Is Home Emergency Cover Worth It?

carbonmonoxide

I've been looking into home emergency cover after our locks failed last year meaning we couldn't get back in the house costing us around £80 to sort out, which was fairly reasonable considering I thought.

I've looked into AA home emergency which covers the usual stuff - water supply, plumbing, drains, internal gas and electrics, pests, roof damage, and locks etc.

What do people here think about this sort of cover, is it worth it or is a lot of it covered by basic buildings insurance anyway?

lisyloo

Personally we don't have it.
My OH can do most emergency things.
My personal experience is that it is literally emergency measures e.g. if you had a leak under floorboards their solution is to switch the water off (which you could easily do yourself).
They won't start taking up floorboards in the middle of the night.
Similarly a broken window might be boarded up temporarily and not fixed overnight until you get it fixed properly.

I "self-insure" which means we simply pay out oursleves.
In 20 years we haven't had an issue (except the leak under the floorboards where they wouldn't do anything anyway) although we do live in NEW houses and don't have many maintenance issues.

I would say factors to consider are
1) age and state of house
2) Your ability to do emergency basics yourself
3) whether you can afford the payout yourself

I'm sure others have different opinions.

FinAdv

I think its definitely worth it. You yourself have mentioned that it cost you £80 to sort out the lock. If you have to call out a plumber or electrician, it would probably cost you more than that.

So, you need to weigh the benefits vs costs.

Basic building cover doesn't cover you for emergencies. Its to cover your building against fire, flood, storm etc etc. Emergency cover provides you with 24/7 service to call out if you have any issues with main heating, plumbing, lost keys etc. Two completely separate things.

vaio

The providers do it to make money so for the average bloke he’s better off putting the money in the bank and fixing things when they go wrong.

If you aren’t an average bloke and are prone to losing/breaking things/live in an old house then go for it but be quick because you’ll find that once you’ve made a couple of claims the premiums will go up/renewal doesn’t get offered, if the insurance company isn’t making money out of you they won’t want you as a customer.

I tend you use optional insurance for things I couldn’t self finance, house burns down, I’ll claim, pipe bursts or boiler/TV dies, I’ll self fund but I can see a greater leaning towards people insuring everything they can so YMMV