The Pros and Cons of Purchasing a Home Warranty
by Abdul Aziz Mondal Real Estate Published on: 22 January 2021 Last Updated on: 02 February 2023
If you are a homeowner, maintaining your home is an essential priority. The right way of taking care of your home appliances and systems is by purchasing a home residential warranty. This warranty covers breakages of appliances and systems in your home. Home appliances may break down or fail at any time and knowing that you are covered for such damages get you worrying less. Home warranty plans are good but might not be right for every homeowner. You need to know about their advantages and disadvantages before deciding to purchase them.
Here are the advantages of a home warranty:
1. A home warranty saves your money
Rather than thinking of a home warranty as an additional cost, you need to start thinking about it in the same terms as insurance. There might be multiple things that can go wrong in a home. Homeowners need a safety net that can help cover the costs and get the damages repaired in the event something goes wrong. A solid home warranty has the potential to grant just that. Getting cover from a company that has operated in your area for over three decades is a sure-fire way of ensuring that you’ll get the response to issues in your home that you need. They’ll be able to call out local contractors to diagnose and address a problem when one arises. The likes of First American operate across many of the country’s states so it’s more than worth seeing if their services are available in your area.
Many homeowners worry about the breakdown of their air conditioning machines during the winter and summer seasons by overworking. If the heating and the cooling machine breakdowns, there might be discomfort in the home, not to mention the high costs of replacing the machines. If you have a home warranty, it will replace your machines after the breakdown. A home warranty will save you a lot of money you could have spent on repairing your air conditioning system or purchasing a new one.
2. It provides value maintenance
Home warranty policy helps you save your annual maintenance costs on your home appliances. It provides maintenance services like cleaning your condenser coils, replacing filters, adjusting the thermostat, and checking electrical connections.
Home warranty saves you on maintenance costs and helps correct any problems in your appliances early enough to avoid breaking down. Hence the policy of making the warranty of home is an excellent strategy to assist in the maintenance of your home appliances.
3. It saves you time
With a proper policy for making the home warranty, it saves your time to look for a contractor. If your home appliances fail to work, you will not have to spend a lot of your time looking for a contractor to repair them. The warranty company will send experts to your home to do the repair. Also, the warranty company takes care of the repairing costs you only pay the deductible cost. A home warranty plan may help you as a new homeowner as you may lack knowledge of how home systems operate.
4. A home warranty is available all the time
Many home warranty companies are open 24 hours. You can contact them at any time of the day or night. In case you have an emergency in the middle of the night, you can find someone to assist you. The coverage is only renewed once a year, meaning you get coverage for your appliances throughout the year.
5. Peace of mind
You cannot determine the price of peace of mind. Even if you go the whole year without using your home warranty, the peace that comes with knowing in case of any home appliances breakages, a professional will come to fix it is irreplaceable. With this, you have fewer worries, and you sleep peacefully.
Cons of a home warranty
There are many benefits of a home warranty plan. However, some homeowners talk of disadvantages associated with buying a home warranty. Here are some cons you might need to know about a home warranty:
1. You may not need it
In the same case with any insurance, you may pay for a home warranty but end up not using it. If you fail to file a single claim at the end of the year, you lose all the money you had paid for the warranty in that year. The contract requires you to pay premiums upfront before knowing if they will be any damages to use the plan or not. If your home is new, built in the last five years, there is a possibility you will go a whole year without breakages of your home appliances. In this case, there is no need for using a home warranty, and consider funding for any appliance repairs on your own.
2. You have a choice in the service provider
One of the concerns homeowners have with home warranties is that they have no room to choose who services their home appliances. Home warranty companies have already established relationships with service providers they send to your house if you have an emergency. Even if you have a service provider company that you like, there is no chance for you to choose them for your appliance repairs because the home warranty company will appoint the one they want to service your home systems.
3. Big systems may cost more
The most expensive home repairs include roofing repair, septic tank repair, HVAC, and foundation repairs. If you think of buying a home warranty for major home repairs to cut on the expensive repairs, you will be disappointed as many basic home warranty plans do not cover such repairs. To obtain such maintenance, you will need to pay high premiums to upgrade from basic plans. In this case, maintaining a home warranty becomes quite expensive.
4. They do not cover improperly maintained items
Most of the companies who want the warranty do not cover the damage of appliances that are not adequately maintained. This clause often causes disputes between homeowners and home warranty companies as it is confusing to know if the appliance damage occurred naturally or was due to improper maintenance. Also, if the previous homeowner did take care of home items, the new homeowner will have a challenging task to convince the home warranty company to cover the repair of the items.
Bottom line
A home warranty can be an excellent solution to help you maintain your home appliances. However, you should note that it has some drawbacks. Therefore ensure you take your time to make a well-informed decision whether you should invest in the warranty to protect your home appliances and systems.
Research first before you decide. Inquire to know what repairs they cover and what they do not cover under your plan before considering paying the warranty for the home. Always weigh out the advantages and disadvantages of the home warranty to determine if it is worthy of investing in your home maintenance.
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