Boiler maintenance contract?

retnox

Hi

Recently bought my first house... anyway it has a boiler that the HIP shows was installed 2004 but I can't find any details of any servicing its had done since.

Should I

a) Take a monthly policy with british gas/homeserve etc for central heating with a 1 yearly boiler service included or

b) Pay £50 to a local heating engineer to get it checked out & serviced?

For what its worth, the boiler seems to be working fine, all the radiators work and so does the hot water

Thanks

keystone

retnox wrote: »

a) Take a monthly policy with british gas/homeserve etc for central heating with a 1 yearly boiler service included

Nope.

b) Pay £50 to a local heating engineer to get it checked out & serviced?

Yes and then put what you would have paid monthly to BG / homeserve into a building society account also on a monthly basis for that rainy day moment with your system.

Cheers

gas4you

Totally agree, apart from if it is an Ideal Isar or Icos. A service contract is a must with these.

kmmr

Boiler service contracts are like insurance. You may use them, or you may not. I have a service contract on two boilers and one has had thousands of pounds of work and parts done on it, and the other nothing.

And like insurance, it gives peace of mind, but may not be a great financial decision. As a LL I think it is very valuable, as you can call out an engineer for each imagined noise your tenants hear at no cost!

As a homeowner, its a bit more mixed as you tend to be more patient when you are paying yourself. However, having spent about £450 on a minor repair of my boiler (replacing a microswitch) using one of those big maintenance companies, I decided the service contract was worth it! I have never begrudged the £20 a month it costs me.

ormus

all warranty schemes are designed to make the companies big profits. not to give you a good deal.
ie the BG contract cost about 360 quid pa. you can get a lot of boiler work done, every year, for that money.

Keystone is quite right. 99% of peeps dont need a monthly contract.

Londonlass_2

I took out a boiler service with Homeserve 10 years ago. They used to come round every April. Two years ago an Engineer said the boiler had to be moved 60mm away from the kitchen window because of a new law which would have placed the boiler in the utility room! He advised me not to open the window when the boiler was on because of the fumes. I replied that in the 30 years I had lived in the house, I never done this anyway. I enquired with two M & E companies and they said that it didn't apply to my boiler because it had been installed before the law came out. This would also mean that 1,000's of people in this London estate are being hoodwincked into installing new boilers at £3k a pop. When I didnt receive an appointment this April, I phoned them up in June and asked when the boiler would be serviced - I women said any time up to September which would mean that for each yearly contract, they will be coming round every 18 months to 2 years. I'm still waiting nearly two years now. After several phone calls, e-mails and letters to them, still no joy. I wrote the the ombusman companies mentioned in their contract, no joy there either. I've e-mailed to Watchdog twice, still waiting. I've enquired with my solicitor now to take them to the Small Claims Court to recoup all my payments from May 2009. After this e-mail, I'm going to delete all the direct payments to them (they hood wink you into other things like outside water pipes). After looking in the Yellow Pages and taking advice, its cheaper to call someone in when there is a fault than to pay Homeserve. I've just hoovered out my boiler and checked for water leaks which is what the Engineers used to do, so I know the boiler will be OK again this winter.