What is a Home Warranty?
What is a home warranty vs. homeowners insurance? Homeowners insurance is a type of property insurance that protects the home against damages to the physical structure, to the owners possessions and it offers liability protection for incidents on the property or in the home itself.
A home warranty is a service contract that covers the homes major systems, i.e. electrical, plumbing inside the home, the heating system and the appliances. Any breakdown on any of these systems can be very expensive to repair, so what a home warranty does is make the repair or replacement, way, way less stressful. This is especially true for a new homeowner as they've had to put so much of their money into the purchase of the home, the last thing they want is any unexpected financial surprises! The way a home warranty service contract works is that when something breaks, you contact your home warranty company and they send out a licensed, bonded repair person. There is a flat fee service visit charge, generally about $65 per incident, that the homeowner will pay the repair person when they come to the home. In return, the system or appliance will be repaired or replaced if it is unrepairable. If it needs replacing, there are generally 2 options: 1) they will replace the broken item with a brand new like-quality, like-featured one, or 2) you may take a cash out price and buy and have installed what you want. The cash out price is a set “contractors” price and there is no negotiating on it.
If your newly purchased home came with a 1-year warranty, you have the option of renewing it or not, at the end of the year. To that end, if you decide not to renew, but a year want one again, you can obtain one. ...
