Homeserve "free" replacement boiler

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Have been told by homeserve that my boiler is beyond economical repair because of the cost of the parts. Its 14 years old, so they will provide the boiler and I have to pay the labour. The cost of this in my policy Ts&Cs says 'from' £1300!!!!
It needs new gas valve and fan to potentially fix the noise that it has started to make in past 3 days (like bass speaker when it fires up). It had a new PCB and sensor fitted 3 days ago to fix an intermittent issue of it firing up and not staying on. That problem was fixed after getting the new parts fitted but then the "bass speaker" noise started once the new parts were fitted. So I called them back out..... to be told more new parts needed, thus beyond economical repair.
I have to pay another excess just for the privilege of proceeding to get the install quote.
I feel they are inflating the install costs to cover the cost of the boiler.
Paying for replacement boiler independently will be more expensive obviously but feel im being ripped off by homeserve.
The alternative is just to live with this "bass" noise". It doesnt happen every time it fires up. but not sure if this will just get worse and worse until those parts fail?
My contract with homeserve ends in a month. I usually change provider each year, so could.potentially get the parts replaced in a few months under a different contract. But that's only if they don't pick up on the noise/issue when they do the initial inspection and do actually agree to take on the boiler under contract. That will be a big risk. Could end up coverless.
Another option is to just pay a local engineer to get those parts fitted. A lot cheaper than install costs of a new boiler. The boiler having had so many new parts would surely keep it going for a few more years?
We only plan to be at this property for another 3 years or so before selling.
Really don't know what to do. Are homeserve taking the ****? Or is this 'free' boiler a good deal?
Thanks in advance
 
Welcome to the world of boiler insurance, which is almost always a waste of money. You're better keeping the money in your own bank account and paying a local engineer to sort your boiler if it ever goes wrong.

What make & model is it?
 
You could phone Vaillant and ask for a fix price repair or get a local company to quote.
Homeserve are known as Homeswerve in the trade
 
Spoke to them on phone and they said the boiler is working and it's only an advisory right now. If I continue my cover with them and it gets worse or breaks down in couple of months time, the parts will get replaced, as the value of that claim on its own will be under the threshold.
Sounds like a good option.
The only thing is that the boiler is old now and the scale/heat exchanger might mean it's on its last legs anyway. So I could potentially be losing out on a "free boiler". Although nothing is really free if they inflate their install costs
 
At least you have Homeserve, our attempts to get them to look after my fathers-in-law boiler failed. They said the system needed a flush before they would take it on, so we got a local plumber to flush out the system, the inhibitor the local plumber used, made the water grey, so they still would not take it on, they had taken the money up front, so some 6 months on, father-in-law died, and house sold, and then they finally said they would take it on, we said too late, and it took another 6 months to get money back, I was not impressed.

I used to insure my fridge/freezer, as the cost to get a refrigeration engineer out was so high, stopped when I got units with 10 year warrantee, but at £70 call out, before you get anything done, it seemed a good idea, and I know many would rent TV sets because of the cost of repair, back in the 60's, but to my mind, to say you must pay for any part of the replacement seems to make the whole idea pointless, the whole idea is your not given an unexpected bill.
 

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