Boiler cover

Boiler cover terms

These terms apply to boiler cover from Shield Heating & Plumbing, a Gas Safe registered business (registration no. 969710) at 16 Triner Place, Stoke-on-Trent, ST6 8LE. Cover is for one domestic gas boiler at an address in Stoke-on-Trent or Newcastle-under-Lyme. There is no call centre. The same local engineer attends.

This is a service agreement for us to inspect, service and, where your plan says so, repair. It is not an insurance policy. We do not pay other contractors, and we do not refund their bills. Nothing in these terms removes your statutory rights, or our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud.

When the agreement starts

Sending the join form, setting up the Direct Debit, or paying for the year by card does not start cover. Cover starts only on the date we confirm that we have accepted the boiler after the sign-up inspection. We can refuse a boiler or a property, including one outside the area above, a commercial premises, or a boiler that is unsafe or unsuitable.

You must be the homeowner or the landlord, or have their authority to enter this agreement and to let us work. If you pay monthly, you must be the Direct Debit account holder. If you pay the year by card, you must be authorised to use that card. The plan is personal to you and to the address and boiler on the form. It does not move to a buyer if you sell. Tell us if you sell or leave. The payments for the minimum term still stay due unless we agree a transfer.

Plans and prices

The monthly price is the price shown for the plan you choose on the boiler cover plans page. Labour, parts and any other work outside that plan are charged at our normal rate. We can ask you to pay that extra cost before we order parts or return to finish the job.

Basic is £19.99 a month. It includes one annual boiler service, priority booking, no callout fee on a visit for a fault this plan covers, and 10% off parts. Repair labour is not included. Parts are not included. Both are charged at our normal rate, with that 10% discount on the parts.
Standard is £35.99 a month. It includes everything in Basic, plus our labour to repair a covered boiler breakdown, and parts up to £100 for that claim. You pay the rest of the parts above £100, at our normal rate, before we order or fit them. It includes a same-day response for a complete loss of heat or hot water where possible. That is not a guaranteed time.
Premium is £49.99 a month. It includes everything in Standard, but the parts limit is £250 per claim and £400 in each 12-month term, across every claim on the plan. It adds cover for the existing central heating radiators, radiator valves, pump and controls, and plumbing emergencies such as leaks, burst pipes and blocked toilets. It includes one landlord gas safety certificate (CP12) a year and a discount on a new boiler if we decide yours cannot be repaired. The discount is confirmed on the quote. It is not a free boiler.
Plumbing cover is an optional add-on of £15 a month on Basic or Standard only, or £180 if you pay 12 months by card. It is added to the same payment as the boiler plan. It is not available on Premium. Premium already includes plumbing emergencies, and the £15 is not offered and not charged on Premium. On Basic, plumbing parts are charged at 10% off. On Standard, plumbing parts count towards the £100 parts limit for that claim. The add-on does not raise the parts limit.

How you pay

You can pay monthly in advance by Direct Debit, or pay 12 months at once by card. The card amount is 12 times the monthly price, with no extra discount. Basic is £239.88, Standard is £431.88, and Premium is £599.88. Plumbing cover on Basic or Standard is £180 for those 12 months. Premium is never charged the plumbing amount.

The monthly amount is the plan price, plus £15 only if you are on Basic or Standard and you have chosen plumbing cover.

