Homecover Terms & Conditions

The "Small Print" For your Safeheat homecover service agreement

If you need a larger font size version this is available on our web site our Homecover page or by calling 01803 523 700

Our commitment to you

We aim to provide a safe, high-quality service to repair and maintain the equipment included in this agreement, please contact us on 01803 523 700

Summary of your agreement

What the agreement provides:

One Safety Inspection and Service of your appliance in every year of your homecover.
Labour and parts, if your appliance breaks down.
No limit to the number of call-outs to carry out work included in your agreement.
A customer helpline available 24 hours a day, every day.
Priority service (every day of the year). We will endeavour to attend within 24 hours of your call to our helpline subject to workload and labour available.
Getting to your system.
Advice about your system from our engineers.

Safeheat homecover Options

We base your agreement on the homecover options you choose (listed and described below). This will give you the guidance on what you can expect from each service option. You should also read the 'General exclusions' section below.

There are three different homecover plans, which you combine to suit your needs.

Bronze - gas central heating boiler and controls only.
Silver - gas central heating boiler and controls PLUS the system
Gold - gas central heating boiler, controls and system PLUS Plumbing.

What is covered?

A Gas Services
(i) What is included:
Bronze

This service is for maintaining and repairing a single wet (using water) gas central-heating boiler & controls in your home and includes the following:

A Safety and Maintenance Inspection of your boiler and system (except for parts of the system that aren't readily accessible and electric boilers)
Labour and parts if your system breaks down ( shown in purple in the diagram)
If your boiler is seven years old or more, and it is not possible to repair it because, for example, spare parts are no longer available to carry out the repair or you choose to replace it at any time (however old it is) you are entitled to a 10% discount off the full installation cost of a replacement boiler if you choose us to replace your boiler.
All necessary PowerFlush work after your initial PowerFlush ( which we charge you for ) See the PowerFlush section in this leaflet.
There is no age limit on your boiler and it does not matter who installed it, as long as all the essential working parts are available from the original equipment manufacturer and it is approved by us.

Silver
As Bronze PLUS your system are covered for labour & parts (shown in blue in the diagram)

Gold
As Silver plus your plumbing (shown in red on the diagram)
Under the service, inside your home we will provide materials and labour to repair or replace:

hot-and-cold water pipes from the mains stopcock leading to your taps (including garden taps)
standard ball valve and toilet siphon
leaking overflow pipes
radiator valves
your cold-water storage tank
pipes that burst as a result of cold weather
central heating water pipes if there is a water leak
your hot-water cylinder and immersion heater

What is not included under homecover Plumbing:

Repairing or replacing taps and washers in taps
Repairing or replacing solar panels or associated pipework
Repairing or replacing soak aways, septic tanks, cesspits, treatment plants and their outflow pipes
Repairing or replacing the mains cold-water stopcock, water softeners, shower pumps and mixer valves, mechanical pumps, water filters, radiators, swimming pools, decorative garden features, rainwater pipes and guttering, macerators such as Saniflo, and electrical units for toilets.
Repairing or replacing any lead or steel pipes
Repairing or replacing any solar panels or associated pipework
Regularly cleaning your drains
Repairing or unblocking drains shared with another property or properties
Repairing or unblocking drains which are just used for commercial purposes

Please also see 'General Exclusions'
The service includes:
4 Internal gas supply
We will repair all gas-supply pipework inside your home, between your meter and any appliances as long as you have homecover plans Bronze, Silver or Goldand there is no specialist floor covering. (You cannot buy the internal gas-supply service on its own.)

(ii) What is not included

Removing sludge of hard water scale from the boiler or system ( see the PowerFlush section under Customer Information)
Replacing your boiler.
Repairing or replacing appliance flues that aren't part of your boiler.
Repairing or replacing parts of your central-heating system and controls that are specifically designed for piped or electric underfloor heating.
Please also see 'General Exclusions'.

