Recently we received a letter from a company called Anglian Water Direct addressed to the homeowner with a heading of – Information about covering your home in the event of a plumbing problem.
Firstly we would like to point out that Anglian Water Direct is not to be confused with Anglian Water as we all know. Anglian Water for what ever reason has decided to market Homeserve’s emergency insurance products under the Anglian Water Direct brand name. Homeserve is a separate company.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued its largest ever retail fine of £30,647,400 to HomeServe Membership Limited (HomeServe). The FCA found that HomeServe had serious, systemic and long running failings, extending across many key aspects of its business. In particular, during the period January 2005 to October 2011 it mis-sold insurance policies, failed to investigate complaints adequately, its Board was insufficiently engaged with compliance matters and its senior management were reluctant to address risks to customers if there was a cost implication involved.
One of the paragraphs in the letter we received reads – Did you know, without cover it could cost £346 to unblock your private drains?
WATER companies have been slammed by MoneySavingExpert in the past for using “scare tactics” to trick people into taking out pipe insurance.
The consumer site says thousands of UK households have received letters seemingly from their water company urging them to take out plumbing and drainage insurance. Crucially, the letters fail to make clear that the policy is optional and in some circumstances, could even be covered by your home insurance.
Consumers should not feel pressured into taking out any sort of optional insurance and HomeServe, along with the water companies that put their names to these letters, have a shared responsibility to make sure that any marketing is clear and not potentially misleading.
