Total Protect Home Warranty offers a traditional form of home warranty. Originally, most home warranties were essentially service contracts, designed to provide short-term coverage for repair or replacement of major systems and appliances. Home warranties are pitched by relying on the fears of a large repair bill. The number of systems in your house that you couldn’t fix yourself has multiplied over time. If nothing else a warranty claims to offer people the “peace of mind” that if a system breaks you can get it repaired or replaced without having to bear the financial burden in the moment.
Degree of Coverage as Opposed to Breadth
However, the warranty will not necessarily defray the cost of the repair upfront. Many plans, including this one, require that you make a claim to cover the cost of the repair or replacement. Most companies point out that homeowners don’t know which contractors are legitimate service providers. This means that your options for contractors and technicians is limited to their network. Each service call you request requires that you pay for the base service charge for coming to your house. The prices usually range from $60 -$100 per call.
Limits to the Value of the Warranty
The number of exceptions, loopholes, conditions and limitations make it seem unlikely that such a warranty is a good investment. It is important to understand that a home warranty is not the same as homeowner’s insurance. In fact, warranties exclude coverage on any damage that is already covered by the homeowner’s insurance. Also, they are not designed to cover pre-existing conditions or to remedy building code violations, and they are usually short term agreements only lasting a year. They do not cover the damage done to your house by that system failure, only the system itself. If a plumbing leak destroys your ceiling, they only fix the plumbing.