What to look out for when buying a home warranty

CHARLOTTE — Patrick Joynt chose his older house for its character.

“It’s pushing 70,” he said.

So he bought a home warranty, Choice Home Warranty, and even paid for what’s called the “Choice Ultimate” plan, which shows a long list of things covered.

“I didn’t see any limitations, like, if it’s this type of refrigerator, or anything like that,” said Joynt.

Then his water slowed to a drip and he knew he had a problem.

“It would come out, like, drip, drip, drip,” he said.

Joynt assumed Choice would cover it.

He said the company sent out a contractor, but that person couldn’t find the problem. Joynt says Choice told him to get someone else, so he did.

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“He just walked up. He said, ‘Where’s your water? Right there.’ And he’s like, ‘Oh... leak right there.” Joynt said.

That repairman fixed the issue. He replaced the main water service line and re-piped the house.

The bill was $10,000, which Joynt passed along to the home warranty company.

“I said, ‘You know, these were galvanized steel. They weren’t going to break or weren’t going to hold.’ And the lady said, ‘Oh, we don’t cover galvanized steel.’”

As you may expect, Choice’s policy has fine print with limitations on coverage. But we couldn’t find anything about galvanized steel pipes.

“They offered me $100. ‘Best we can do is pay you $100,’” Joynt said.

The company has a “B” rating with BBB, but more than 11,000 complaints over the past three years.

A state attorney general — Arizona’s —sued Choice, accusing the company of consumer fraud with allegations of deceptive and unfair advertising. Claiming the company used “contract exclusions, payment caps and bad-faith refusals to avoid paying for repairs.”

That case is set to go to trial next year.

Jason Stoogenke is usually a fan of home warranties.

Just make sure you research them well before signing up. If the first contractor can’t fix the problem, ask the ‘warranty company’ to send someone else.

And a side note: if you hire someone without asking your warranty company first, there’s no guarantee they’ll reimburse you.

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