Boiler/Central Heating Cover

Energy providers profit from our fear of losing the heating or hot water, and can charge huge fees to get it repaired. This is a guide on how to slash £100s off your boiler protection to make sure you stay cool, and your boiler doesn’t.

• Solution in a nutshell
• Who needs cover?
• Choosing a policy
• Best Buys: the cheapest cover
• Alternatives to buying cover
• Other Articles/Discuss

Don't let your house freeze, sort your boiler cover!

The solution in a nutshell

If you’re in a desperate hurry to get heating cover, let me boil it down to these key steps:

• Don’t buy your policy from your supplier. Just because you get your gas & elec from one supplier doesn’t mean you have to get insurance from them too. If they try and link the two, it’s nonsense, don’t listen! More Info: Choosing a policy

• Use a free comparison service to quickly check the cheapest provider. Comparison site uSwitch* performs the widest ranging search, though Energyhelpline* and MoneySuperMarket* are also worth a five-minute check. After that, get a quote from Direct Line as it’s not included in either comparison. More Info: Compare the cheapest cover

For many more tips, tricks and other options to really get big savings, read on.

Who needs cover?

There’s absolutely no point in shelling out for cover if you don’t have to; it depends on who’s in charge of heating your home.

Owner occupiers

In general, you should only be getting a boiler/heating policy if you’re an owner occupier. Though even if you are, some property types can’t be covered; eg some types of mobile home where the electrics are not fixed. For those buying new homes, ensure you have the boiler and other gas appliances checked over; it’s one of the most common sources of problems for new owners.

However you may actually already have your boiler covered by your home insurance policy; it's worth checking before signing up to anything.

If you rent, it's not your responsibility

If you live in rented accommodation or social housing (owned by a council or Housing Association), your landlord is legally responsible for maintaining and repairing the boiler, gas fittings and appliances, and must have yearly safety checks carried out by a Gas Safe registered gas fitter.

However, it's important that you discuss with your landlord/association that these checks have actually been done; ask to see safety certificates.

It’s also vital to establish how long, if the heating and boiler were to break down, you would expect to be left in the cold. If it’s a matter of two days or more, ask if this can be changed to a much swifter service; after all, if you’re paying rent, you’re entitled to have a home that, at the very least, is well-heated.

Choosing a policy

Just because you get your gas or electricity from one supplier doesn't mean you need its insurance too. If they cleverly try and link the two, watch out: it's usually nonsense. This is an open market and you want to get your hands on the best policy at the cheapest price so let me say this loud and large:

“You don’t have to use your energy provider’s boiler cover!”

Not all policies are the same. As always, it's vital to set out your priorities to ensure you're not under or over-covered:

Boiler only or central heating too? There are usually two types of heating cover offered; the first covers your boiler and controls, and the second includes full central heating cover on top. It's also possible to find plans whose cover also includes plumbing, drains, electrical wiring and the cost of yearly inspections. Home emergency policies are also available which, as well as covering heating and hot water also cover other emergencies such as plumbing, drains and lost keys. Of course, everything you add on top will load up your premium.

• What level of cover do you want?
  
  Don't assume all plans provide unlimited cover with uncapped payouts and unlimited call outs. Some only pay for costs up to a certain level per claim and per year (usually £1,000 or £1,500) or limit the numbers of call outs for each 12 months (two, say). Others won't cover safety inspections or damage from build-up of scale. You should have an annual boiler service so if this is not included in your cover you’ll need to factor in roughly another £70/year.
  
  There are no rights or wrong here, it's a question of assessing your likely problems. If you're in a brand new house with relatively new and reliable equipment, then a cheap policy covering the bare essentials will easily do. But if the only thing as regular as clockwork with your boiler is its breakdown schedule, you'll probably want full cover.
  
  
• Will you get help when you need it?
  
  Plans usually provide a 24-hour, 365-day helpline to call when you have an urgent heating or hot-water problem and the cost of the call-out, repairs, parts and labour will be paid.
  
  Definitions of emergency can vary though; at one point due to over-demand, British Gas was no longer defining a lack of hot water as an emergency, though luckily this is not the case now.
  
  Several insurance plans also exclude central heating breakdown claims during the summer months, as this isn't seen as an emergency.
  
  
• Is your boiler model covered?
  