General Exclusions

Our Safeheat homecover agreement does not include the following:

Design or existing faults
The cost of repairs needed because of design faults (unless we are responsible), or faults which existed before you entered into the agreement and which could not be identified on initial inspection using reasonable care and skill.
Third-party or accidental damage
The cost of repairs relating to damage caused by you or someone else. Consequential loss
Unless we are responsible for it, loss or damage to property caused by the appliance, boiler or system breaking down (for example, damage to furniture caused by water leaks) If we have to dig on your property, we will fill in any holes and leave the surface level but we will not necessarily replace the original surface or construction. Any redecoration that may be needed following our work is your responsibility, unless we have been negligent.
Normal insured risks
The cost of repairing faults or damage caused by freezing weather conditions ( except certain repairs included in Plumbing), subsidence, structural repairs, accident, fire, lightning, explosion, flood or storm. The cost of repairing damage caused by changes to, or problems with the gas, electricity or water services. You should check your household insurance to make sure you have enough cover for these risks.

Under all homecover options

Replacing appliances, bathroom fixtures, showers and sanitary ware
Improvements including work that is needed to bring your system up to current standards. Examples of improvements include system upgrades, such as adding thermostatic radiator valves, replacing parts such as flues which do not meet current standards, and replacing working radiators with improved models (These are examples only, not a complete list).
Replacing or repairing decorative or other parts which do not affect how the system or appliance works.
Repairing or replacing any lead or steel pipes.
Resetting controls (for example, thermostats and programmers following wintertime or summertime changes)
Repairing faults or clearing physical blockages (blockages such as rubble, sludge and scale, but not air locks) if we have told you permanent repairs or improvements are needed to make sure your appliance or system works properly. We will only tell you this if, in our expert opinion, it is necessary.
Removing asbestos associated with repairing the appliances or system. When you have had any asbestos removed, you must provide us with a clean-air certificate before we will do any further work at your property. By law, the person who removes the asbestos must give you a clean-air certificate.
Repairing any damage caused by our work or redecorating, unless we or our agents have been negligent or broken this agreement.
Cash alternatives for repair or maintenance.

About your agreement

Domestic Use
Safeheat Homecover agreements are only available for appliances in domestic use inside your home. If you own a domestic property which you let out, we will offer you a landlord cover agreement only - please see the landlord cover section below.
Maintenance Agreement
Homecover is a maintenance agreement and not an insurance policy. Period of agreement
Your agreement runs until you tell us that you would to cancel, or if we cancel the agreement (see 'cancellation'). You may cancel the agreement at any time with one months notice period. We will write to you to tell you about changes to the terms and conditions or prices. We may also cancel the agreement at any time, as long as we give you reasonable notice of this. If you pay each in advance (by cash, cheque, credit card or debit card) instead of by monthly direct debit and cancel the agreement during that year, we will give you a refund based on how long is left of any 12-month advance payment. There will be a minimum payment for the year of £75.00 if we have done work or an inspection. Start Date
Your agreement begins when we receive your satisfactorily completed your application *Subject to survey.
Initial Safety Inspection
We will inspect you system and or appliance. Your Safeheat Engineer will fill in an initial safety inspection checklist. We will normally do this inspection within 28 days of the beginning of your agreement where possible, but, as we give priority to breakdowns, it can be later if there is a lot of demand for our services. If the inspection reveals a problem, we may:

Tell you what work is needed and what it will cost you for that work to be done.
Cancel the agreement and refund your money.

Safety and Maintenance Inspections

We will carry out a Safety and Maintenance Inspection once in every year of your agreement. We will aim to carry out the Safety Inspection & Service around the same time each year where possible, depending on our workload and your appointment preferences. As long as we can get into your home, we will always make sure we check that your system is safe. You can also call us at any time to arrange or rearrange your Safety and Maintenance Inspection.

Cancellation

We will cancel your agreement if:

You have given false information
You do not make an agreed payment
If we find something wrong at the initial safety inspection
We are not reasonably able to fin parts to keep your system or appliance working safely; or
Circumstances arise (including health and safety issues) which make it inappropriate for the contract to continue.

