paintpot

hethmar wrote: »

So what makes a sewage problem an emergency or not?

Well, I'm not entirely sure! I am not sure Homeserve are either . I gave my examples as they were two very similar scenarios, one which they attended the other they didn't! The only difference being, the one they did attend, the drain was backing up into the garden thus there was a physical outpouring. The blockage under the manhole was directly linked to the sink drain blockage. The one they didn't attend, I expressly said to them "so do I have to wait until my garden is full of sewage and it's actually coming out of the manhole" and the answer was moreorless "yes".
Sewage is a health hazard so does constitute an emergency if it is leaking somewhere it shouldn't.

Re plumbing, they also came out to a leaking toilet cistern which incidentally had flooded my rental property (but that's another story).

One representative from Homeserve told me if I had another blockage under the manhole to be persistent. He said if it persists in happening then they should camera the drain and to demand that they do so. He also said to say that the toilet or drain was backing up or something similar and then they have to come out. :rolleyes:

Bazz_2

BeninRutland wrote: »

I read an article in a national newspaper sometime ago that said that 2 Jags had insisted some years ago that the drainage and plumbing on your property [not internal] was the responsibility of the utilitiy company, so I have always avoided this type of insurance.

Sewage pipes on your property can be a complex issue depending mainly on when your house was built and the position of the main drain. Your sewage may go (a) straight to the main pipe line ( usually under the road outside your property's boundary) OR (b) it may link into a pipe line shared with neighours.

Should repairs be necessary it can become complicated : You would be responsible for (a) i.e. your sewage, you pay ! In case (b) shared sewage means the cost is shared for repairs as far as the main sewer. However, the problem is : How many properties share the pipe ? As you can imagine this can be difficult to resolve, especially if some were built at different times i.e. under different regulations.

So, finally, '3 jags' stepped in and declared that this situation would be resolved by 2010 by making the utility companies responsible for more external pipes*. As you might expect, they didn't like it and said the cost would be passed onto customers by way of an increase in Water Rates.

* Your pipes ( solely serving your property ) will still be your responsibility - but only as far as the boundary of your property. At this point, where it crosses your neighbour's land, it ceases to be a private pipe and becomes a public pipe and hence the responsibility of the utility company.

* If your private pipe connects to a public pipe on your property, you are only responsible for the private section.

The main outcome of all this is that neighbourhood disputes over joint repair bills should cease ( although it could raise problems with planning permission for extensions )

Oh, yes ! as you might expect, the application of this has been put back to April 2011.