AHS question

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-02-2004
AHS question
2
Thu, 03-23-2006 - 10:46am

Is anybody here familiar with American Home Shield warranties? How do I deal with their denials of claims?

I rent my house and landlord has this policy for home repairs, I pay the $45 deductible and call for the repair if anything happens.

Well, the upstairs A/C unit went out. The technician they sent out said that in a previous repair and indoor motor had been installed into the outdoor "thingy", water got in and burned it up. AHS won't pay him to repair it since it was a previous failed repair, PLUS (and this is the big deal since it's such an old unit) they won't cover any future problems with that unit since it wasn't in good working order at the start of the policy. I talked to my landlord and that repair was done before she even bought the house, so we have no records of who to go back to.

The contractor said it will cost $478 to fix. My landlord is a personal friend going through her own financial troubles due to Hurricane season and doesn't have the money any more than I do. I actually pay way less than a going rate on this place since she intends to move back into the house one day. She's trying to dispute the denial, but as I read the policy, it seems they have the right to do this. I'm definitely going to call another contractor to look at it too.

Appears I get to pay for this or maybe my landlord will...GRRR! Just when I start to feel a little less squeezed, something happens.

Avatar for skthurber
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
In reply to: momsacupcake
Thu, 03-23-2006 - 9:00pm

Well, it's been a mixed bag for us with AHS. We've lived almost 7 years in a 50 year old house, and we've had an AHS warranty the whole time. We had furnace problems about 5 years ago that took 5 or 6 visits over 3-4 months to finally fix, and we only paid the first $50 service call. We also had our hot water heater replaced for $50, obviously a huge savings. On the other hand, our current sewer problem has been a big mess. We had a back-up in Nov '02, which was fixed without a problem. We had another back-up in Aug '05. The same company came and fixed it. When our laundry tub drain started leaking 3 days later, we had to pay another $50, since they declared that a coincidence (never mind that the tub drain was about 18 inches from where they had to rod out the line). When our sewer backed up again a week later, AHS said the stoppage was actually located outside the house and wasn't their problem. So, now we are using part of our tax refund to pay the plumber we hired to dig up our front yard and replace pipe -- to the tune of $2560. I think that AHS used to be a little more liberal about things, but maybe now they are losing money. Good Luck in your dealings with them.

-Sarah

Sarah


Mom to Gina & Tony


 


iVillage Member
Registered: 07-11-2001
In reply to: momsacupcake
Fri, 03-24-2006 - 9:07am

When I first started my AHS policy they repaired everything. I even had a new heat pump installed.

Then after the first year they seemed to get tougher. I cancelled my policy. There's very little room to argue. The policy is quite clear on not repairing items that appear to not have had continuous maintenance.