homeserve good or bad

wanderer

has anyone used the homeserve home emergency cover? is it worth investing?

stewart_parker

do not go there i have just paid 3000 pound to get a collapsed drain fixed and i pay an insurance for the drain they are a rip off please spread the word ...this is my first time can anybody advise what i can do now..thanks

lisyloo

Hi Stewart,

Can you tell us why they would not fix the drain.
Wer they claiming it was not covered for some reason?

If you give more details I'm sure someone can advice on whether you have grounds for a complaint.

Quentin

They don't cover rainwater drains.

FiBe_3

Eek I have taken out their full Home Cover Insurance ie electricity, drains, plumbing, roofing etc. It'll cost me £15.80 per month but as a single female I felt this was a worthwhile option to avoid rip-off cowboys if anything (touch wood it doesn't happen) went wrong. Plus the fact that they cover up to £2000 per claim which I obviously don't have.

Is it really that hard to claim? Is it really not worth it?

Quentin

Read the policy, and the exclusions, and cancel it if you don't like it.

It isn't too hard to make claims, but obviously they won't pay out on a claim if they haven't covered the risk (and they don't cover rainwater drains!)

losgiganteskid

Extract taken from Homeserve policy wording...."Summary of Cover"

.......What is NOT covered:- "The plumbing and drainage within your home and external drains are not covered."

Quentin

They also do plumbing and drainage cover as well (different policy). Though they never cover rainwater drains.

DJBenson

As well as working for Homeserve, I am also a customer, both of their own Plumbing & Drainage policy and also a "Home Emergency" policy through the Cooperative Insurance (lots of companies i.e. CIS, Barclays, Natwest etc. have "Home Emergency" policies which are essentially operated by Homeserve).


Despite me working for them, my most important views of the company come from me being a customer.

I have made a couple of claims, the first for our boiler which is getting on a bit and let us down when we moved in. That did not go particularly well as it took over 4 weeks to get the parts but they did repair it in the end.

The second claim was for a leaking kitchen waste drain - this was repaired promptly and was the better of the two claims.

The thing to remember with Homeserve policies is that they are EMERGENCY policies, and as per their terms and conditions (which you agree to if you keep the policy outside of the statutory cooling off period of 14 days) states that an EMERGENCY is;

1) Anything which is a risk to health and safety
2) Anything which poses an immediate risk of damage to property or
3) Anything which makes the property uninhabitable

So, the issue mentioned above where somebody was told by somebody else that their drain had a crack in it would not be covered unless;

a) The investigation was carried out by the customer AND
b) The drain was proved to be leaking to ground

The policies are excellent for elderly or single people who are not confident with dealing with this kind of thing.

I have seen many claims go wrong where the customer believes they should be covered, and conversely where the company has got out of paying out on a technicality, but that is the nature of insurance unfortunately.

Rainwater drains are generally not covered as an overflowing rainwater drain is hardly likely to cause an emergency, however some policies DO cover rainwater drains. We piloted the policies in Scotland and are beginning to include rainwater drain coverage on our combined policies.

If anybody needs any further advice feel free to reply here, PM me or email me at spamalot[at]jwtcs[dot]co[dot]uk.

LMM_2

I don't agree, DJBenson that Homeserve cover you for the following

1) Anything which is a risk to health and safety
2) Anything which poses an immediate risk of damage to property or
3) Anything which makes the property uninhabitable

...as I was in exactly that situation this week.

I was in my shower the other day and went to turn it off by the dial and got a huge electric shock. I had to turn my electrics off to turn off the shower, so then I called Homeserve.

The first thing they told me was 'we don't cover showers'. I explained that this wasn't a self contained power shower, but one that was wired into a separate pump elsewhere in the house. They were quite insistent that I wasn't covered, but said they would send someone down to look.

The electrician wasn't terribly sure - firstly telling me that there was no problem with the shower and then that there might be. To be honest, he kept calling his office to ask them what to do next.

In the end, he recommended an electrical test to check what the problem would be. He told me he would be reporting this to Homeserve, and that they probably wouldn't cover me for the test, but they would call back immediately.

He then switched off the power to the upstairs of my house (telling me that I could turn it on again after he left) and unplugged my pump, which left me with no hot water.

Homeserve didn't call me, so I called them and they confirmed that I wasn't covered for the test or any work to bring my wiring up to required standard, including earthing. I asked for numbers of electricians as I didn't know of any.

One company couldn't come in until next week and the other would do the test, but would have to rearrange to do the work another time. I did book them in, took the morning off work, but they called in sick.

So effectively, I was left with no hot water or electricity, or if I wanted to take the chance and switch them on, any of my water outlets were potentially live.

....and Homeserve's answer to all this - get someone from the Yellow Pages!

DJBenson

LMM wrote: »

I don't agree, DJBenson that Homeserve cover you for the following


...as I was in exactly that situation this week.

I was in my shower the other day and went to turn it off by the dial and got a huge electric shock. I had to turn my electrics off to turn off the shower, so then I called Homeserve.

The first thing they told me was 'we don't cover showers'. I explained that this wasn't a self contained power shower, but one that was wired into a separate pump elsewhere in the house. They were quite insistent that I wasn't covered, but said they would send someone down to look.

The electrician wasn't terribly sure - firstly telling me that there was no problem with the shower and then that there might be. To be honest, he kept calling his office to ask them what to do next.

In the end, he recommended an electrical test to check what the problem would be. He told me he would be reporting this to Homeserve, and that they probably wouldn't cover me for the test, but they would call back immediately.

He then switched off the power to the upstairs of my house (telling me that I could turn it on again after he left) and unplugged my pump, which left me with no hot water.

Homeserve didn't call me, so I called them and they confirmed that I wasn't covered for the test or any work to bring my wiring up to required standard, including earthing. I asked for numbers of electricians as I didn't know of any.

One company couldn't come in until next week and the other would do the test, but would have to rearrange to do the work another time. I did book them in, took the morning off work, but they called in sick.

So effectively, I was left with no hot water or electricity, or if I wanted to take the chance and switch them on, any of my water outlets were potentially live.

....and Homeserve's answer to all this - get someone from the Yellow Pages!

A shower is classed as an appliance just like any other appliance in your home. Had you got a shock off your kettle, you would have received the same response from Homeserve.

As for bringing your wiring up to standard, why would an insurance company be liable for that? If a car fails it's MOT, does your insurance pay out to make it road worthy again?

Too many people are quick to rubbish them completely because they have been declined cover clearly down to a terms and conditions issue.

Not being able to supply contractor details is down to a contractual agreement with our engineers (which I agree is inconvenient for customers when you have a situation that clearly needs resolving but is not covered by your policy).

Just out of interest, what policy was this? Electrical, Plumbing & Drainage and was it a Homeserve-branded policy or a third party (i.e. Barclays) policy?