Monthly payments are collected by Direct Debit. The first collection usually leaves your bank a few working days after the Direct Debit is set up. That collection does not start cover. The inspection and the 30-day wait still apply.
A card payment is for 12 months, paid once, and it does not renew by itself. Paying by card does not start cover. The inspection and the 30-day wait still apply. When those 12 months end, you pay again or set up a monthly Direct Debit. We do not take another card payment unless you ask us to.
The minimum term is 12 months from the date we confirm that cover has started. If you pay monthly, all 12 monthly payments are due, whether or not you claim, and whether or not you later stop the Direct Debit, move, sell, or ask to cancel early.
Stopping the Direct Debit does not cancel the agreement and does not cancel sums already due. If a payment is missed, returned, or the Direct Debit stops, cover stops immediately. We will not attend under the plan while any sum is outstanding. Cover starts again only when the overdue amount is paid in cleared funds.
If we refuse the boiler, the plan does not start. We cancel the Direct Debit and refund any payment taken, including a card payment for the year, for a plan we did not accept.
A month that has already been collected is not refunded because you did not claim, because the boiler did not break down, or because you cancelled during that month. After the 14-day cancellation period, a card payment for the year is not refunded.
After the 12-month minimum, the monthly price can change to the price we then publish for that plan. The new price applies to the next payment after we have told you. You can cancel by phone or email if you do not want to pay it. A card payment does not renew, so a new price applies only if you choose to pay again.
Unpaid sums remain payable. We may charge interest at 3% a year above the Bank of England base rate until they are paid. We may recover the unpaid sums and our reasonable cost of collection.

Before cover starts

The sign-up inspection is free when the plan goes ahead. We accept or refuse the boiler after that visit. Boilers are usually accepted only when they are under 10 years old. We can refuse an older boiler, a boiler with a fault already present, a boiler that is poorly installed, unsafe, or sludged, and any appliance that is not a domestic gas boiler.

Faults already present at the inspection are not covered. We can require those faults to be repaired, at our normal rate, before we accept the boiler. If you do not want that repair, we can refuse the plan.

There is a 30-day wait after cover starts before the first claim. A breakdown, heating fault or plumbing emergency in those 30 days is not covered. If you ask us to attend, that visit is charged at our normal rate. The annual service is not a claim. We book it. It is not an emergency repair.

If the age, condition or history you give us is untrue, or you hide a fault, we can refuse the plan or end it. Payments already due for the minimum term still stay due.

Your 14-day cancellation right

Because you join at a distance, you can cancel within 14 days of joining without giving a reason. Call 01782 901262 or email info@shieldheating.co.uk. This is the cancellation right under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.

If you ask us to inspect during those 14 days, you ask us to start the service. If you then cancel, the inspection is no longer free and we can charge a reasonable cost for the visit and for any work already done. If you paid the year by card and cancel within 14 days before we have started the inspection, we refund that card payment. If you asked us to inspect and then cancel, we can deduct that reasonable cost from the refund. We do not carry out the annual service, or a claim, during those 14 days unless you have asked us to start. After the 14 days, the 12-month minimum term and the payment terms above apply.

How to claim

Call 01782 901262 before anyone else attends, and say you are on boiler cover. We decide whether the fault is covered. We do not pay, reimburse or accept the bill of any other engineer, plumber or emergency contractor.

If you smell gas, leave the property and call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. That call is not a claim on this plan.

One claim is one fault. Visits to finish that same fault count as the same claim towards the parts limit. A different fault is a new claim. On Premium, the £400 yearly parts limit covers every claim in that 12-month term, including heating and plumbing.
No callout fee applies only when we attend a covered fault on a plan that is active and paid. If the fault is not covered, there is no fault with the covered equipment, access is refused, or nobody is home, the visit is charged at our normal rate, including a call-out charge.
Priority booking means a weekday appointment ahead of non-plan work where the diary allows. It is not a promise of a particular day.
Same-day help on Standard and Premium is for a complete loss of heat or hot water, where an engineer is available. It is not for a partial fault, a service, or a job that can wait. Weekends are for emergencies only. A non-emergency weekend visit is chargeable.
We choose the parts. We do not fit parts you supply under the plan. We can pause the job until you agree the extra cost and pay it.

What is not included

Printed circuit boards, heat exchangers and fans are not covered on any plan. On Basic, those parts and all other parts are charged at 10% off our normal rate. On Standard and Premium, those three parts sit outside the parts allowance. They are discounted, and we confirm that discount before we fit them.

The plan does not include a replacement boiler. If, in our reasonable view, a repair is uneconomic, parts are no longer available, or repeated breakdowns show the boiler is at the end of its life, we will not carry out that repair under the plan. Premium customers can take the quoted discount on a new boiler that we supply and install. Breakdown cover for the old boiler ends when we confirm that decision. The minimum-term payments still stay due. A new boiler can be offered a new plan only after its own inspection. Payments from the old plan are not credited to the new one.

