To Renew or not renew Home Warranty?

Ok, I am not normally a huge warranty guy, but I've actually had some luck lately with a few items I've had them with, i.e. some truck stuff, house, and a few other things.

Anyways, our home warranty was included in our purchase June 1 last year, so its almost up for renewal. With that said we have had the following done with the "free" warranty, which essentially we paid for on our old house we sold and sellers put on our new house, you know the drill.

We've had plumping fixed, and our heater flame sensor wasn't working so they fixed it free, which I could have and will do every fall from here out, but whatever. With that said, its $675 to renew for 12 months. Our house was build in 1998, Rockford Homes, so a tad better from what I'm told than Dominion, Maronda, and MI, but not as good as a custom stick build etc.

Our HVAC is original, I had a tuneup done last year and a few small parts installed to keep it running. Think it was $225 for coolant, tuneup, and parts, no big deal. Heater was gone over when they fixed it this year. Water heater is new, garage door opener is new, all appliances are newer but came with house so covered, almost everything else is original. The plumber, the HVAC company, and even the garage door tuneup guy last month told me to keep the warranty as the HVAC and probably some other stuff will go bad soon, high chance in the next 12 months.

I am in OH, so we should get to use the AC before June 1 and know if it's working or not and if it goes before June 1 we will not renew and just have it replaced. We've already been quoted roofing and HVAC and have cash to pay if needed but obviously 10% of total HVAC or Roof costs just to keep 12 months of warranty makes sense IF something breaks and we have it covered. If not, we're just out of the pocket.

What's everyone's take on them? So far I figure we probably have had about $400 worth of repairs to the warranty claim approved.

 

Hmm, never thought about getting one after the initial new home warranty ran out. If all of that stuff is new or tuned up, why are they telling you it has a high chance of failing in the next 12 months?

 

The HVAC guy who did the tuneup was NOT the same that fixed it this winter. The tuneup was out of pocket so he didn't really have an incentive to push me to keep it.

The other HVAC and plumber both do a lot of work for the warranty company so I am sure they want people to keep the warranty active, keeps them busy.

BUT I do know the HVAC is rough, lowest quality they could do at the time. But the warranty will only replace with the lowest allowed stuff anyways, so we're wondering if just keeping the money and putting it towards HE HVAC would be better anyways.

 

If homeowners consistently came out ahead on home warranties, the warranty companies would go out of business.

 

^^^This

 

Suppose I can get a warranty on a house built in the 1870's ?

 

You can get a warranty on anything if you have the coinage.

 

My experience with the home warranties is there is alot of "I am sorry, that is not covered." I have actually come out further ahead not getting warranties knowing that I would have a big repair bill every now and again.

 

I know people who continue to renew it every year because they get a lot more back than they put in. Obviously it's a huge YMMV as that couldn't be true for everyone (or else the companies would not exist).

We will probably renew ours because the premium is low enough and we have some old appliances (e.g., 20+ year old HVAC system) that cost big money to replace if they crap out. If it wasn't for that, we probably wouldn't keep it.

 

x3. Had one come with my place when I first bought it. It was amazing how much they nickel-and-dimed when it came to fixing issues they claimed to cover.

 

Yep. Mine runs out this month and when we called last month it was tough to even get them to fix our washing machine. Took the guy 3 or 4 trips to our house for them to get it fixed.

 

We have Old Republic. We renewed after the first year for the same reason; we have an older home.
Right after we moved into the house the fridge quit working. We called them, they sent out a technician, he wrote up an estimate to have it fixed. Old Republic determined it was not worth repairing the fridge. We had the option of them providing a new fridge (a specific model) or taking a check and putting it toward whatever we wanted. I thought the amount they offered was very fair. All it cost us was the $75 deductible.

 

See that's the thing. This is a locally owned company, who works with a lot of realtors and we have $0.00 deductible on it.

Pretty much the ONLY reason we would do it 1 more year is for the HVAC. We figure the warranty is about 10% of what a new HE HVAC system would be, so if we end up not using it for that, maybe we'd have some other random issue. If the HVAC was new or even remotely newer, we wouldn't even consider it and just buy an HE system when it comes time.

I am hoping to get some quotes in the following weeks on exactly what the HVAC system would cost, I just have rough estimates as of now from a buddy.

Roof we know is $5-6K but that isn't covered under the warranty. Turns out the garage door spring I paid to have fixed would have been covered but I honestly forgot to even check.

Also as lame as it sounds our garbage disposal is on it's way out too, and that is covered, already checked that. Granted that is like $125 tops but still probably dead in the next 12 months.

 

biggest game hey play is dragging out repairs... AC breaks and they goof around for a week or 2 scheduling then multiple trips by repair men etc. If you pay out of pocket for something during this period they will not reimburse. They know 50% of people want there crap fixed ASAP

 

Ran into exactly that at my old house. Paid for a plumbing repair and then tried to get reimbursed, they laughed. This time around the 2 issues were fixed same day. BUT This is a different home warranty company completely.

 

Maybe i'm confused but, how would a home warranty help you out on items that are at the end of their useful life other than band-aid repairs to keep them operational?

 

If the cost to fix is over $XX you get new. Sometimes it's a percentage, sometimes its a set amount. Friend who bought a house and had the same company cover his warranty got a brand new AC unit last summer when his was going to cost like $450 to fix. They just replaced it. Not sure exactly what mine reads but good idea to look into that.

 

In Michigan both our electric and gas companies offer home warranties that are alacarte and include as many or few items you want to cover. Neither cover the roof. Both have a program that will give you cash if the product cannot be fixed.

My parents have had great luck , but, as always your experience depends on the quality of the subcontractor.

If you are thinking of replacing the HVAC, there are energy rebate programs through the utilities as well. Investigate them first, had I had an energy audit prior to having the new furnaces installed I would have been entitled to $500 more than the rebate I received without the energy audit.

 

so bring back an old thread. I was speaking to one of my neighbors with a pool, yes a functioning pool, and he said that his home warranty paid to basically get it back in shape. Brings me to anyone with a good experience with home warranties recently.

The premium is about 75/month and 125 service call. so for a year it's about $1k, but if I can get my pool line leak fixed, and my pump, it may be worth it. Also, it covers other things, but most of my stuff like appliances are new. Was looking specifically at American Home Shield.

 

In general, these are bad instruments. In the specific, look at the terms of your sale. If the pool was sold to "as is", which I am thinking that given the pictures I saw it had to be, a warranty would not cover it.