If you are buying a home or own a home, you’ve probably been advised to get home emergency cover. However, you may wonder what home emergency cover is. Or, you may be left debating whether or not it is a good investment and worth the money it costs. We’ll address both of those questions in detail here. We’ll also explain how to get the most out of your home emergency cover so that it has as great of a return on the investment as possible.
What Is Home Emergency Cover?
Home emergency cover is a form of insurance. It covers home emergencies like when the heating goes out or the hot water heater floods the house. This could also include anything that makes the home unsafe and things that make it an easy target for thieves. It also includes anything that can cause structural damage to the home. Hot water heater failures that flood your home fall into this category. Gas leaks pose a threat to your safety, and as such, would be covered under these policies.
Conversely, you cannot use home emergency cover when the issue is not an emergency. Nor is home emergency cover a maintenance contract. You’re obligated to either do the maintenance yourself or enter a maintenance contract with someone else who will.
Most home emergency cover policies kick in when your toilets aren’t working. However, one broken toilet when you have a second working one isn’t an emergency. But when the only toilet won’t flush, you’re without essential sanitation services; then the policy applies. A dripping shower head isn’t an emergency. When the water is leaking into the wall and damaging the structure, then the home emergency coverage applies. A stopcock is generally covered, as long as the issue is on your property.
A loss of power is typically considered an emergency. However, emergency cover doesn’t apply to outside wiring or temporary electrical wiring.
When is Home Emergency Cover a Good Investment?
If you are a renter, there is no point in getting home emergency cover as it isn’t your home. You’ll have to contact the letting agent or landlord when a problem arises. If you live in an apartment or flat, you probably can’t get home emergency cover for your plumbing because you share pipes with other units.
Home emergency cover may already be part of your homeowners’ insurance policy. In these cases, a home emergency cover policy may not be worth it. In other cases, the home emergency cover is offered as an additional policy you can get from the insurer. If this is your case, shop around because you might find a better deal from another insurer.
Home emergency cover is a good investment when you buy a policy that has broad coverage for everything that could cause expensive repair bills and would need to be repaired in a hurry. People like Certi offer a variety of emergency covers, one of the most popular of which is their boiler cover. They also offer a wide range of plans that cover everything from window and electrical repairs, all the way up to pest control. In addition, they have special plans specifically for landlords.
Boiler and heating system failures directly affect your quality of life, and it can threaten your health when you don’t have heat in the winter. Therefore, the problem needs to be fixed as soon as possible. Furthermore, faulty radiators and broken boilers are expensive to repair. You don’t want to pay for this out of pocket. Home emergency cover for these specific big-ticket repairs is what has the greatest return on the investment.
Emergency cover may apply when there is damage to the roof. Some policies only let you file a claim if the interior of your home is exposed. This means lost roof tiles are your problem, but a hole in the roof that will need to be repaired by someone like Blue Ladder Roofing will be covered under the insurance policy.
How to Get the Best Return on Investment for Your Home Emergency Cover
Select home emergency cover policies that have claim limits sufficient to pay for the repairs. There is little benefit in paying for a policy with a 500-claim limit if it costs three times that much to repair the boiler. If you live in an older home, you’re at risk of having to file multiple claims in a single year. In these cases, it is worth paying a little more for emergency home coverage that lets you file multiple claims. You want a policy that has no excess.
If you have recently installed a new boiler and heating system, you can buy home cover that doesn’t include boiler cover because the boiler and heating system should still be under warranty.
Home emergency cover is worth it when you live in fear of your boiler going out and getting burned with the repair bill. Otherwise, you need to run the numbers to determine which home cover policy is right for you.
