If you own your house, do you service your boiler annually?

[TarnishedMoonstone]

Reading all the “shall I put the heating on?” posts, I’m surprised by how many people apparently have their boiler serviced regularly (appreciate this is mandatory if it’s a rented place, so I’m talking about homeowners who are meant to sort this stuff ourselves). How many of you are on the ball about this, please?

Yes. Got a new oil boiler year before last and had it serviced last year and will again next month. Read your house insurance OP as you may find you're not covered if the boiler causes a fire.

Is servicing your boiler required for home insurance?

Yes we do.

I know a couple of people who didn't and the issue got worse and they had to have a new boiler.

When our boiler needs servicing, it tells us on the display and we also get an email

We rent out properties as well so it's something we have to do for them and therefore it's easy to be on it for our own house.

Or maybe the part of your home insurance which covers the boiler would be void if you don't service it, that makes sense.
But the rest of the home would still be insured.

Yep because it’s part of the guarantee for it. Only valid if it’s serviced.

I do

I am a landlord so have to do this with all my rentals and it felt kind of weird I would do it for them and not for me!

It's only £65

A good friend is a retired plumber.
He assures me that modern boilers don't actually need an annual service, but some insurance companies still live in the last century.

When we chose the fitter for our boiler, the fact that they included a promise to email us every year when servicing was due was a factor in deciding who to go for. It meant we didn't have to remember, we just had to react to their emails.

I was majorly impressed the other day when I got an email from the firm I recently bought a new mattress from, advising me it was time to turn it.

Yes we do!

Nope. We just had ours done because we are moving!

It comes under the clause that says that you have to keep the house well maintained.

Yes, we do.

Yes we do. Can’t be too careful with a gas appliance

Yes, we have a service agreement that covers the radiators as well as the boiler - we got two new radiators completely free last winter when they started leaking.

Nah

Yes we do. I'm more surprised that you're surprised about people getting an annual service.

Yes in the summer when the plumber isn't busy

No and our boiler was here when we moved in over 25 years ago. It’s had a couple of minor repairs. We do have a carbon monoxide detecter!

We had a new boiler fitted last year with a 8 year warranty, we have to have it serviced every year, otherwise the warranty is invalid. The warranty is worth its weight in gold.

I spent 8K on the boiler, I am not going to let it not be working well, you service your car every year.

Yes, but only because we never did with the old one and it broke at the worst possible time. Hoping by getting it serviced each year, any issues can be addressed before I need it to be working every day.

Just did it myself!
(Qualified obviously) 😊
Found some rust spots ...

Which begs the question, how old were they ? why are they leaking?
Badly installed ?

My last house had a 40 year-old system, & the rads never leaked.

Yes it invalidates the guarantee if it goes wrong plus it's a disaster if your boiler packs up!

We also had new gas fires fitted when we moved in about 5 years ago and the guarantee said the same thing, though I probably only have those serviced every 3 years. The gas fire which was in situ at our old house was never serviced in the 14 years we lived there and it never went wrong. But if it had stopped working we could have lived without it. Boiler a bit different!

Yes