Gas Supply Pipe Cover - Do I Need It?

CGORST

My elderly mum is being pestered into taking gas supply pipe cover, after she took out boiler insurance with a company. The problem is, neither my mum or I know whether she actually needs this. We haven't had any problems before.

Does anybody know about this insurance or have any opinions about whether it is a good thing to have or not? It just seems that it is one kind of insurance after another. Every time we sign up for one, they tell us about some other "essential" insurance.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

seven-day-weekend

I have gas supply pipe cover, it is £14.99 a year and it covers up to £2000 per claim for cost of call-out, labour, parts and VAT for repair and replacement of damaged internal gas supply pipes.

Also next day guaranteed attendance by a CORGI Registered Installer.

As my house is in one country and I am in another, I think this is good value.
Even when I lived in the UK, I found it difficulat getting a CORGI registered person..

It is with Homeserve, whch is Severn Trent Water.

ariba10

It is a personal decision, but I and no one I know have thought it necessary to have it.

lowbrim

Personally I believe these policies should not be required but having said that I do have the water pipe policy purely because I am 150 meters away from the supply. With water you are actually entitled to one repair free anyway I am not sure on the gas pipe but would have thought they were responsible.

The other point to make is that Homeserve is a private company and are given our names and addresses by the utilities so that we will take the responsibilty from them. They allow Homeserve to use there name on the contact information so if you lived in the Severn Trent area you would think they were Severn Trent. Homeserve shares are one of the best performing shares on the stockmarket all they do is sell insurance policies on pipes and domestic products that were once covered by the utilities themselves as part of your service.

Sorry about the sermon but it is one of my pet gripes!

Ken68

I've caged my outside gas pipe in with square type brown guttering, complete with air holes for the airbricks. It runs alongside a path, can hardly tell it from the brickwork.
My expensive plumber has never mentioned it, and never mentioned it before when it was open to accidental or malicious damage.

seven-day-weekend

lowbrim wrote:

Personally I believe these policies should not be required but having said that I do have the water pipe policy purely because I am 150 meters away from the supply. With water you are actually entitled to one repair free anyway I am not sure on the gas pipe but would have thought they were responsible.

The other point to make is that Homeserve is a private company and are given our names and addresses by the utilities so that we will take the responsibilty from them. They allow Homeserve to use there name on the contact information so if you lived in the Severn Trent area you would think they were Severn Trent. Homeserve shares are one of the best performing shares on the stockmarket all they do is sell insurance policies on pipes and domestic products that were once covered by the utilities themselves as part of your service.

Sorry about the sermon but it is one of my pet gripes!

That is interesting: do the utilities still cover the services? I have several of these policies.

lowbrim

To be clear these policies only cover the pipe from the outside stop !!!! to the stop !!!! in the house. Water boards do cover your first leak in all area's, some cover all leaks. They have done this by the back door as I understand it. I have listened to MP's on the radio who say they are responsible for all leaks but what do they know!

I would be very surprised if the gas pipe was not covered by the gas boards from the road to your meter it is a safety issue.

On the other policies from Homeserve be aware that they only cover emergencies ie you have no water or gas, they do not cover drips etc. The reason I know is that I had a bliockage in my internal water pipe after they had done a repair outside and they told me it was not covered on the policy as whilst the pressure was down (it was a trickle) I had water. I THEN READ THE SMALL PRINT!!

I have since cancelled all the policies other than the water supply pipe and the only reason for that is that Thames water are one of the worst companies and my house is 150meters from the stop !!!! in the road. If it was only a few yards I would not bother.