Homeserve - Pumbing and Drainage - positive stories?

salliee5

We recently bought a house (without getting a drain survey). Our budget is shot given the amount fo work we had to do. 
We noticed a lot of damp in the back walls which wasn't clearing after other attempts - not relevant here. Sio we had CCTV of our drains and they need to be replaces at a cost of £2.5k.  I checked my house insurance and as it is probably wear and tear we are not covered. 
After my panic about where we might find the money I remembered that I had taken out Homeserve plumbing and drainage insurance for £1/mth. I called them and they are happy to come and investigate and fix all for a £30 excess so a guy is coming on Sunday. 

My question is that the reviews for Homeserve are shocking. Do I even let them do the work? Has anyone had any positive experiences? Given that I know what needs to be done from our independent survey can I just let Homeserve engineer do the work assuming he follows the same path of repair? 

Many thanks,
Sally

TELLIT01

Not exactly major work, but when our toilet blocked they were out within 4 hours and job completed in about 30 minutes.  Despite the fact that he cleared the problem from the toilet, he lifted the manhole covers to ensure there weren't any other problems.

Have you actually checked with your insurer that it isn't covered or are you just making an assumption?  Even if the insurer is rejecting the claim, it might be worth appealing considering the cost of repair.

salliee5

Thanks. I did call the insurance company too but they said wear and tear so no help really. To be honest the drains wont have been touched for many many years. I was surprised Homeserve were happy to come and investigate - pleasantly surprised given the reviews online. 
I presume they just use local tradespeople so we might get lucky and get a really good one! 

Boohoo

salliee5 said:

We recently bought a house (without getting a drain survey). Our budget is shot given the amount fo work we had to do. 
We noticed a lot of damp in the back walls which wasn't clearing after other attempts - not relevant here. Sio we had CCTV of our drains and they need to be replaces at a cost of £2.5k.  I checked my house insurance and as it is probably wear and tear we are not covered. 
After my panic about where we might find the money I remembered that I had taken out Homeserve plumbing and drainage insurance for £1/mth. I called them and they are happy to come and investigate and fix all for a £30 excess so a guy is coming on Sunday. 

My question is that the reviews for Homeserve are shocking. Do I even let them do the work? Has anyone had any positive experiences? Given that I know what needs to be done from our independent survey can I just let Homeserve engineer do the work assuming he follows the same path of repair? 

Many thanks,
Sally

Are you expecting Homeserve to come out and survey the drain system and come to the same conclusion as the people that did the CCTV of the drains and repair it for nothing?

Have a look at the T & C's of the contract you have with Homeserve before you go any further with this and also is it a shared drain or just yours as this may affect the outcome.

salliee5

Boohoo said:

salliee5 said:

We recently bought a house (without getting a drain survey). Our budget is shot given the amount fo work we had to do. 
We noticed a lot of damp in the back walls which wasn't clearing after other attempts - not relevant here. Sio we had CCTV of our drains and they need to be replaces at a cost of £2.5k.  I checked my house insurance and as it is probably wear and tear we are not covered. 
After my panic about where we might find the money I remembered that I had taken out Homeserve plumbing and drainage insurance for £1/mth. I called them and they are happy to come and investigate and fix all for a £30 excess so a guy is coming on Sunday. 

My question is that the reviews for Homeserve are shocking. Do I even let them do the work? Has anyone had any positive experiences? Given that I know what needs to be done from our independent survey can I just let Homeserve engineer do the work assuming he follows the same path of repair? 

Many thanks,
Sally

Are you expecting Homeserve to come out and survey the drain system and come to the same conclusion as the people that did the CCTV of the drains and repair it for nothing?

Have a look at the T & C's of the contract you have with Homeserve before you go any further with this and also is it a shared drain or just yours as this may affect the outcome.

I will have a look. I was actually asking for advice. How does it work then? Have you had experience?
It is not a shared drain. 

Delmar

Hi salliee5,

Hope you got your drains fixed. How did you find Homeserve's response? Did they manage to fix the problem for you (less the £30 excess)? Was contemplating signing up for a contract with them but always a bit sceptical of a cheap sounding deal.  

in_my_wellies

I signed up for the £1 deal.
1. My kitchen tap leaked and they fixed that.
2. To turn off the water he needed to fit a new stop tap under the sink. He did that. 
3. The pipe leads to the outside tap and he noticed that was leaking (had done for years) He fixed that with a new tap
4. Then he asked to use my loo. He noticed after flushing there was a leak. He fixed that.
5. I mentioned another leak on another loo. The do-nut between the bowl and the cistern. Fixed that.
I got an excellent tradesman. There wasn't even an excess back then

Delmar

Nice to know someone had some good experience. When was this? I've since read they got fined heavily for mis-selling their policies.

adandem

We had a bad smell coming from our loo. Homeserve came out and said we needed to contact our water supplier immediately, he said there was a collapsed sewer but it could be anywhere??? It turned our to be the seal on the back of the loo.

captainscapegoat

I've been with Homeserve for several years. I have to say, they've always been pretty good. They came out the next day, usually , for a faulty boiler. The staff were courteous and even gave free advice over the phone so I could do stuff myself. They did several fixes to the boiler in my old house, turned up on time and seemed competent. And I got my thermostat replaced for free, then when it didn't work, they came out and replaced it with another new one.

Where they have fallen down slightly, is on price hikes for renewal, but did lower the price considerably when I called to negotiate. I do expect, however, that it will go up again. I was never sure if this was because I claimed or because I was a legacy account.

Also, their boiler service is more of a safety check, I'm pretty sure it's nowhere near what you'll get if you pay a plumber £70.

I've heard some bad stories about Homeserve, which would have put me off if I was a new customer, but so far, they've been pretty good.

ClareCassy

My mum, now 82 and a widow, has had Homeserve for years, after my 'DIY expert' dad passed away. We have had two very disappointing and frustrating experiences with Homeserve, despite paying approximately £700 a year. In the first instance, an upstairs smoke alarm was pipping and the engineer said 'someone' would have to buy a new one and they would return to fit it. So I duly went down to DIY store and bought one (I live 3 hours away). The second (much younger) engineer who came to fit it said it had to be the same as the other one as they are paired - correct advice I believe - and not only that, it turned out to be just a dead battery! the second was when she had a small leak under the sink, because the sealant had broken down. The engineer said 'someone' will have to go and buy the sealant and re-seal the sink as 'we don't carry sealant on the vans'. Again, that was my job in the end! This is an absolute joke so we have gone elsewhere, saving 500 pounds a year. We have felt ripped off by Homeserve and it is sad that this happened to my elderly, vulnerable mum.