I recently received an offer from a company called “Service Line Warranties of America” to obtain a warranty for sewer line problems at a price of $103 per year. Repair costs are covered up to $4,000 per incident, plus an additional $4,000 allowance for public street cutting, if needed.
Has anybody bought this warranty and is ti worth the expense?
I think that would depend on the age and type of sewer line. From what I’ve seen, the typical replacement cost of an older, (originally clay) sewer line runs around $6,000 — this was in L.A., and a few years ago, so things might have changed a bit. Also, these pipes were probably ~40′ long, if not longer. One was on a fairly steep hill.
They can also inject resins that will line the existing pipe, which I believe is less expensive. Best to call around just to see what the costs would be for the length of your sewer pipe.
After getting costs, read the fine print on this warranty agreement to see what kind of restrictions and exclusions might be in there.
This *might* be a good deal, depending on all of the above, but it could just as easily be an expensive warranty that would be severely restrictive and end up costing more than just dealing with it yourself. After all, that’s the only way an insurance company can make money — if the cost of the warranties they sell is more than the total cost of the repairs they cover.
One more thing to think about… If something happens, who decides what type of fix they will use, and who chooses the plumber/repair company?
It’s possible that a warranty company might be affiliated in some way with a plumbing company, and they could come out and give you a $10,000 bill for a $6,000 service, and/or cover only an inferior type of repair, too. Hopefully, this would be illegal (I don’t know), but it could still happen, and you would have to spend a lot of time and money trying to make things right (and probably not succeeding).
That’s why it’s important to check all the fine print and look at exclusions and restrictions.
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