If we cancel your agreement we will

Give you a full refund if we find something wrong at the initial safety inspection;or
Give you a refund based on how long is left of any 12 month advance cash, cheque, credit card or debit card payment. There will be a minimum payment of £75.00 a year if we have done work.

You may cancel your agreement within seven working days starting from the day after you receive written confirmation of your agreement with us and you will receive a full refund of any money paid (as long as we have not done any work)

You may also cancel your agreement immediately, either after us letting you know about changes in prices or terms and conditions, or if we fail to do something which we should have done. In this case, you will receive a refund based on how much time is left of the relevant 12 month period or, if you agree, we will put things right and continue the contract.

You may cancel your agreement at any time, giving one months notice period. If you do so after we have done an inspection or other work, and you have paid less than £75.00 in the last 12 months at the time you cancel, we may charge you an extra amount which brings your total payments under the agreement to £75.00 when we have done an inspection or other work.

Spare parts

If we do not carry the spare parts your repair needs on the day we will do all we reasonably can to find parts from our suppliers. We may use approved alternative parts or parts that have been reconditioned by the original manufacture.
Labour
One of our engineers will usually carry out the work, in some cases we may authorise a suitably qualified contractor to carry out the work. Getting to your system - all safeheat homecover options and internal gas supply
Our cost of getting to your system (materials and labour) is included up to £500 (including VAT) for each job, for example, pipes buried in walls or 'built-in' appliances (except work on drains where this also includes any inspection or repair costs)

Landlord Cover
This service is available to landlords who let out properties for domestic purposes.
Legal requirements
By law, landlords must have gas appliances in properties they let checked for safety every 12 months. They must, by law, also hold a Gas Safety Record as proof.
Our Service
We can carry out the inspections that are needed at the same time as the safety and Maintenance Inspection. By Law, we will check and issue a Gas Safety Record for all gas appliances within the property. Additional appliances covered at an additional cost. If you, or we, cancel your agreement after we have provided a Gas Safety Record, and you have paid less than £75.00 in the last 12 months at the time you cancel, we will charge you an additional amount, which brings your total payments, under the agreement, to £75.00.

Gaining access to your property
It is your responsibility to let us into your property. If we cannot gain access to your property to carry out the necessary work, we will tell you to arrange another appointment. If after the several attempts, we still cannot gain access, we may cancel your agreement. We will tell you in writing if this is the case.

Using Personal Information

Information you provided or we hold about you (whether or not under our contract or contracts with you) may be used by us or our agents to

Identify you when you contact us
Help identify accounts, services and products which you could have from us from time to time(we may do this using an automatic scoring system, which uses the information you have provided, any information we hold about you and information from other agencies, including credit-reference agencies)
Help run, and contact you about the improved running of any accounts, services and products we have provided before or provide now or in the future.
Carry out marketing analysis and customer profiling including with transactional information and create statistical and testing information
Help to prevent and detect fraud or loss;and
Contact you in any way (including mail,e-mail,phone,visit, text or multimedia messages) about products and services offered by us and selected partners. We will only contact you in this way if you have previously shown your consent.

Transactional information means what you buy from us and how you pay for it, for example, usage rates and discounts we have offered you. (These are examples only, not a complete list) We may allow other people and organisations to use information we hold about you

To provide services you have asked for
As part of the process of selling one or more of our businesses;
If we have been asked to provide information for legal or regulatory purposes; or
As part of current or future legal proceedings

From time to time, these other people and organisations may be outside the European Economic Area in countries that do not have the same standards of protection for personal data as the UK. We may pass your address, property and postcode and details of your gas appliances, flue, hot water cylinder, system controls and electrical installations (including details of any repairs or removals, to competent person scheme operators and other appropriate organisations including Gas-Safe (council of registered Gas Installers) and the ECA (Electrical Contractors Association). These operators and organisations may pass this information to local authorities to meet Building Regulations. They may also use this information to contact you to inspect appliances or systems, recall faulty products and carry out audits, and for health and safety purposes. Where appropriate, we will give you or the property owner (or both) a certificate to show that your appliances and so on meet Building regulations. We may monitor and record communications with you (including phone conversations and e-mails)for quality assurance and to make sure that we are meeting our legal and regulatory requirements. We may check your details with one or more licensed credit-reference and fraud-prevention agencies.We and they may keep a record of this search and the payment details from your account, and share it with other organisations. If a person provides false or inaccurate information and we suspect fraud, this is also recorded. This information may be used by us, and other organisations may search these records to Help make decisions about credit and credit related services for you and members of your household;

