This has been a question that has pre-occupied landlords for several years. By instinct landlords don’t like shelling money out and not getting anything back in return. However, several boiler failures in quick succession have reminded me of what an expensive business boilers and employing plumbers can be. The other issue for landlords to remember is that it is not just the cost of employing a plumber; it’s also getting hold of one at this time of year.

The dilemma I recently faced as a landlord was that both boilers were in their twilight years, 10 years old. Not old enough to give up on. Most decent boilers should last about 15 years; but old enough for the parts and the technology to be a little out of date and for the fault to be difficult to find. Remember it’s always worth getting your plumber to phone the boiler company’s technical department if they need expert technical help on isolating the exact nature of a difficult to isolate problem. However, as landlords we all know that all this is extra time and more money on the bill.

Getting a plumber
For many landlords including myself one of the hardest problems in resolving boiler and plumbing problems is actually getting the plumber to the buy-to-let property in the first place. With the freezing weather having now arrived, plumbers start to get inundated with burst pipes and other emergencies that mean even when a landlord has made careful arrangements, these may have to be cancelled at the last minute because another customers ceiling is just about to collapse under a weight of water. All ‘lordable stuff’ but when your tenant hasn’t had heating or hot water for several days; then rightly the tenant doesn’t care about the noble actions of your plumber – they want and expect their heating to be fixed. This is where the insurance schemes do offer something useful. Some such as Homeserve offer 24/7 coverage 365 days a year and say that they can get somebody to you in 2 hours in a real emergency. This is a relief especially when unfortunately boilers and leaks don’t seem to differentiate between holidays and other days when deciding to break down.

What to look out for in choosing a policy
If you do consider using a policy such as the Samuels do as mentioned in the article on student letting tips have done then what should a landlord look out for?

1. First, landlords should check if there is a cap on call outs. Some cheaper policies limit the number of times that a landlord uses them in a year.


2. Landlords should find out how much parts and labour is actually covered. Whilst it’s OK to have free labour for an hour, most plumbing and boiler jobs take over an hour to do, so it’s better to opt for a policy that has an unlimited amount of labour included as standard.


3. Once repairs are done, a landlord should check if they are guaranteed and if so, for how long.


4. What’s the call out window? Will you the landlord (or your tenants) have to wait in all day or is the booking slot narrower? Powergen now E.ON says it offers a two hour time slot but most providers only operate on AM or PM and AM often means 8AM-2PM!


5. A landlord should check whether their specific boiler is covered. Some policies won’t cover boilers over a certain age and few cover anything which is over 15 years old. Other polices won’t cover certain models.


6. How quickly can the plumbers come out? Cover Heat say they can get someone to a landlord’s buy-to-let property in 24 hours or 2 hours in a real emergency. However, what happens if that service promise is broken?


7. Is there an excess – i.e. do you the landlord have to pay the first X pounds of any call out?


8. Finally what’s the cost? British Gas charges £290 a year for Home Care 200 but Valliant Boiler’s own cover is £168 and has no annual limits on call outs.

Bad press
Boiler insurance does give some reassurance over the cost of repair of a landlord’s boiler, but there are lots of exclusions on what’s covered, so landlords should read the small print of the policy carefully. There have been instances when the service provider was found out during cold periods when claims have been high. For example, in 2005, the Guardian newspaper received numerous complaints from readers about British Gas’s service. There were cases of missed appointments including also examples of engineers sneaking up to houses and putting notes through letter boxes saying they had called then they hadn’t. British Gas says its problems are behind it but it did not fare too well in USwitch’s recent customer satisfaction index.

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Another criticism that’s been made is that given the low cost of these services, providers are over-keen to bump up profits. There have been stories of rogue engineers working for one of these providers who will say a boiler cannot be repaired because the part is no longer available. This allows him to then sell in and install a new boiler and make a good profit. However, some customers who have sought a second opinion from their local trader have found that the part is readily available after all.

When should a landlord get boiler insurance?
In deciding whether to take out a policy a landlord should consider what their time commitments are. For instance for somebody like myself who is self employed then I have the flexibility of being able to phone round and arrange a plumber. For those landlords who do not have this luxury, insurance offers some benefits. Likewise if you are a landlord with a an older boiler, who is on a tight budget, then having the certainty that you are not going to be hit with a repair bill of £200-300 is an attractive reason to take out cover.

Finally, where a landlord doesn’t have a regular, reliable and cheap plumber, finding one that isn’t going to rip you off isn’t easy. Emergency plumbing rates and call out charges will quickly rack up a large bill and that is before any parts have been purchased. For example the PCB board I had to purchase to fix one of my boilers was over £150. For those in London a quick check on Pimlico Plumbers weekend rates for heating services showed an hourly day rate of £130 – a sobering thought at this festive time.