What To Watch When Contracting A Home Warranty

The first is to beware of a company that will sell a home warranty in Tempe, but not honor any claims. A company like this will delay claims until the point when they are in Dutch with too many clients. At that point, they close up shop and reopen under another name. The best way to combat this type of fraud is to research carefully the home warranty company you are considering. Look for warranty provider review sites that have no affiliations with any of the providers. You should be safe with a company that has been in business at least three years, and has received reasonably satisfactory ratings from former clients. To validate the review site, check out one or two others for corroboration. Of course, do not put too much credence into any information that is contained on the provider site itself. A second way to validate your chose of provider for a home warranty in Tempe is to see how the company behaves with your first claim. Of course, you cannot engineer failures, but the sooner you can file a claim the better. A professional home warranty provider will respond the same day, barring weekends. The repair company that the home warranty company hires to do your work should respond to you within a day of the provider contact. If this does not happen, then there is likely a problem. A third safeguard takes a little bit more work but may be of interest. Before you contract your home warranty, run a “D and B” (Dun & Bradstreet) lookup on the business. It will tell you all the basic business facts and give you an idea who you are dealing with. It will also have the legal owner of the home warranty provider. If the company is fraudulent, and dissolves when claims are levied, then bring legal action against the owner, not the company. This is not an easy proposition, but may help hold the responsible parties culpable. A second problem can be that a claim is denied on the grounds that the homeowner was negligent in maintaining the home or appliance in question. At the point this happens, you have already given the provider your money and that puts him in the driver seat. The only power you have lies in the integrity of that company. You must decide if the truly have grounds of claiming negligence. If they do not, and are not entirely patient and professional during the process, then declare the company a loss and move on. Another problem occurs when a company denies a claim against the home warranty in Tempe claiming that there is a pre-existing condition. Again, they must supply the burden of proof. Finally, a provider may insist on continually repairing an appliance that needs to be replaced. This is a very difficult situation. Even a reputable company will appear to do this to a homeowner. Perhaps the best advice is to be prepared that this will happen, not assume that the provider is being duplicitous, and decide from a financial point of view if you want to continue with them knowing their current policies. Being cognizant of these things will help you protect yourself with a provider of a home warranty in Tempe.]]>