So, what’s the best boiler cover? What’s the best boiler insurance? If there’s an emergency in your home and your boiler is leaking or simply not working, you need emergency home cover to get your boiler fixed pretty much immediately. We’ll now compare boiler cover and central heating cover from 9 of the UK’s largest boiler insurance providers.
We’ve done all the legwork for you – this is a complete side by side comparison like no other. The comparison sites, like GoCompare, don’t go into much detail, if any at all, simply comparing price, the number of call-outs and policy excess fee – that’s all.
All the prices below are annual costs with zero excess. We’ve also gone over the individual terms and conditions to find out, definitively, which boiler cover provider offers the best value for money.
We’ve also listed some important terms and conditions and exclusions that providers like to use to wriggle out paying for expensive breakdowns or replacement boilers. It was quite an eye-opening exercise, even for us.
Best Boiler Cover
We compared British Gas, Aviva, HomeServe, Scottish Power, 24/7 Home Rescue, Corgi Homeplan, Your Repair, Row and SSE.
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Notes: *BER – Beyond Economical Repair. **Conditions apply – There are exclusions you need to consider such as not being able to claim in the first 6 months of cover. We’ll cover the important ones in this guide.
However, before we carry on, here are some terms and definitions to help you navigate through all the jargon boiler companies use in their terms and conditions.
Boiler Cover: usually an insurance policy that covers your boiler, usually for breakdowns, and includes parts and labour.
Boiler Insurance: this is essentially the same as boiler cover, but the cover is Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulated and therefore complaints can be referred to the Financial Ombudsman.
Boiler Service Agreement: a contract with a service provider to attend to any issue that causes central heating or hot water failure.
Home Emergency Cover: usually a service agreement and not an insurance, they cover loss of service such as heating or hot water but exclude many things that boiler insurance covers, such as radiators and pipework leaks.
Central Heating Cover: either an insurance policy or a service agreement that covers your whole central heating, eg radiators, pipework, boiler.
Boiler Breakdown Cover: either an insurance policy or a service agreement that covers against boiler breakdown.
Boiler Excess: usually a fixed cost that must be paid prior to your provider sending someone out to help fix a problem. Most providers will offer you a lower monthly premium if you agree to pay an excess.
Will they really replace my boiler?
Will your boiler really be replaced if it can’t be repaired under your boiler cover? The simple answer is that this is extremely unlikely for a number of reasons.
Let’s take a look at the terms and conditions under which you can get a new boiler installed.
A replacement boiler if less than 7 years old and beyond economical repair – most of the boiler cover providers did not offer a replacement boiler if they deemed your boiler too expensive to repair. So, you could actually be paying an expensive monthly premium and not be covered against a major fault which the engineer deems ‘too expensive’ to repair. However, small faults and issues will be fixed as parts are freely available in the event of your, relatively, new boiler breaking down.
N.B. Boilers under 7 years of age will always have parts available.
Important: If your boiler is declared beyond economic repair due to flood, fire or water damage you won’t be covered by any of the boiler covers above. How likely is it a newer boiler will break down? Which? research shows only 3% of customers that paid for boiler cover actually benefitted financially.
They state that the average servicing contract is £242 per year whilst the average repair is £194. However, only 21% of survey respondents reported needing a boiler repair in the first 6 years.
Read more: https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/boiler-servicing-contracts/article/how-to-choose-the-best-boiler-cover.
You can cut the cost of needing an expensive repair or boiler cover by buying a premium and reliable brand. Your new boiler will automatically be covered for parts and labour for at least 5 years. Read more: Guide to Best Boilers in 2018
A replacement boiler if more than 7 years old and beyond economical repair – none of the boiler cover providers offer a replacement boiler if they deem your boiler too expensive to repair. The best they offer is a contribution towards the cost – which could be as little as a few hundred pounds. So, you could actually be paying an expensive monthly premium and not be covered against a major fault which the engineer has deemd ‘too expensive’ to repair.
Only a few years ago HomeServe was fined £30.6 million for using misleading information and hard sell-tactics to dupe families into buying home insurance cover for burst pipes, broken boilers and blocked drains — on top of some £16.8 million it had to pay out in refunds to wronged customers.
Indeed, The Financial Ombudsman has raised many concerns that customers are not aware of how many exclusions these policies have, dealing with more than 1,300 complaints last year.
Does sludge void my boiler cover?
Sludge can build up in your system and cause a huge amount of problems and breakdowns – so say boiler cover providers. None of the companies that we have compared above cover for faults and issues caused by ‘sludge’ in your system.
Indeed, some British Gas customers have claimed that they are being pressured into having an £800 powerflush to clean the system from sludge, otherwise, their cover will be invalid. There’s more trouble and a fine for British gas here.
Is my boiler too old for boiler cover?
Is your boiler too old and therefore too much of a risk to be insured? It could be if it is more than 7 to 10 years old and you’re trying to get cover from certain boiler cover providers as a new customer. However, if you’re renewing existing cover and your boiler falls into the older category you’re more likely to be eligible as an existing customer.
On the flip side, existing customers also need to be wary when renewing boiler cover for a boiler that reaches a certain age.
Is buried pipework expensive to fix?
In a word, yes! If an engineer detects a gas leak is present and manages to isolate and prove that the pipe is buried in concrete it could be expensive to fix. It would involve digging up the concrete, replacing the pipework and then making good.
Some boiler cover providers do not offer this service at all. Some have caps on the amount you can claim. Some do not ‘make good’ to original standards – meaning they will try and ‘make good’ (reinstate) floor coverings, but not necessarily to original standards.
Are manufacturer service contracts better than boiler cover companies?
In our opinion, yes, definitely, and for a number of reasons.
Firstly, if you own a Worcester boiler you’ll get a Worcester trained expert coming to look at your boiler. He or she will have had comprehensive training on all their own boiler models and deal with the same faulty boilers day in, day out. The same goes for the other boiler manufacturers as well.
Secondly, not only will spare parts be available, they will be immediately available – hopefully stocked up in the van outside. This will ensure a quick and efficient fix leaving you with a nice warm home in the fastest time possible. Worcester Bosch, for example, has a 91% first-time fix rate and they use genuine parts, obviously.
Which? carried out a survey last year and this is how they scored brands on whether they would recommend the brand to their friends.
| Boiler Service Contract | Which? Score |
| Worcester Bosch | 79% |
| Vaillant | 71% |
| British Gas | 59% |
| AA | 58% |
| SSE | 57% |
| Corgi Homeplan | 57% |
| HomeServe | 50% |
| Scottish Power | 39% |
Results
You can see from the table above that boiler cover prices range from £176.40 to £258 annually. For that, all but two companies will offer you unlimited breakdown call-outs but only some will cover you for intermittent faults, focussing more on emergency cover.
Thankfully, many of the boiler insurance providers see radiators, pipework and magnetic filters as part of the installation – and rightfully, include these essential items in your cover.
Gas pipework is not always included in a policy, and less so buried pipework of any kind, be it water pipework or gas pipework. It should be noted that buried pipework can be difficult to get to and, once fixed, costly and difficult to ‘make good’. Boiler insurance companies recognise this and often exclude this from their cover.
Hopefully, given the advice above you’ll be able to make up your own mind whether boiler cover is for you, and if so, which one is best. Or is a new boiler with all the efficiency savings and up to 10 years parts and labour warranty included the best option?
Related guides:
Boiler Installation Costs – Combi, Regular and Back Boiler Replacement Costs Compared