Why Your Home Insurance Is Leaving You Exposed To Costly Appliance Repairs

You may think, if you have been sensible enough to take out home and contents insurance, that everything including appliances will be covered if something goes wrong. Often, that is not the case and Home Protection Services can fill some of the potentially expensive gaps.

The limitations of insurance

Home insurance cover will often not cover damage by floods for example or wear and tear. So if your AC unit goes out or your refrigerator breaks down what do you do? What if you get a plumbing leak? You can certainly try and expand your insurance for a higher premium, but home warranties specifically cover appliances and critical systems failures, where insurance doesn’t.

Warranties

Warranty programs are usually for one year and renewable. They offer support in terms of trade call outs (often with competitive trade call out rates), although you will usually have to use the contractor that the warranty company chooses. Warranty cover is particularly useful for homes with older appliances, and cost effective compared to individual repair or replacement. In many cases the first year’s warranty is included for buyers of new homes, or of existing homes, where the fee is paid for by the seller.

Checking the detail

As with all forms of insurance there will be limits on the amount that will be paid out for repair or replacement of a defective component, or for the costs of disposing of old appliances. There may also be exclusions for appliances that have not been properly installed or maintained, so as with all policies, it is important to read the small print.