Why it pays to shop locally for Boiler Cover

Most of us would define an emergency as something needing immediate, urgent attention and never more so than when the central heating boiler breaks down in the middle of winter.

But if you have ever experienced this and then tried to get action from your boiler cover provider, whether it’s for emergency cover on a home insurance policy or breakdown cover from your energy or boiler supplier, you might recognise some of these horror stories.

• “The company told me my leaking boiler was beyond economic repair – a local plumber then restored it to health for just £150.”  (Insurance via energy supplier)
• “I noticed a drip from the bottom of the boiler. The first engineer sent fitted a new washer, but the drip recurred. The second said it was leaking from the heat exchanger. He reported this to his office, and I received a call telling me the boiler was “beyond economic repair” as the part, plus fitting, (some £700-£800) was more than the boiler was worth. My local gas engineer diagnosed a minor fault with the flue, allowing condensate to drip back into the housing. I began a long process of reclaiming the £150 I had to pay the local plumber.” (Insurance via energy supplier)
• “Called out an engineer after a boiler breakdown. One visit to diagnose then a second to fit replacement part. Repeated this process four times over the course of a very cold month until the insurers declined any more visits because my cover had reached its maximum spend. When I queried, I discovered that the insurer charged a fee for the engineer attending each call-out or revisit to fix, plus the parts cost each time.” (Breakdown cover provided as part of a special deal bank account)

Another frequent complaint is energy companies increasing the cost of boiler breakdown cover to existing customers, sometimes by up to three times the amount they charge to new customers.  

It is no surprise that the financial industry regulator, FCA (Financial Conduct Authority), launched an investigation after discovering that many customers who had been with the same insurer for five years or more were paying up to 70% more for their cover than new customers.

So, why is this type of boiler cover so difficult to access and so expensive?

Firstly, the whole process of boiler cover is largely offered and managed by the big, national concerns, using national call centres often many miles from customers’ locations.

These call centres are given a maximum spend for a client’s emergency cover. Policies also often depend on your being able to prove that the boiler has had an annual service and showing the certificate you have been given by an approved contractor.

When you call them, they then have to find you a “local” sub-contractor to visit, diagnose the problem, order parts and then fix it, but they often only fix the immediately obvious cause and are not asked to do a thorough review of the boiler. This can mean repeated call-outs and charges rapidly pushing you to the maximum limit.

Another problem is that many local sub-contractors decline to take on boiler cover insurance work because they say insurers are unwilling to pay a realistic amount for their work, making the few that do likely to be harder to get hold of in an emergency and often likely to be traveling from a regional centre at a greater distance from you.

How you can benefit from buying your boiler cover locally

First and foremost a local business has to work harder to keep its customers happy because it is easy to locate, and a bad review can be devastating.  It will often also rely on personal recommendations from happy customers. Therefore, it will go further than a remote regional or national company in taking care of you.

Secondly, the local company will most likely directly employ its Gas Safe (or OFTEC in the case of oil) trained engineers, so tracing who has carried out the work is much easier for both customers and the company.  This also means that the business will build up knowledge of both your appliance and of your individual circumstances, such as whether there is someone frail or elderly in the house, making it better able to respond when you need it at any time of the day or night.

Thirdly, local businesses will offer affordable boiler cover including both maintenance and emergency breakdown response without charging special rates for call outs, without putting a ceiling on the cost of repairs and crucially without putting up premiums without any consultation.

Often, as here at UKBC with our well-established and popular Care Plans, boiler cover can be tailored to what you can afford, for example by offering a Gold, Silver or Bronze service for you to choose from.

Finally, you will get clear, written guidance of exactly what your boiler care plan covers and that there are no “hidden extras”.