Landlords' Cover for Plumbing & Drains and Electrical?

NewLandlord

Are there any recommendations for companies (hopefully not too expensive!) that offer landlords' combined plumbing & drains insurance and electrical insurance for a property that I rent out?

Note that I don't mind buying insurance from separate companies for the plumbing and drains cover and the electrical insurance unless there are good reasons not to. Also are these insurances usually worth it in the longer term, even just for piece of mind? Or am I better off saving the money into an emergency repair fund?

theartfullodger

Most landlords would have sufficient spare funds for these matters or, indeed, the 7-months of no rent from the tenant- (or agent-..) -from hell who doesn't pay whilst you pay legal fees to get him out..

If you can't cope (financially OR emotionally) with that sort of problem, don't start !

On balance any insurance will be more expensive in the long run than paying oneself ...

cattermole

I disagree with the post above.

I think if more landlords had cover it would be a lot less hassle for everyone. For starters you can get work fixed much quicker with cover and 24/7 in many cases.

Homeserve do a Landlord's policy I believe. For £13 a month hardly a fortune you get more or less everything! It's £21 in first year if you have no excess. You can always beat Homeserve down usually on renewal as well.

http://www.homeserve.com/insurance/landlords-insurance-comparison-new?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=b:_homeserve_landlord_emergency_cover_-_all&utm_term=homeserve_landlords_emergency_cover

I think whilst it might cost a bit more, it also depends how much you value your own time or if you use a letting agent, all the back and forth getting quotes to arrange repairs etc.

In an emergency IMO you can't beat having cover in place, whether as a Landlord or Homeowner. Especially for water which can do a lot of damage in a short space of time.

From a tenant's point of view it is far better as well.

anselld

I know people who rate British Gas Homecare 400, especially if you are remote from the property. I certainly would not trust an agent to organise repairs.

jayship

You can buy Emergency cover with your Landlord building Insurance. Stand alone policy is also available.However this is for emergency only and not routine maintenance.

Eg. Your boiler broke down and that is the only source of heating they will come out to carry out repairs usually upto £500.
You may need to provide evidence that annual service has been carried out. In case of Electricity they will only come out if there was a total failure. Read Terms and Conditions.

NewLandlord

Thank you all for all the information. Being a NewLandlord (tm) I think that, at least initially, I will go with insurance.

I saw that both British Gas Homecare 400 and Homeserve were recommended. Has anyone else had good (or bad!) experiences with these companies? Or are there any other insurance companies that people found to be reliable?

time2deal

I had BG 200 for a few years, and recently upgraded to 400 as I'm further from the property. Both my properties are in central London, and I have found the service to be excellent. As the poster above says I think it's a good idea and a nice service for the tenants. BG normally come the next day, although they did once arrive at 10pm at one flat (which I was living in at the time) as I had a small baby and it was considered an emergency to have no heating. I was pretty impressed.

The engineers themselves are sometimes a bit inconsistent, but they will keep persevering until the problem is solved. And not having to pay multiple call out charges, or for parts, is well worth it for me. Most of the time problems are pretty easy to fix, and they have done the job. I've also had some major work done under the contract. Financially it's been good value.

Their electrician came out recently, and again was quick, and fixed a light switch and power socket.

One thing to watch is the engineers are always trying to upsell. They tell tenants the boiler is inefficient so they have higher bills, and tell landlords it's need a powerflush to avoid future maintenance costs etc. Just be aware of this - and smile and nod! They are also a bit quick to condemn a boiler, so if they do it's worth getting a second opinion. I wouldn't use them for replacement as they seem very expensive. But generally I think it's an excellent service, and well worth the peace of mind.

UnhappyCamper

BG Homecare/ Dyno plumbing duo = little peace of mind, long waits, missed appointments, lack of customer service, no response to complaints, inexperienced and uncouth "engineers" (not quite sure why they call them that as engineers are highly qualified individuals)

NewLandlord

Thanks again for the feedback - British Gas Homecare has so far got two recommendations and one strong disapproval. Has anyone else had experience with Homeserve, the other possibility that was mentioned?

UnhappyCamper

I signed up to the MSE forum yesterday after reading your post as I felt like I needed to share my opinion to avoid other customers going through the same frustrations as I have.


To give you some context to my negative opinion:

I pay over £600 a year for the so-called "peace of mind" privilege. I called BG recently to send out an emergency plumber to find the source of a leak into the neighbours ground floor property. They confirmed an emergency "engineer" from Dyno Plumbing (this is their plumbing division which is also owned by BG), will be calling on the day. After numerous no-shows, hours of wasted phone calls and complaints to both BG and Dyno Plumbing, an "engineer" finally showed up.

The "engineer" misdiagnosed the problem and it continued to persist. Whilst at the property he did also point out that there was a problem with the overflow of the toilet, however, he said another "engineer" had to be called out to fix that problem as he was not allowed to fix it (a job which took all of 10 minutes and I later found out he should have done there and then).

Having told BG that the first "engineer" pointed out that the toilet overflow needed fixing and that they needed to make sure the next "engineer" they send fix both the leak and the toilet overflow, lo and behold, the next "engineer" said that "it was not on his piece of paper" (job paper that is...computer says no?...all Dyno "engineers" now carry ipad-like devices so not sure why this guy didn't have one, I can only imagine since it was his first day unsupervised as he proudly claimed) and therefore he was not able to fix the toilet overflow during his visit, but instead it had to be rebooked, again. I subsequently established that the "engineer" should have called the office in this instance, who would have confirmed that the job was in fact "on his piece of paper". To make matters worse, this "engineer" then proceeded to urinate in the toilet with the door wide open, without asking my tenant's permission (apparently they are not even allowed to use customer toilets), knowing that the toilet was not working and therefore unable to be flushed, making no attempt to flush it manually, and rather disgustingly, not washing his hands. I digress...

Three weeks later, three further "engineer" call-outs, increased water damage and frustration, the leak still continues to persist. I insisted that someone senior be sent out, as it was apparent the "engineers" did not have the necessary experience. Finally a plumber with experience was sent out (I think they are called service managers), but I was informed that the junior "engineer" had to attend the visit as service managers do not carry any tools, they are merely there to advise the junior "engineers" what to do. This of course turned out to be a complete joke - every time the senior guy advised the junior guy to use certain tools, he seemed to have none of those tools (and by tools I don't mean serious power tools, I mean basic stuff like a flash light, a hammer and a chisel), so the senior guy had to lend him his own tools (it turns out service engineers carry tools after all). I am only too grateful that the senior guy was there, as he had to tell the junior guy to stop what he was doing, otherwise the junior guy would have hit the mains supply and it would have been carnage - thank goodness for small mercies.

The problem has finally been identified thanks to the experienced service manager. It now needs fixing.... another return visit which Dyno failed to arrange, requiring yet numerous chaser phone calls to the local office where no one answers the phone.

To add to the inexperienced "engineers" (which is what you will get as apparently senior guys are only sent out if a third visit is required - which didn't happen in my case as I had to insist that the big guns are sent out) there are the BG call centres to deal with, often you hold for long periods of time and get cut off. No one owns your problem, every operator is only too glad when they can palm you off to another, don't bother asking to be called back with an update because you will waste your breath. Complaints department...what complaints department?

Save yourself time, money and stress....

NewLandlord

I am very sorry to hear about your negative experience UnhappyCamper, and would like to thank you for taking the time to write out your experience. I hope you are able to claim compensation - perhaps if you start a topic on these boards someone can recommend the best steps to take.

So does anyone have any positive (or negative!) experience with Homeserve or other similar insurance companies?