Senior Widow Faces £330 Expense by British Gas HomeCare for Adjusting Loose Faucet
A leaky faucet in your kitchen won't set you back more than a couple of pennies to mend - just the price of a new washer. But 72-year-old widow Linda Gresham was slapped with a £200 bill by British Gas HomeCare to get her tap fixed.
That's a job her handyman husband Norman, who passed away from cancer 12 years ago at the age of 64, would've handled in a jiffy. Linda, who resides in Renfrew, five miles west of Glasgow, felt uneasy tackling the task herself and relied on her HomeCare agreement with British Gas for assistance.
HomeCare, the UK's largest home emergency insurer, counts around three million customers. Their monthly fees vary based on the level of cover, ranging from boiler breakdowns to plumbing, drains, home electrics, and kitchen appliances.
Linda had been paying £360 each year for insurance covering plumbing issues like this, so she was thrilled to finally use it after 25 years of having the coverage. Last August, an engineer came and replaced her tap, making Linda extremely happy.
The following month, British Gas hiked the cost of her coverage by 50%, an extra £180 annually for the same service. Struggling on a basic state pension, Linda downgraded to a more basic 'essential' package that would only cover her boiler and not plumbing - but it still cost more than before at a hefty rate of £425 annually.
Then, in February - six months after the new tap was installed - it began to loosen from the sink. Calling British Gas HomeCare about the problem, Linda claims they told her they'd reintroduce her plumbing cover if she was willing to pay an additional £15 a month - £180 annually.
Linda agreed to pay the extra price from March. For the engineer to sort out the issue, however, Linda was informed she had to hand over an additional £150, but she would be able to claim this back if it was found the problem was related to the tap installation.
Linda says, "The engineer was perfectly pleasant but was only in my home for seven minutes, just tightening the old fitting. He confirmed that the problem wouldn’t have happened if it had been tightened up properly in the first place. But when I later called to get my money back, I was rudely told that I wouldn’t get a refund. I was left in tears."
Experts believe paying to get a tap fixed should cost no more than £70, and if a repeat visit is needed within 12 months for the same job, any further work should be done for free.
Billy Gunn, director of Imperial Heating Services, voiced his frustration, stating, "This really takes the biscuit - charging double the cost of what you might expect to pay, in addition to a service plan that is only beneficial if you never need to use it."
He adds, "The washers to fix taps cost peanuts, and if a tap later becomes loose, it is clearly a case of a defect under workmanship - the job was not initially done to a satisfactory level and should be fixed for free as part of a basic level of service expected from a qualified plumber."
Interestingly, most homeowners in the UK can expect to pay between £70-£120 (including a typical call-out fee) for a plumber to fix a dripping tap[5][1]. Though the cost with British Gas HomeCare isn't explicitly stated, insurance providers like HomeCare usually offer guaranteed repairs without additional charges if the problem is covered under the contract. However, if a customer needs help with a one-off job like a leaky tap, the cost might be much higher, potentially around £100-£150+, depending on the job's complexity and the service provider.
- Despite the simple nature of fixing a leaky tap, 72-year-old Linda Gresham was charged £200 by British Gas HomeCare, a service she relied on due to her husband's passing.
- British Gas HomeCare, the largest home emergency insurer in the UK, offers insurance covering plumbing issues like Linda's tap issue, but at a cost of £360 annually.
- After upping the cost of Linda's coverage by 50%, British Gas HomeCare then charged an additional £150 for a subsequent visit to fix a loose tap, a fee Linda claims they agreed to after she upgraded her coverage.
- Experts suggest that the cost of fixing a leaking tap should range between £70 and £120, with any further work within 12 months for the same job being done free of charge.
- Billy Gunn, director of Imperial Heating Services, criticized British Gas HomeCare's high charges, stating that tap washers cost very little and that a repeat visit for the same job within a contract's scope should be free of charge if initially done poorly.
