Owning a home is an expensive business. Often you have to shell out money for things you never even conceived of paying for before you took on an already expensive mortgage. Unlike apartment living where the landlord takes care of all maintenance, you’re essentially on your own if you own a home – unless you pay for a home warranty to help shoulder the burden.
Before opting for a home warranty, make sure you know how it works. Often homeowners misunderstand the terms they sign up for, which is evidenced across hundred of reviews left on sites like PissedConsumer where consumers report ending up with no warranty for certain repairs. To avoid unpleasant surprises, keep in mind the following three things.
The Home Warranty Basics
A home warranty is similar to a car warranty. With a car warranty, you take your car into the dealer and the dealer fixes the problem without costing you a cent – as long as you’re within the set warranty time period. With a home warranty, you pay a monthly fee and when a problem happens, the warranty company sends out a service representative who takes care of the problem and you’re on your way.
There is a service fee, but paying $60 for a broken dishwasher is far less than the hundreds you’d pay otherwise. Most people agree that a home warranty is an easy way to feel confident in their home and a way to help with unexpected problems and repairs that come up.
If only this were really the case.
The Real Home Warranty Situation
In truth, some home warranty companies do pretty much what they advertise. Many others, however, are in business to make money at any expense. This means they frequently push rates down on the contractor side of things and refuse to help customers on the other side of the business.
Your air conditioner stops working. You call on your home warranty company and they send out a service representative. He tells you that ice fell on your air conditioner and it’s not covered. Now you still have a broken air conditioner, the service rep is very willing to work on your unit provided you pay him directly, and – oh, yes – it’s a $60 service call for the mess.
Even when things haven’t been deemed an accident of nature or blamed on you, (the air conditioner is dirty – we can’t cover that!) there is still a tremendous among of pressure on the service company to keep costs as low as possible. One company was told to drop their rates. They couldn’t drop them and stay in business so the warranty company cut them as a provider.
Placing the Blame
The home warranty business is a complicated one. You just want your air conditioner or sink, or dishwasher, or furnace, fixed. The service company is being told to avoid fixing things to maximize profits or risk being cut off. The home warranty company is sitting pretty in the middle of things, stirring up trouble and counting the cash.
Meanwhile, the contractors and the customers are irate and frustrated. Perhaps home warranty customers should just put their money in the bank rather than the home warranty coffers. They would have some savings for when problems do pop up and not have to deal with hassles along the way.
