Updating post from Reddit.
Hi all, just wanted to get your views as landlords whether it is worth paying for British Gas Homecare cover for boiler, gas, electrics etc? So far I have always bought it, however I would be interested to know whether other landlords do the same, or if you think it's a waste of money? Thanks
I use 247, and yourrepair. Costs about £14 per month for boiler cover and yearly service and gas certificate. I think it's worth it as you have to get a gas certificate anyway, so cost is really about £6/m for breakdown cover and service.
£60 for gas cert, plumber picks up keys and then drops them back with me. He is a friend but still, you could get one done cheaper.
Personally, I would look at other providers. I had HomeCare cover for four years (when I lived in the property), and every year, it was always a battle with renewal. The price would always increase drastically (like any insurance provider), and it got to a point where I couldn't justify it.
I also had one engineer cause significant damage to my kitchen (he threw a hammer backwards, aiming for his toolbox, missed, and dented my fridge freezer; and used the dishwasher handle as a foot rest, his weight broke one of the legs). He denied everything, but I had a camera in my kitchen that proved him wrong.
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Call,and threaten to leave they will lower the price a bit
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Sounds like you've had an unusual amount of call outs which is why they've raised the price on it.
Anyone have advice on who to use? I need this.
I'd also like kitchen appliances to be covered but very few weeks to do this:(
British gas
It's very expensive and i recommend getting no excess which is even more expensive (standard is £60 a call out). But it gives me peace of mind as a first time landlord. The tenants reported multiple faults (electrics, leaking pipe) during the start of their tenancy and British Gas came round and sorted it within 48 hours
I use it, but I keep promising myself to find an alternative. They come in handy when there are engineers available. When engineers don't arrive (and that is a common occurrence), I tear my hair out trying to get customer service to re-schedule.
I use the no excess option for gas, electrics, plumbing and 5 appliances. It's expensive, but it helps to know that maintenance is mostly a fixed cost
I use direct line home emergency. It works out for nothing really as you have to have the building’s insurance which is really cheap. £1500 for 8 houses with home emergency. Everywhere else I tried was double and didn’t have the home emergency
I had British Gas until I read the terms and conditions and it only applied if you had it like full service, like draining the whole system. It was a few hundred and was tented by then so gave up.
British Gas home care all the time all the way. Easy to get them out. On time. If anything goes wrong they will put it write and compensate you.
Waste of money imo. How old is your boiler? Some won't even validate your policy if it's over x years old.
Most modern boilers come with a 7-10 year warranty so I'm not sure what service they are actually offering.
I would actually find a good local gas engineer who doesn't your full service every year. Then when you do have an issue they are familiar with you and the boiler.
A lot of those boilers only have 7-10 year warranty ‘if’ they get serviced each year (all in the small print).
Correct. But these breakdown cover have the same criteria where they want it serviced annually. For the rate you're paying for the cover would be equivalent to an annual service anyway.
We used one of these schemes and when it came to claim they said it was invalid as we didn't get the system flushed at the outset... They'd never told us about that!
I use homelet.co.uk for landlord emergency cover. £60 per year. Have claimed before for no heating, no excess, was no issues…. Claims process was simple- no quarrels. Might be worth a look 👍🏻