The £1,250 cost of a broken boiler - and how to ensure you never have to pay it
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One in five homes have had at least one boiler breakdown in the past year and shelled out an average of £270 on repairs. But a quarter had to cough up more than £1,250, according to research from uSwitch .com.
To cover an unforeseen cost such as this, about half of households say they would have to dip into their savings, while around one in 10 would have to use a credit card or take out a personal loan.
Emma Bush, uSwitch.com energy expert, said: “It’s easy to take a working boiler for granted, but when things go wrong it can be expensive to fix – not to mention leaving you and your family shivering through a period with no central heating.
“With consumers already facing energy price rises in the coming months, the sudden shock of having to repair a broken boiler – possibly costing over a thousand pounds – could deliver a tough blow to household finances.
“To give some peace of mind and protection there are different options available to suit every household. If your boiler is over six years old, boiler cover with an annual service could be a good option.
“Some home insurance policies have boiler cover included so check yours to see if you are already covered and maybe consider a more comprehensive cover if you are not.”
How you can stay safe
(Photo: Getty)
The good news is that, if you don't have a spare £1,250 to hand to fix you boiler, there are plenty of insurance deals that will cover the cost for you.
Aviva just announced a deal with HomeServe, offering a replacement boiler guarantee from £12.50 a month, for example. It's not free, but it would take almost 10 years of payments before the cover cost more than fixing a boiler would.
"We all know how worrying it can be when a boiler breaks or you’re faced with no hot water, so the core of the product is to prevent household emergencies and put things right quickly when they do go wrong,” said Aviva general insurance chief executive Colm Holmes
But you need to be careful of the plan you choose.
"Having home emergency cover is not of any use if you don’t know what it does, so it is important that you check what you are covered for as well as how to contact your insurer in an emergency," said Brian Brown, from independent financial product ratings service Defaqto.
“Typically, standard emergency cover will cover you for drainage and plumbing problems, gas and electric problems and roof damage whereas central heating and boiler cover are often optional extras.”
Defaqto found 52 emergency cover policies that will not cover you for a boiler breakdown.
Worse, only a sixth of the 445 contents insurance policies even include home emergency cover as standard, although most will provide this as an add-on.
Where to get boiler cover
(Photo: Rex)
There are 194 home emergency stand-alone policies - coming from either insurance providers or utility providers, Defaqto research shows.
You can even get cover from your bank account - with two high street banks offering home emergency cover as an add-on to their banking service.
But, as it's often said, prevention is better than cure. With this in mind, Defaqto's Brown offers his top eight tips to head off home emergencies before they happen.