Home Emergency Cover

admiralhanson

What's everyone's experience of "Home Emergency" Cover ... One of the things often tacked on to a Home Insurance Policy to cover things like blocked drains, leaking pipes etc. 

Is it a rip off ? 

What's the forum's experience of actually using it ? 

I live in a semi-rural location and my oil fired central heating boiler started leaking on Saturday afternoon.

We have our home insurance through John Lewis and have Home Emergency cover as part of our policy.

Their website has all the usual flannel about "Urgent response" ..."Stopping serious damage to your house" ..."24/7 cover"  etc. 

So, we logged a call with them on Saturday afternoon and went through all the hoops of registering on various websites.

36 hours later and several calls back to JL and their various subcontractors ... The extent of the assistance has been :

"Why don't you phone a local contractor ?" Er no, that what I'm paying you for. If I break down on the motorway, I don't expect The AA to suggest fixing it myself.

"Why don't you put a bucket under it ?" 🙄 ... Firstly, it is impossible to get a bucket under it and we are currently swapping soaking towels every 30 - 45 mins since Saturday afternoon (not to mention the washer & dryer that's been running almost constantly to cope) ... I've had 5 hours sleep in the last two days trying to minimise the damage.

- No "Urgent response" ... I haven't even been given a time of when anyone might call. Just a vague conversation about "getting someone out to me yesterday" but nobody  materialised. If the Fire Brigade gave a similar response, they'd be turning up to a lot of ashes ...

Am I unlucky ? (I appreciate they are stretched at times of storms etc. but we haven't had one for a week or so) 

Am I getting hammered for living rurally ? We're not that remote ... There are two sizeable cities within 45 mins drive of where I am now ... And JL are more than aware of my domestic arrangements, given the number of questions they asked at application and they're more than happy to take the premiums at renewal time.  

Or, is it just a huge rip-off, with another excuse for insurers to pocket your cash and provide little firm response in return ? 

DullGreyGuy

Only made a single claim, blocked drain, their guys came out promptly and tried to snake it from the kitchen sink where the waste water from the higher floor flats was coming out of the waste outlet for the washing machine. They were at it for a while but ultimately declared it unfixable by them within their scope so left.

Called a local person who just before he rang the door the waste stopped overflowing. He announced at the door he'd seen the manhole in the residents parking overflowing and so had cleared it there and there was no chance anyone would have reached it from inside the property. This guy had ignored the signs and stolen a residents parking space, had he parked in the visitor spaces as the other guys had would there have been the same outcome?

Ultimately the provider reimbursed the cost of the local guy plus £75 compensation. 

SaverRate

I am insured with Quote me Happy (Aviva) who use Homeserve as there home emergency provider. Called them out once and came same afternoon and sorted the very minor leak. 

A family member are insured with AXA and they have home emergency with them and they came and installed a new roof tile under home emergency cover. Although this was weather dependant they got it sorted.

So in both of these experiences I would say its been more than worth it. 

However, I was insured with Churchill prior to QMH. Called them (their subcontractor) to fix a leak on the boiler. They came out and were very unprofessional and said before they can carry out the repair I have to add certain things to the plumbing. I believe this was just an excuse to get extra money so declined them carrying out the repair. I had my boiler serviced yearly and never was an issue. 

So I think it depends on the provider and I am wary of this when looking at home insurance providers due to the above. 

amanda1024

Mine came free with the home insurance. Of the three times I’ve used it, the first time they didn’t have anyone immediately available so authorised me to get a local plumber out which they reimbursed (up to a limit). The second time they sent their own person, went fine but I had to pay their (on-street) parking (usually I find tradespeople pay for their own parking). Third time, had a leaking water pipe near the meter, I managed to turn off the stop-!!!!!! but when I talked to the home emergency team they said that’s all they’d be doing too - not even a temporary fix to the pipe, and apparently being without water wasn’t enough of an emergency. Ended up having to get it fixed myself, so when I come up for renewal I’ll probably go elsewhere.