Boiler Cover - Worth It?

Cal2051

Just after some advice, me and my girlfriend have recently bought a house so here's some background:

- 10 year old combi boiler in the loft
- Serviced every year by previous owner due to being rented out (got all records)
- While not being financially destitute or anything we are not particularly high earners and being faced with a replacement boiler bill of £3000 - £5000 fills us with dread.
- I thought tha most boilers would last 15 years giving us 5 years to save up this amount for replacement.

Do you think it would be worth getting boiler cover for emergencies? Any experiences with it - I have seen a few deals online for around the £10 a month mark which include yearly service etc so seem like a good-ish deal.

Does anybody know if you can get a boiler installation on like a pay monthly deal if something were to happen?

Thanks

Pincher

What a coincidence. I have a Repair and Protect contract for the rental house, but save money on my own house, and just get the engineer in when I need to.


With the rental set up, the maintenance contract is a tax deductible expense.


The response (Heat Team) is very good. A zone valve dies: called Monday, engineer turned up and replaced the synchro motor on Wednesday. For my own house, the independent engineer could easily turn up two weeks later, and then say he will come back tomorrow with the part.


I would at least get a safety check from time to time. It has happened that the gas valve leaked, and I did not smell it, but the soap bubble test the engineer did showed it up.


These boiler "rental" contracts where they install a new boiler for free, and then you pay monthly forever, is usually a rip off. It's like those Brighthouse hire purchase deals, the long term cost is obscene.

CashStrapped

I would put £10 - £20 month in a savings account called heating repair.

Then after the 5 years (or whenever your boiler fails) the money is yours!

You will also have fund to pay for an annual or two yearly service.

You will not have to have such a thorough gas safety check every year. That was only required as the property was let. So your services should be cheaper.

gilbert_and_sullivan

Combi replacements don't cost £3500, we paid £1350 last year all incl.

The secret is to finding that chap who isn't a plumber himself, but who specialises in boilers and the like and whom plumbers call in to fix things beyond them.

The chap who replaced our boiler used to service our previous one annually for about £50 and fix the odd problem that a 20 odd year old boiler would throw up.

As above, the money you would pay the insurance put in an account, pay the man annually for a service, and by the ime the boiler dies you'll probably have enough saved.