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, would never occur to us not to.

I didn't realise I'd signed up for it at first (monthly payment covering breakdown and annual review(, but after consideration decided it was worth it for peace of mind.

Yes, although ours is an oil boiler so it's pretty essential to get it regularly serviced.

A previous boiler caught fire in the kitchen early January one year and it took until September to resolve the issue through the house insurance. Post fire engineers report said it hadn't been serviced properly but we had receipts from a local company showing we paid to have it serviced annually and in fact, it had only been done two days prior to the fire.

Luckily our smoke detectors worked as we were in bed when it happened at around 6am when the boiler was timed to come on.

In the meantime we had to keep warm by using the wood burning stove in the living room and an electric blanket on the bed. It was a a total nightmare and I'm glad we didn't have young kids at the time.

Same

Worth looking for offers for having it done August/September. It’s quieter time of the year. I got £25 off for booking in August for September service.

No.
I read on here that you don't need to get it serviced as there are no moving parts.
My boiler dates from mid 90s. I would have wasted a lot of money on servicing by now. If and when it ever goes wrong I'll get it fixed or replaced.

No, but he’s allowed to do gas stuff in nuclear power stations 🤷‍♀️😆

Do you realise that not having proof of it being serviced annually invalidates your insurance?

You most definitely do need it serviced annually!

Yes, every year as it’s stated as part of the warranty but for £90, I’d do it anyway!

House insurance? Never seen that as a condition of insurance, will have to read the small print.

It is on some house insurances, you do have to check for stuff like this, another one that is on some house insurance is you have to turn off water if you go away for more than a certain no. of days, people miss that one too.

I didn't know that either, so I have just looked at my insurance. Getting the boiler serviced regularly is a condition on our insurance.

I'm struggling to believe that some posters have had unserviced boilers dating back to the mid 90s that have never gone wrong.

One gas engineer told me that regular servicing improves the efficiency of the boiler.

How does owning your home make a service less essential than it would be for renters?!

Tenants have their boilers services because it's a safety thing. Home owners need the same.

Used to before we had kids. Now we live pay packet to pay packet and it's not a priority (although should be).

@Houseplanter I guess that landlords can be cavalier about their own safety, but they can't be if they are responsible for their tenants.

Had all our gas appliances serviced this year and none are now working properly. Now looking for a different company to service them correctly.
I wish we hadn’t bothered as all were working fine before we got a supposed manufacturers recommended engineer.
Result was the boiler isn’t working correctly and the gas fire isn’t working at all.

Yes I do, it’s worth it for the peace of mind.

How much is a service?

Ok, I’ve checked my police schedule and it says nothing about this. Multiple websites when ive googled says this isn’t true. You wouldn’t be able to claim for anything to do with the costs of a broken boiler if it’s not serviced, but if it blew up and demolished the house you’d be covered

Yes.

I was very pleased to find a company online that not only lets me pay monthly without penalty (so the monthly fee is 1/12th of the annual and no more) but it also includes a yearly service. All for about £72 pa

Woefully incorrect.

Yes. Not worth the risk of death

Same it's standard and they send a reminder

Of course. I don't want it breaking down in midwinter or gassing us with CO.