Do I need home emergency cover if I already have boiler cover?

Bungle73

Hi. Need to renew my home insurance, but I am unsure if I actually need this? I already have boiler, plumbing and electrics cover with Corgi.

pramsay13

You need to look at the scope of cover for both policies and the cost and weigh up whether or not you might use them and make a decision. 

MyRealNameToo

Bungle73 said:

Hi. Need to renew my home insurance, but I am unsure if I actually need this? I already have boiler, plumbing and electrics cover with Corgi.

HE will cover some things that the Corgi cover won't but the reverse may also be true. Really need to compare them side by side and decide if one gives you sufficient cover that you can do without the other or you need the cover of both.  Embedded products are typically cheaper than standalone options but price alone shouldn't be the deciding factor. 

luci

Snow fell off my auntie's roof and smashed the roof and contents of her conservatory on Christmas Day. She had HE cover and everything was covered. I'm don't know if it would have been covered without the HE cover.

MyRealNameToo

luci said:

Snow fell off my auntie's roof and smashed the roof and contents of her conservatory on Christmas Day. She had HE cover and everything was covered. I'm don't know if it would have been covered without the HE cover.

HE does what it says on the tin, it deals with emergencies. Its not intended to provide permanent solutions though with somethings a temp fix or a permanent fix are the same time/effort/cost. So HE on storm damage would often be someone coming out and fixing a tarp over the hole to prevent any further damage from water ingress etc, similarly a damaged electric radiator may simply be disconnected so that the remaining ones can be used safely. 

Home may or may not cover the permanent fix and/or the making good and/or resultant damage but that will depend on the cause of the problem etc. So for storm damage the Home would repair the hole and fix any damage to contents etc that happened before the temp fix was done. If the electric radiator was just a wearing out etc then the Home wouldnt cover the perm solution of replacing it. 

luci

MyRealNameToo said:

luci said:

Snow fell off my auntie's roof and smashed the roof and contents of her conservatory on Christmas Day. She had HE cover and everything was covered. I'm don't know if it would have been covered without the HE cover.

HE does what it says on the tin, it deals with emergencies. Its not intended to provide permanent solutions though with somethings a temp fix or a permanent fix are the same time/effort/cost. So HE on storm damage would often be someone coming out and fixing a tarp over the hole to prevent any further damage from water ingress etc, similarly a damaged electric radiator may simply be disconnected so that the remaining ones can be used safely. 

Home may or may not cover the permanent fix and/or the making good and/or resultant damage but that will depend on the cause of the problem etc. So for storm damage the Home would repair the hole and fix any damage to contents etc that happened before the temp fix was done. If the electric radiator was just a wearing out etc then the Home wouldnt cover the perm solution of replacing it. 

That's what happened. The roof was covered with a tarp until it could be repaired. The conservatory was decimated and the furniture and flooring were ruined by the snow, as it was feet deep. It couldn't have happened at a worse time with everywhere being closed for the festive season. 

I wasn't sure if it came under storm damage, as it wasn't a storm that made the snow fall, it was due to it starting to thaw out.

MyRealNameToo

luci said:

MyRealNameToo said:

luci said:

Snow fell off my auntie's roof and smashed the roof and contents of her conservatory on Christmas Day. She had HE cover and everything was covered. I'm don't know if it would have been covered without the HE cover.

HE does what it says on the tin, it deals with emergencies. Its not intended to provide permanent solutions though with somethings a temp fix or a permanent fix are the same time/effort/cost. So HE on storm damage would often be someone coming out and fixing a tarp over the hole to prevent any further damage from water ingress etc, similarly a damaged electric radiator may simply be disconnected so that the remaining ones can be used safely. 

Home may or may not cover the permanent fix and/or the making good and/or resultant damage but that will depend on the cause of the problem etc. So for storm damage the Home would repair the hole and fix any damage to contents etc that happened before the temp fix was done. If the electric radiator was just a wearing out etc then the Home wouldnt cover the perm solution of replacing it. 

That's what happened. The roof was covered with a tarp until it could be repaired. The conservatory was decimated and the furniture and flooring were ruined by the snow, as it was feet deep. It couldn't have happened at a worse time with everywhere being closed for the festive season. 

I wasn't sure if it came under storm damage, as it wasn't a storm that made the snow fall, it was due to it starting to thaw out.

Potentially it was Storm, Impact or Accidental Damage, depending on the exact terms each are a possibility. "Storm" can be defined by either wind or precipitation which of cause snow counts as. 

This starts getting into the whole causal chain concept of insurance, it's one that gets messy. Doesnt appear so much in the UK but it's common in the US for example. If you live in California then Earthquake insurance is really expensive however more properties are damaged not directly by the earthquake but the fact that the earthquake damages gas pipes which then causes a fire so historically there were arguments over if the property damage was really earthquake or fire, somewhat solved because insurers now offer "fire following" cover as a cheaper option than full earthquake cover but gives some protection. 

Came across a similar issue a few years ago on a commercial property policy, hurricane in southern Florida had taken out power lines. Without power the AC in a large warehouse had failed. As a consequence humidity inside significantly increased and due to that a reasonable amount of mould damage had occurred. The policy had cover for hurricanes, didnt have cover for power loss and had an explicit exclusion for mould/fungus damage. There was a reasonable debate going on what the proximal cause was and if the policy should respond or not. 

Ultimately a commercial decision was taken, a long term customer known to be very litigious in an expensive legal jurisdiction so settlement of the circa $30,000 was paid rather than potentially pay much more than that fighting the case. 

MarzipanCrumble

I had Home Emergency Cover with Saga.  Electricity went off and could not reset so called on it.  Came out, located a faulty fuse box in an outside toilet.  Isolated it, so had electrics back.  Did not cost.  Did not impact on No Claims years.  Told me where the problem was so I could get it fixed locally.

For peace of mind I would go for it - not just boilers.  (My boiler is brand new, under warranty, but still included HE in my Home Insurance).