[quote=svelte]I’ve only talked to one person who has used a home warranty successfully. He had been in his place a few months in RB when the furnace went out. He did indeed get a new furnace for free.[/quote]
I’m gonna give an alternative view here. I bought a 25 year old house (this goes back more than a decade), and the seller paid for the first year of the home warranty, and I renewed for about 10 years. Premiums were never more than about $400 a year. (I actually remember them being less, but I’m sure no more than that.) In the years I had the policies, I replaced:
3 pool pumps (the 1st one when I didn’t even purchase extra pool coverage.)
pool filter
pool heater
furnace
A/C
Double oven
2 toilets
trash compacter
garbage disposal
built in vaccuum unit
in addition to a handful of other repairs. Total cost of all these repairs would have been at least $8-10,000.
The problem with these policies is that the companies will almost ALWAYS deny claims initially, unless they’re very inexpensive repairs. That is the way they make money. You have to be prepared to fight with them. Over and over again. They will almost always tell you that items aren’t covered. Even though they may be specifically listed in the policy. And they love to point at fine print, sometimes fine print that isn’t even there. (I repeatedly had to produce my policy, which is more of a brochure.) I threatened to sue often, but never did. I can’t remember exactly what it was, but there was one repair that I fought with them over, and never could get them to fix. (I think maybe it was electronic pool controls.)
On the A/C replacement, they argued that I hadn’t properly maintained the unit, evidenced by rodent droppings inside the unit. The A/C guy that I called suggested that I pay for a cleaning (which was about $50), and then try again. Which I did. Two weeks later, they paid for a replacement A/C.
The double oven was another big fight. One of the ovens didn’t work, they wanted to replace it with a single. Double ovens are pretty pricy. I’m thinking it would have been well over $2,200. Finally got them to do it, but they wouldn’t pay for installation, only have it drop shipped. Turns out it was Sears installation guys who dropped it off, I gave them $50 bucks to remove the old and put the new one in. Didn’t even charge me to take away the old, they said they just dump them all in the same place and they already had like 10 old ones in their truck anyway.
It’s not easy, but these policies can work, if you’re willing to fight for what you paid for.
