Warning promotion of insurance from Homeserve by your local water company

fussypensioner · 7 January 2017 at 8:23PM

Apologies if this has already been posted before:

My local water company are promoting Homeserve Plumbing and Drainage Insurance.

Homeserve have reportedly been find over £30.6m for mis-selling and complaints handling. Many of your local water companies have hooked up with Homeserve targeting their customers to take out this insurance.

Please be aware that your Home and Contents insurance could include this type of cover and it is therefore unnecessary to take out duplicate cover. There is no mention of this in their promotional letter.

MSE flagged this up in a newsletter last April after a report from Watchdog.

Most of the UK's biggest water companies are promoting potentially unnecessary insurance costing customers more than £100 million a year, according to consumer group Which?.
Water users sold 'unnecessary' pipe insurance

It found nine of the 12 biggest firms are promoting "expensive" supply pipe insurance with their own free pipe repair schemes, which customers are automatically entitled to use.

HomeServe_company_representative · 9 January 2017 at 6:25PM

Thank you for your post.

We’d like to correct some inaccuracies. The fine you refer to relates to activities in 2011 – HomeServe has moved significantly forward since that time. You also state that ‘MSE flagged this up last April’ which is incorrect – this was a newsletter issued in 2012, some years ago now.

You mention our Plumbing & Drainage cover but then highlight Water Pipe cover, which are two different products. Our Plumbing & Drainage policy will mostly cover the inside of your home which a water company would not cover.

Our Water Pipe cover offers significantly enhanced cover above and beyond the limited voluntary provisions offered by water companies, such as emergency response, supply pipes that go under a house and permanent reinstatement. For example, if your water supply pipe is under your patio, we will access it, fix it and, if we’ve had to dig the ground up, we’ll put it right afterwards.

All of our marketing material includes comparative detail to enable our Customers to make an informed choice.

If there is a specific concern or issue you have relating to a policy you may hold with us, then we’d be happy to discuss this with you. Please do contact using the contact details which can be found on our profile page with your details.

dacouch · 9 January 2017 at 10:15PM

The fine is not for activities in 2011 but activities from 2005 until 2011.

They were fined £30m and in addition had to pay compensation of circa £15m

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/homeserve-fined-%C2%A330-million-widespread-failings

I had dealings with Homeserve in this period, their customer service was truely attrocious. I would never use them again

daveyjp · 9 January 2017 at 10:24PM

Nor me. They left site saying a boiler was working, which was amazing considering the main gas inlet valve was turned off.

stephenliverpool1 · 9 January 2017 at 11:04PM

Never bothered with these cowboys.

I use my home insurance instead, my bother who is a plumber (lives in Kent) and a reliable local plumber if I get any probs.

It is a bit like Sky Protection, which I have never bothered with either. I just contact Sky directly and get them to fix any probs for free; including giving me 3 new Sky boxes for free.

qsk · 10 January 2017 at 12:04PM

I don't see why it is bad for water companies to promote discounted Homeserve policies. I signed up to a Homeserve plumbing policy in this scheme and used their service without issues. You can simply cancel once one year is up.
The horrible stories I heard about Homeserve are all about their heating policies...

cajef · 10 January 2017 at 12:28PM

fussypensioner wrote: »

My local water company are promoting Homeserve Plumbing and Drainage Insurance.

In fifty years I have lived in seven different houses in various locations throughout the UK and have never once needed any work done on any drains or pipework other than minor things I could do myself or a local plumber could sort out for a one off payment, these insurance policies are a complete waste of money just like the extended policies shops try to sell you on various electrical goods.

fussypensioner · 10 January 2017 at 2:35PM

HomeServe_company_representative wrote: »

Thank you for your post.

We’d like to correct some inaccuracies. The fine you refer to relates to activities in 2011 – HomeServe has moved significantly forward since that time. You also state that ‘MSE flagged this up last April’ which is incorrect – this was a newsletter issued in 2012, some years ago now.

You mention our Plumbing & Drainage cover but then highlight Water Pipe cover, which are two different products. Our Plumbing & Drainage policy will mostly cover the inside of your home which a water company would not cover.

Our Water Pipe cover offers significantly enhanced cover above and beyond the limited voluntary provisions offered by water companies, such as emergency response, supply pipes that go under a house and permanent reinstatement. For example, if your water supply pipe is under your patio, we will access it, fix it and, if we’ve had to dig the ground up, we’ll put it right afterwards.

All of our marketing material includes comparative detail to enable our Customers to make an informed choice.

If there is a specific concern or issue you have relating to a policy you may hold with us, then we’d be happy to discuss this with you. Please do contact using the contact details which can be found on our profile page with your details.

My concern is that my local water company is promoting your insurance. In their letter it does not mention that this type of cover may be already available to me from my Home & Contents Insurance cover. If I don't have it already, I could add this type of cover to my policy from my existing insurer for a small added premium.

This is what it should say:

Homeowners should check if their existing home insurance or other policies provide cover, expert assistance and repairs in the event of the domestic emergencies and incidents so you are not paying for cover you do not need.

My letter does not say that my local water company can carry out a free survey to establish where the leak is, which you mention in your response to me. So the letter for some elderly people could be seen as scaremongering, in addition, I see the promotion of your service by the water companies as a sidestepping their responsibilities.

So although you may now allow your customers an informed choice, I think the water companies do not. It would be interesting to see the take up rate for this type of policy in an area where there are a lot of elderly and retired people.

Poppycat · 10 January 2017 at 2:43PM

I am fed up of getting these a couple of times a year. I have already had one this year but expect another one later in year. I am fed up of companies using our personnel data to sell you other things

stephenliverpool1 · 10 January 2017 at 3:13PM

I bet that the HomeServe company representative does not add anything further to this thread now. One post and he/she has disappeared lol !

HomeServe_company_representative · 10 January 2017 at 3:59PM

Hi dacouch,

Yes you’re correct, the fine we received was for events that took place pre 2011. Since that time it’s fair to say we’ve undergone quite a transformation and are a very different business to the one we were then.

I’m sorry that your experience wasn’t a good one and that we’ve parted ways as a result of that.

Warning promotion of insurance from Homeserve by your local water company

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