Help make decisions on motor, household, credit, life and other insurance proposals and insurance claims for you and members of your household;
Trace debtors, recover debt,prevent fraud and manage your accounts or insurance policies
Check your identity to prevent money laundering, unless you give us other satisfactory proof of your identity; and
Carry out statistical analysis about credit, insurance and fraud.

We, and other credit and insurance organisations, may also use technology to detect and prevent fraud. If you need details of those credit agencies and fraud-prevention agencies from which we get, and which we record information about you please write to our Data Protection Manager, Safeheat Ltd, Yalberton Tor Ind Est, Alders Way, Paignton, Devon, TQ4 7QN

If you give us information on behalf of someone else you confirm that you have given them the information set out in this document, and that they have not objected to their personal information being used in the way described in it. If you give us sensitive information about yourself or others (such as health details or any criminal convictions of members of your household) you agree (and confirm that the relevant subject of the information has agreed) to us processing this information subject in the way set out in this document.

If you are making a joint application or you have told us about some other financial association with someone else, a 'financial association' between you and that other person (or people) will be made at credit-reference agencies. This will link your financial records with that other person (or people) so that both (or all) your records will be taken into account in all future applications by either or both (or all) of you. This will continue until one of you successfully files a notice with the credit reference agencies asking that you are no longer financially associated with that person.

Third Party Rights

Nobody other than you will be able to benefit from this agreement, which cannot be passed to someone else without our agreement.
Our responsibilities:
We will meet our responsibilities under this agreement within a reasonable time unless it is impossible for us to do so because of circumstances outside our reasonable control.

Customer Information

Central Heating Improvements
Replacing Your Boiler
The Energy Saving Trust recommend that gas central heating boilers are replaced every 15 years. While boilers older than this can often still work properly, their effectiveness and efficiency becomes reduced and technological advanced means that today's boilers, if regularly serviced, have significantly improved efficiency, performance, reliability and safety features. Every new boiler we sell is at least an 'A' rated condensing boiler with an efficiency over 90% - this compares to boilers over 15 years old with an efficiency of around 65%

Upgrading the System and energy-efficiency improvements
If you ask us to improve your system (for example, by adding new controls) we will give you a 2 year parts and labour guarantee. We are able to provide energy-efficient products at a reduced VAT rate of 5%. To arrange an engineer to visit, ring 01803 523 700

Power Flush

Power Flush is a way of removing sludge and other waste from central heating systems. We may also suggest you correct any design faults which might cause problems to return. This work can increase the life of your system, and improve efficiency. When a repair is needed due to sludge (for example, damage to the pump, valves or radiators) we will complete this job, at no extra cost, as long as we have not already told you that you need a Power Flush or similar procedure. Our engineers will also tell you what other work is needed to avoid further problems, or offer you a different Safeheat cover option. If we recommend you carry out a Power Flush, we will charge you to carry out the work. Once it is finished, there will be no charge for any future Power Flush work that may be needed as long as you keep a continuous Homecover agreement with us at that property and as long as we carry out any work to correct design faults. Power Flush is a trademark.

Guarantees

Any guarantees do not affect your legal rights under the Sale Of Goods Act 1979 and Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, you can get advice about your rights from a Citizens advice bureau or trading standards department.

Miscellaneous

If any term of the terms and conditions is held to be invalid, unlawful or unenforceable, it shall not affect the enforcement of any of the remaining Terms. These Terms and Conditions constitute the entire agreement between you and us with respect to the subject matter hereof.

Law

These Terms shall be governed and construed in accordance with English law and be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.

Homecover terms & conditions