If you have or you are considering getting a “Protection Policy” that “covers” your plumbing and heating system then please keep reading. ‘Which’ did a report a number of years ago stating in most scenarios it’s far cheaper to get your heating appliances serviced annually and to pay for repairs as of when they are required.
It is understandable why some people take out cover plans however these companies play on these insecurities people have. Everyone likes to feel safe and comfortable and when they pay money to big companies they believe they’ll be covered in the event of any issue. And that is just not the case.
If you ever look into the terms and conditions of these policies, what you are doing is paying a company for them to have 1st refusal on work they want to do. This is because they have exclusions and they will always have a ‘get out jail free’ card. I recall reading 1 section in the Terms of one policy that said something along the lines off…… ‘You are not covered if the fault is due to an incorrectly designed heating system.’ How would you know your heating system has not been designed properly? This means you could have been paying for one of these policies for months or years, of which the price of the policies usually increase every year much higher than the rate of inflation, then when you need to use the policy the engineer who attends tells you if you want it fixing we’ll have to pay for it because the heating system is not installed ‘properly’……. On top of that you’ve already paid you £60 excess just for the engineer just to turn up.
Also if you ever have a problem with your plumbing and heating system and you are not signed up to one of these policies and a local tradesman isn’t available you can still call the bigger firms and they will attend. Also nearly all boiler manufacturers do a ‘1 price fix all service’ now as well. That can be beneficial in many circumstances. You may find your home insurance policy covers you for your drains and plumbing outside the property, which I would say is beneficial because groundworks can get very expensive to repair.
So please if you have one of these policies that says it will cover your plumbing and heating please stop wasting your money.
If you’d like to discuss any of the above or if you would like to arrange a plumbing repair or boiler service then please get in touch.