I will add to everyone else who is stating that they have minimal use. We had one that was paid for by our realtor when we bought our house. We used it a few times to fix plumbing clogs and to repair a water heater thermostat.
We decided against renewing it when we had an issue with our gas line that was not covered because the plumbing problem was outside of the footprint of the house. They also seem to only contract with the most expensive companies. The plumber they sent to the house wanted $1200 to replace 6" of gas line. I got a local guy to fix it for $150.
Check the fine print, there was also a maximum payout hidden in our policy. If our furnace or A/C had died it would have only covered the first $500-750 of the repair. And that was after they covered the call out and diagnostic fees.
Our first purchase was a 20-year-old tract house that had been a rental. No warranty, but we found the seller and inspector had missed a dangerous and illegal furnace issue. Seller didn’t want to pay for repairs till we had the sheriff serve him papers at his AAA office. He responded rather quickly then.
We’ve lived in our current manufactured / modular house for almost two decades now. The included limited warranty covered a few issues that popped up in the first years. Our later issues have involved AC / heating for which we subscribe to a maintenance service.
All our household warranty experiences have been tolerable. YMMV.
In general home warranties (American Home Shield, First American Home Warranty, AFC Home Club, etc.) the kind you get when you buy a new home either from the seller, your realtor, etc are horrible. Usually the first year premium is about $500 or so. Then the premiums go up.
The worst part about them are that the insurance company’s incentives are not aligned with your as a homeowner. They are clearly just looking for the cheapest solution, not necessarily what’s going to add value to your home.
After my first experience with one of them, about 25 years ago, whenever a seller or a realtor has offered to pay for the first years premium of a home warranty, I ask them to just knock $500 off the selling price of the house, or $500 off of their commissions.
IMHO, you’re better off saving the money for things that need fixing to pay on your own.
Think of it this way. If it was good for the homeowner, the warranty companies wouldn’t continue in business. It’s unnecessary insurance.
Automobile insurance works because most people don’t have claims: all the people who never have an accident are subsidizing those who do.
Term life insurance is the same way: most people don’t die within their term. They are subsidizing those who do.
Home insurance is more like whole-life insurance; in the same way that everybody eventually dies, every appliance will eventually fail. The insurance company needs to collect enough money in premiums to cover that. There is nobody with magical immortal appliances that is subsidizing your costs. Therefore the insurance company has to collect enough from YOU to repair or replace your appliances. You would be better off getting their quote, and then just putting that much money into a repair fund every month/year. Odds are it will never be empty.
I have mixed opinions on them. Like others in this thread, I had one that came with the purchase of the house. The HVAC unit went out soon after moving in. I think it was the furnace, but I don’t recall for sure. Regardless, there was a deductible, plus it only covered the cost of the lowest end model. So I opted for them to pay me the ‘replacement value’ (never could have replaced anything with that amount), and I upgraded the unit to what the professional HVAC guy told I needed.
So, in short, it helped some; but not enough to make me go out of my own pocket to renew it.
I have heard more negative than positive about home warranties.
On another forum I am on a fellow member was discussing his daughter’s home warranty she purchased when she purchased the house last fall. Started the A/C this spring and water was dripping out of the inside unit where it shouldn’t be. First technician said the condensate drain was plugged and that was a plumber’s responsibility. Plumber showed up and said it really was’t part of the “plumbing” system as that was usually only related to hot/cold water and drains from those systems. Out of courtesy he snaked the small drain and found nothing. Called the A/C service company again and then discovered the condensate drain pan(?) was cracked and that was where it was leaking. However, the warranty only covers mechanical pieces and a new pan would not be covered. So the dad removed the insulation and “Flex Sealed” it as a temporary fix.
As mentioned before, put the $500.00 in the bank for multiple years and soon there should be enough to cover most expenses.
First of all it was originally presented as a free thing that “came with” the house. Then buried in there somewhere was “it’s $400, a 50 percent saving.”
We didn’t want it. We’d had the house inspected and we were buying all new appliances; we knew we’d have to replace the furnace within a couple of years, and the water heater was new. But we couldn’t opt out.
So…
Every time we called about something, it was $50, and then the thing turned out not to be covered. This actually only happened twice although it should have only happened once. When we called an actual repair person, it was then fixed for less than $50. 1–toilet leaking at base. 2–getting the old furnace going in the fall.
So, big ripoff all around. We actually made some kind of formal complaint, but I don’t remember who we made it to and it probably did about as much good as their “repairs.”
One neighbor RAVES about it; it’ll even replace the HVAC system when needed.
Some friends have it on their townhouse and it covered their air conditioner last summer, ultiimately. They had to pay something of the replacement cost but less than the full freight; they did have to wait something like 10 days for the work to be approved and completed.
Another friend has some kind of service contract for her condo, where minor repairs are cheap; her toilet was leaking and while I don’t know if she paid anything out of pocket it was certainly less than a plumber’s basic visit cost would have been.
I don’t know what any of these fees are.
My in-laws had a contract on their old condo. When they moved to one we had purchased, they kept it up on the new place - about 300 a year. We’re happy for them to be contributing to the maintenance in that way. Supposedly it covers only “American” appliance labels - so a LG clothes washer wouldn’t be covered but a Kenmore would (regardless of who actually makes it). Odd. We did replace the HVAC system just after they moved in; dunno if their warranty would have covered that, but they claim that if the new one goes bad, THAT would be covered.
Update: we debated this for a long time, but ultimately decided to get one. Not 2 days after moving in, we ran the washing machine and it backed up. Got them to send a plumber to snake out the house and it’s running smoothly. It’s not like that was a major repair and only saved my like $30 but it’s nice to have used it at least once.
From everything I read the home warranty companies are basically a crapshoot to deal with. Some people make big claims and it all works out, others can’t get simple things paid for and have one difficulty after another. It’s almost like the companies say “Ok, let’s honor 20% of warranty claims just to keep some positive press out there” and then they deny or drag their feet on the rest.