  Most popular makes of boiler can be covered but not all, so check before you buy. Also, most plans require a boiler to be below a certain age when the cover is bought, and others will request a boiler inspection before granting cover. Even if you do get cover, boilers over seven years of age may be excluded from being replaced if they go totally kaput. If you can opt for a policy that covers the lifetime of the boiler.
  
  You could also find that your old boiler system doesn’t meet the standards requested by your energy provider, in which case you’ll probably have to pay extra – more than £100 in places - to get your heating system revamped before being offered cover.
  
  
• Is there a ‘no claims’ period?
  
  Almost all plans include an initial no-claims period, which typically lasts thirty days. To be fair, that’s not unreasonable - otherwise people would simply sign up to plans on the day the boiler breaks down.
  

Best buys: getting the cheapest cover

Annual prices for policies can vary from tens of pounds to more than a couple of hundred pounds. Rather than manually shopping around, a few specialist web and phone services will do the comparison for you: just type in your details and it will find them for you in about ten minutes.

It’s worth examining all the different options since the price will depend on your boiler and fuel type, level of cover and how you choose to pay.

The comparison sites

The two main sites doing boiler/heating comparisons in this area;

uSwitch for range and power. uSwitch* performs the largest comparison and includes the most providers in its search. Enter your details including boiler type and it will take into account how old your boiler is and models that are excluded from certain policies. Energyhelpline for speed and ease. Energyhelpline* is a less functional search and includes fewer providers but is still worth checking as it covers different providers to uSwitch. It simply lists the available policies without asking for information, so while it’s not comprehensive it’s quick to use.

MoneySupermarket* may also be worth checking, however currently its range is limited. Comparison services are free-to-use commercial services which make their money by being paid a referral fee from the cover provider. While it doesn't tend to bias the actual comparison results shown, it can mean they only include providers with which they have commercial relationships.

Warning: Don't use the energy or telephones comparison services these sites also offer without first reading the Cheapest Gas & Electricity or Home Phones articles, which will show you how to substantially undercut them.

Check the ones they miss

For a full belts and braces method check the ones the comparisons miss.

• Direct Line. Direct Line is currently offering 15% off its Home Response 24 policy. It's not included in any comparison sites so you must always go direct to check its prices. It's an emergency policy so won't cover everyday problems.
• Swinton Cover. Swinton offers cover from £6.60/month and again is an emergency policy so won’t cover for everyday problems. Though Swinton require you to have an annual boiler inspection otherwise the insurance will be invalidated.

Don't cancel your existing policy immediately

Some plans exclude claims which arise within the first thirty days while others won't allow you to sign a new contract until your existing cover has expired, so do ensure you’re covered as much as possible during the handover. HomeCall has an initial exclusion policy that allows you to backdate your cover to 28 days before the last one has finished, thus providing continuous cover.

And always check the terms and conditions of your existing plan before cancelling – it may be as simple as cancelling your monthly direct debit and notifying your provider – but there may be a tie-in clause.

Alternatives to buying cover

There are ways to avoid shelling out every year for an insurance policy, ranging from an expensive one-off investment to the equivalent of crossing your fingers and hoping for the best.

Get a new boiler

There may well come a time when the cost of having an old, faulty or inefficient boiler that forces you to regularly claim on your policy, will prompt the question: should I get a new boiler?

Be warned: these are very expensive and start from about £500-1,000. If it gets to the point where you’re exhausting the terms of your boiler cover, then it’s probably a sign that you should be looking around. If you decide to take the plunge, grants for energy efficient home heating may help, see the Grant Grabbing article.

Actually, why bother?

The average cost of repairing a boiler is £185; less than British Gas's HomeCare 200 plan (£228), though of course there are cheaper plans. So those with fairly reliable boilers and a home insurance policy (see Cheapest Home Insurance article) which covers any water damage to your home and possible home emergency call-outs, may simply want to opt to remain uncovered.

Let me be very clear: this is all about realistically examining the risk of a breakdown, whether you're able to lay out the cash when needed, and how important the peace of mind of being covered is for you. Safety is of course paramount, so do regularly have gas appliances checked by a Gas Safe registered engineer (and consider a carbon monoxide detector).

Better still, opt to self-insure

If you are going the ‘no-cover route' the best option is to self-insure. This means instead of paying for a policy each month, put the same amount into a top savings account to build up your own emergency fund. Then if you do have a problem the cash is there to pay for it; if you don't then the cash is yours.