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British Gas – Boiler and Controls Breakdown Cover, £2.50 per month
- £99 excess per callout
- Unlimited callouts
- Unlimited repairs
- 24/7 helpline
This covers parts and labour to repair your boiler and controls in both emergencies and non-emergencies.
There’s no limit to the number of callouts you can make or the amount you can claim for each repair but a £99 excess applies. There’s also cover of up to £1,000 for each repair to gain access to whatever needs fixing and make good any damage afterwards.
Your boiler will be replaced if it’s beyond economical repair and less than seven years old or less than 10 years old if British Gas installed it and has covered it since then.
24/7 Home Rescue – Boiler Care with Annual Service, £4.49 per month
- £95 excess per claim
- Unlimited callouts
- £1,000 limit per claim
- 24-hour callouts
This is the same as 24/7 Home Rescue’s Boiler Care policy above but it also includes a free annual boiler service.
It covers emergency repairs to your boiler, including in the case of accidental damage, and gives you a contribution to a new boiler if yours can’t be repaired.
As with most boiler cover policies, it won’t cover you if your boiler was damaged deliberately or by someone else doing repairs, or if limescale, sludge or debris needs to be removed.
How to find the best boiler cover
Two good features to look out for when you’re comparing policies are a free annual boiler service – almost half of policies include this as standard according to Defaqto – and boiler replacement if yours can’t be repaired, which a third of policies include with no limit on cost. Other policies will give you a contribution towards a new boiler of £250 or more.
British Gas’s HomeCare One policy, which is rated five stars by Defaqto, includes an annual boiler service and replacement of any boiler less than seven years old if it can’t be repaired as well as cover for accidental damage. But this is significantly more expensive (£14 a month with a £60 excess for a greater London postcode) than the British Gas policy featured above, which doesn’t include a service or accidental damage cover and has a higher excess.
As you can see in the policies we’ve featured it’s possible to get a relatively cheap policy that includes an annual service so it pays to shop around, although always compare excesses and the other features included, and check that the policy is right for you.
Exclusions to be aware of
The majority of policies have an initial exclusion period. ‘This is a defined number of days following the policy being purchased within which you are unable to make a claim,’ says Anna-Marie Duthie. ‘It’s therefore important when you take out cover to be aware of when you would be eligible to make a claim.’
Exclusion periods can be anywhere between 7 and 90 days. Although 14 days is the most common, as is the case with all the policies above.
Before you take out a policy make sure it would cover the boiler you have. ‘Some policies have a maximum age in terms of the boilers they will cover,’ says Sunny Solanki, service and repair engineer at British Gas.
You may find you won’t be covered if your boiler is more than 14 years old, or less in some cases, depending on the policy and boiler brand. The age of your boiler may also affect whether you can get a replacement or a contribution towards one.
Some companies won’t cover certain types of boiler, such as oil or solid-fuel-powered boilers, and most won’t cover boilers with more than a certain output.
You can search for boiler cover deals on comparison sites – such as our sister brand GoCompare, MoneySuperMarket or Uswitch – use more than one to get the full picture. Bear in mind that in some cases, such as with British Gas’s HomeCare, the actual price you end up paying may depend on your circumstances. ‘We base your HomeCare price on a combination of things, which may include where you live, your claims history and more,’ says Sunny Solanki.
Bear in mind that if you take out boiler breakdown cover with a boiler supplier it will be a service agreement rather than insurance. So you won’t be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme if the company can’t deliver on it.
Image credit: Future PLC/ Colin Poole
Do you need boiler cover?
Before you decide to take out boiler cover make sure you’re not already covered by your home insurance policy. Or even your bank account if you pay a fee for it. You can also take out boiler cover as part of a wider home emergency policy, which could be better value if you want to be covered for other emergencies.
You should think carefully about whether the benefits of the policy are worth the cost before taking one out. Research by the consumer organisation Which? in June 2021 found that most people would be better off paying for repairs and annual services when they need them. The newer your boiler the more likely this is to be the case.
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