The following are not included, and are charged at our normal rate if you ask us to do them:

Faults present at the inspection, or which appear during the 30-day wait.
Sludge, scale, corrosion, a powerflush, system design, undersized pipework, and a repair caused by lack of servicing. If you miss or refuse the annual service included in the plan, a later fault linked to that is not covered.
Poor installation, a manufacturer recall, misuse, frost damage, no gas, no electricity, no water, a prepayment meter with no credit, controls left off, or a system that has been drained.
Work, alterations or parts fitted by anyone other than us, including DIY. We can suspend cover until we have inspected that work. That later inspection is chargeable.
Showers, taps, baths, basins, kitchens, appliances, gutters, underground pipework, excavation, and making good floors, walls, decorations or belongings.
Underfloor heating, solar, heat pumps, warm air, back boilers, oil, solid fuel, electric boilers, and range cookers.
Upgrades, relocations, extra radiators, designer or cast-iron radiators, new controls, and smart thermostats. Premium covers repair of the existing radiators, radiator valves, pump and controls only.
Damage from a leak, alternative accommodation, loss of earnings and loss of rent.
Anything above the parts limit for your plan.

Plumbing emergencies

Plumbing cover, whether included with Premium or added to Basic or Standard, is emergency attendance to make safe a leak or a burst pipe, or to clear a blocked toilet, and to restore ordinary use. A permanent repair of that same emergency is included only up to the parts limit of your plan.

It does not include a repair that can wait, a replacement tap or bathroom, a kitchen, a leak under a floor that needs floors or decorations lifted and reinstated, excavation, a recurring blockage after we have cleared it once and told you the cause, or damage the water has caused. The £15 add-on cannot be added to Premium.

The annual service

Each 12-month term includes one boiler service, which we book in weekday hours. It is a service of the boiler, not a system clean and not a free repair. Faults found at the service are covered only if a claim on your plan would cover them. Otherwise they are charged at our normal rate.

If you miss the appointment, we offer one further appointment. A wasted visit after that can be charged at our normal rate. We do not owe a second service or a refund of that month.

Landlords

A landlord can join any plan. The CP12 is included with Premium only, once in each 12-month term, for the gas appliances at the address on the plan, in weekday hours. A certificate does not mean the property has passed, and it does not make you compliant if access is refused or if defects outside the plan are left unrepaired. Remedial work is included only when that exact repair is already covered by Premium. Any other remedial work is charged at our normal rate. If we cannot get access, that visit does not use up the certificate, and a wasted visit can be charged.

How long the plan lasts

After the 14-day cancellation period, the minimum term is 12 months. If you pay monthly, those monthly payments stay due. If you paid the year by card, that payment is the minimum term and it is not refunded after the 14-day cancellation period. The card payment does not renew by itself. After those 12 months you can cancel by phone on 01782 901262 or by email to info@shieldheating.co.uk. Cover ends when we confirm the cancellation. There is no extra notice period. The month already collected is not refunded.

We can end the plan immediately if a payment stays unpaid, the boiler is beyond repair, the installation is unsafe, you refuse access, you abuse or threaten our engineer, or the information you gave us is untrue. Sums already due still stay due. If we end the plan because we can no longer provide it, and you are not in breach, we cancel future payments.

Liability

We carry out covered work with reasonable care and skill. We do not guarantee that parts will be available, that a boiler of any age can be repaired, or that a same-day visit will be possible. Time is not of the essence.

We are not liable for loss that is an indirect result of a breakdown or a leak, including damage to decorations and belongings, the cost of somewhere else to stay, lost earnings or lost rent, except where the law does not allow that limit. Chargeable work outside the plan is also subject to our general terms. If those terms conflict with this page on a point about boiler cover, this page applies.

Questions before you join can go through the contact form or by phone. The laws of England and Wales apply.