Is Home Boiler Health Check a Scam?

Agoswami

I took boiler cover from Homeserve and paid the premium.

As a condition of the cover, I was required to get a boiler health check (BHC) within 90 days. I called Homeserve straight after getting the cover and was given an appointment after 4 weeks. The engineer missed the appointment and was given another appointment after another 4 weeks. The engineer again did not come to do the check and this happened one more time. This resulted in 90 days passing by and then the engineer came to do BHC on the 91st day. The engineer then rejected the boiler without even looking at it, suggesting that due to health and safety reasons, he could not do BHC, since the boiler was located in a confined space. This is the boiler that was serviced every other year by engineers from British Gas and HomeTree and they never complained about confined space. 

The boiler actually broke down on the 99th day and then I had to request Homeserve to at least look at the boiler and see if it could be easily fixed and BHC be done by a slimmer engineer. The engineer this time checked the boiler and then rejected it suggesting that the boiler needed repair, the fan needed replacement, and the heat exchanger was dirty. But they did not fix it as there was no BHC done.

I was put into this situation by Homeserve due to their failures to do BHC and then when I needed their assistance they denied helping because BHC was rejected, first due to confined space and secondly due to faults found in the boiler. I complained to them and they offered £50. This is when I had to spend £2.4K to replace the boiler and the people in the house suffer for 10-15 days while the boiler was broken down.

This makes me feel that Homeserve uses this tactic to charge a premium in the first few months and then reject the boilers during BHC making extra bucks. I believe they do approve BHCs if the boiler is fairly new. 

youth_leader

So sorry to read this.  I have always had a trusted local plumber to check my boiler each year, but thought I'd take out Homeserve for added peace of mind.  I had to have my boiler serviced by Homeserve before the contract could be activated.

I have recently moved to this bungalow and inherited a boiler contained within a badly designed cupboard.  My plumber struggled to get the front of the boiler off, but did manage.  I've been in touch with a carpenter to come and reconfigure the cupboard but no sign of him yet.

When the Homeserve engineer came he refused to service the boiler stating it was inaccessible and he didn't think it met H&S requirements.  He spoke to me in a very patronising way - and quite loud too, I'm not deaf - yet.  I cancelled the contract when he left.  Since cancelling I have read many reports of engineers refusing to service boilers due to the cupboard/location etc. I'm going to chase the local carpenter and get the cupboard changed as soon as I can.