While you may have invested in homeowners insurance as a safety net in the event of any incidents that occur on your property, sometimes, you need a little more to cover those items in your household that you’ve spent a lot of hard-earned money on. That’s where a home warranty can be a saving grace in the event that your home appliances or systems break down or suffer significant and even irreparable damage. Let’s take a closer look at what these warranties can do.
Home Warranty Explained
If you’ve invested in that state-of-the-art refrigerator or finally have a washer and dryer after years of using the laundromat, a home warranty can help protect those appliances. A home warranty is effectively a residential service contract that covers the cost of maintaining household systems or appliances for a set period of time. Home warranty companies work in conjunction with various home services providers, such as plumbers and electricians, who will assess the damage and subsequently provide a report to the warrantor.
When you need repairs, you can call your warranty company or reach out online to get a customer service claim rolling. A technician will determine if repairs can take place. Once approved, the technician will repair or replace the covered item with a similar system or appliance based on equipment of similar features, capacity, efficiency, and value. These warranty plans can be a potential lifesaver if you’ve splurged a significant amount of money on a system or appliance and can’t afford to immediately replace it.
Home Warranty vs. Home Insurance
You may be thinking that your home insurance has your back in the event that appliances break down, but that’s only the case in events like fires or natural disasters. Let’s say you’re going through a bathroom remodel with Beautiful Bath Pro. Your home insurance may have helped to cover the remodel and that new shower and vanity of your dreams if faulty wiring or flooding resulted in significant damage. A home warranty will make sure that the towel heater you’ve added to your dream bathroom could be repaired or replaced in the event of a breakdown.
The same way you want peace of mind from your new bathroom contractors and from your homeowner’s coverage, a warranty can afford you that same peace of mind. Consider this also from the standpoint of a homebuyer who isn’t aware of the age of certain appliances like a water heater or stove. You may not know how well the previous owners maintained and managed the components of the home. Information on the age of household appliances or their useful life in years may not be available, but a home warranty can protect you in the event the HVAC unit or other systems stop working.
Home Warranty Qualifications & Cost
Home warranties vary in cost and coverage, depending on how many appliances you want to put under this home protection plan, as well as their present condition. While you may be able to sign on for such a warranty, companies may not cover you on claims if there’s known damage before the start of warranty coverage. You could also be declined on a claim if the system or appliance breaks due to poor maintenance, improper installation, or misuse.
The cost of these warranty plans usually ranges within a few hundred dollars each year, but that annual premium affords you the opportunity to have appliance repair or replacement taken care of expeditiously and at limited to no additional cost. Your warranty company may charge you a service call fee or trade call fee, pretty much synonymous with an insurance deductible. If there are major appliances you just can’t afford to break and pay a bundle for again, consider your home warranty options today.
