DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hi,

Hope this is the right place to be posting. I've seen a few ads recently advertising British Gas's HomeCare range of products which are meant to deal with boiler breakdowns. Whilst I'm pretty handy around the house, I've never wanted to get too involved with my boiler, seeing as it is an integral part of the house which could potentially be very dangerous if tampered with wrongly (carbon monoxide etc.), so I was thinking about something similar.

My only qualms with the Homecare packages are that they're frankly pretty expensive, which is really to be expected from a provider like that. So I was wondering if anyone had any other experience with these Home Emergency and Boiler Cover products, and so any suggestions.

I've recently seen this provider Best Price Financial Services (found on google) and they seem a decent price for what they say they'll provide; has anyone had experience with them specifically? This is who I mean: https://www.bestpricefs.co.uk/home-emergency-cover. They don't seem to have a monthly payment option, but I don't mind paying it all off if it's significantly cheaper.

So any experiences from anyone?

The experience with BG is that they will come out to check your broken CH or HW system, but you will be very, very lucky if they fix it or fix it without you paying for whatever they will conjure needs replacing or doing at your cost, as a pre-requisite (eg "power flushing"at £800). The AA is a bad, bad company in general (the directors borrowed 2bn pounds, paid it to themselves as dividends, and took the company public loaded with that loan. I presume that AA members are now paying for those 2bn pounds bonuses to their ex-directors). I had another insurer, Homeserve if I recall, after many many years of no claims there was a leak in the shower, so I called them out, and they said can't remember exactly but basically not covered. The point is if you spring a leak in the loft or underfloor, it could be big damage as well as hard to repair (imagine shower built in the wall, tiles and bricks to remove and put back again). The question is will they cover it? Although for £70 per annum what do you have to lose.

It's entirely up to you, but I'd recommend putting a bit away each month incase of a breakdown, especially if you have a newer boiler.

You can find that some companies are like insurance companies, and will always look for a way out of paying. If you have an older boiler, they will try to get you to upgrade at each visit.

Ask around for recommendations

Thanks both for your replies. Your experiences with BG and Homeserve don't sound great, Andy, so I'll probably steer clear. I think as a last-ditch thing maybe this cover will help - I had a big problem with the boiler over the weekend last year and the cost for a call-out then (out-of-hours as it's weekend) was pretty high. I'm guessing this policy probably wouldn't help with everything, but it does say "sudden failure of your main heating system", and includes parts & labour so I feel as if I'm getting a decent deal.

Thanks for your help too htg engineer - we have got a bit of a emergency fund built up anyway so I'm not too worried, although don't want to cut into it too much if I can help it! I was hoping to find anyone on here who'd maybe experienced this company specifically but don't know how big they are.