Purely hypothetical: A homeowner has a plumbing policy with exclusions, one being that calcium buildup is not covered. He buys an upgrade which includes faucets and shower heads (no mention of exclusions in the upgrade). He thinks he’s covered, but the insurance company won’t replace his leaky faucet because the leak was caused by calcium buildup. Apparently, they’ll only replace the faucet if it had something else wrong with it.
So, is this tricky insurance company wording, or is this a fairly typical example of read the policy better next time sucker? Does Joe Homeowner have any legal recourse?
Worst case scenario: the plumber came out and took the service fee, even though he did no work because the insurance company wouldn’t cover it. A lousy day for Joe.
To clarify, this is a home warranty, not an insurance policy, correct?
Since this is IMHO, I will say that your experience seems to be typical of home warranties; exclusions out the wazoo and little actual coverage. Our realtor convinced us to get one with our home purchase but we never renewed it after looking at what it really covered.
OK, OK, I’ll fess up, I’m Joe.
Home warranty, insurance, tomato tomahto. The company is Old Republic Home Protection. I had to buy a year’s worth when I bought the condo, and I extended and upgraded it to cover the fridge, the washer-dryer stack and stuff. Even though they made me mad by upping their rates the second year, I kept it because they did replace my antique dishwasher with a really good new one.
Even if I got really mad and dropped it, I haven’t really found another company that does the same thing.