Gas line insurance - Is it worth it?

[bucky6225]

I reside in Northern Virginia and have been a Washington Gas customer since buying my home over five years ago. Only in the last few months have I been getting emails from them encouraging me to get gas line insurance through HomeServe, a company they have partnered with. It is $5.49 a month and “provides up to $8,000 annually with multiple service calls for covered gas line repairs”.

What are others thoughts on gas line insurance? Is it as necessary as home insurance or it more like some types of insurance that don’t actually pay out or cover in many situations?

[jebmke]

I am in MD so same latitude. All electric. Power company is responsible for the line from the road to the house (unless I do something like dig it up accidentally). Is the gas company not responsible for the line to the house?

[neilpilot]

I've owned homes in 6 states since the mid-70s. All have had gas service. No gas line repairs have been needed. How realistic is the risk?

[lakpr]

delete

[livesoft]

A few years ago the neighbors smelled gas between our homes. There was a small leak at our gas meter. The gas company replaced the meter without charge. We have never had gas line insurance.

However, we are having a fence replaced (with digging) and the fence company offers "We pay for all damages that we might do to irrigation, gas, electric, and other utility lines" which we and our neighbor have decided to pay for. Of course, the fence company will have 811 flag the area.

[trueblue63]

A quick google search says it could cost around $2,000 to do that job, it would take 20 years to get there at $5.50 per month plus 4% investment growth. It's not valuable insurance once you have a claim. So they're telling you that you'll likely pay for decades before using this product.

If you have access to $2,000 and can afford to pay yourself why would you want to let an insurance company dictate how the repair gets done?

[Kagord]

Ah, It's a profit deal!

[IDpilot]

I am in MD so same latitude. All electric. Power company is responsible for the line from the road to the house (unless I do something like dig it up accidentally). Is the gas company not responsible for the line to the house?

In many locations the utility company is not responsible for the line to the house. This includes power, gas, phone, cable, water or sewer.

[hoofaman]

Out of curiosity, what are the details for this "insurance"? Asking as our gas meter on the side of our house, and per my understanding the utility owns the maintenance of everything up to the meter. Is your situation different? At least around here that is the case

[dcabler]

I get snail mail letters from both our gas supplier and our water supplier about every 2 months.

I'm able to detect them without even opening the letters at this point - and they always filed directly into the circular file cabinet...

I see no need for either.

Cheers.

[mhalley]

I’m the only person I know that ever had a gas line problem. I used to live in a house on a hill and the gas meter was a long way from the house. It developed a gas leak and I was quoted $2500 to fix it. (This was maybe 30 years ago) But I have never heard of anyone else with a similar problem, and still would not buy the insurance.

[dukeblue219]

I am with Washington Gas and throw all these offers in the trash. I have no need for any insurance that costs so little - I'll self-insurance on the chance my gas line needs work that isn't covered.

It's not like home owners insurance that could be the difference in homelessness and not. The max coverage is $8k. Not a big deal and I'm certain this is pure profit for the company

[adamthesmythe]

When I reviewed some of these offers, they did not include restoration, which would represent a significant portion of the cost.

[bucky6225]

Thanks for all the replies, I think I have the information I was looking for.

[quantAndHold]

I had a couple of gas leaks within the last few years. That's the kind of thing that happens with a 100 year old house. One leak was a corroded 100 year old pipe, the other two were damage from contractor work that wasn't detected until years later.

Gas line repair is fairly basic plumbing. For each one, I actually detected the location of the leak myself with a $40 Amazon gas detector, had my plumber come fix the problem (the worst one was a couple of hours work to replace the corroded pipes), then had someone come in and fix the hole in the wall. All 3 leaks totaled to a few hundred dollars, and half of it was the restoration work.

[Curly]

We are in NoVA and also have been inundated with these mailings from Washington Gas (via the mail and also email). As others have noted, I don't think this "offer" is worth pursuing.

[StevieG72]

They send me mailings, and I have no gas lines going to my house .

Also get the ones for water lines which I ignore.

[xerxes101]

We are in NoVA and also have been inundated with these mailings from Washington Gas (via the mail and also email). As others have noted, I don't think this "offer" is worth pursuing.

+1 I believe this is mostly a scare tactic to sell insurance and create a new revenue stream for the company.

[sapper1371]

In PA the homeowner is responsible for the line between the street and the house. Ours had a leak just before Christmas about 10 years ago. Gas company came out and shut out gas off. Said if we had the insurance they would have repaired it immediately, but because we did not we had to find a plumber to do the repairs before they would turn the gas back on. Cost us $3500 and we were without gas for almost a week. We now gladly pay the $5/mo.

Like anything else, hindsight is always 20/20.

YMMV.

[LikeNumbers]

RE: I reside in Northern Virginia and have been a Washington Gas customer since buying my home over five years ago. Only in the last few months have I been getting emails from them encouraging me to get gas line insurance through HomeServe, a company they have partnered with. It is $5.49 a month and “provides up to $8,000 annually with multiple service calls for covered gas line repairs”.

What are others thoughts on gas line insurance? Is it as necessary as home insurance or it more like some types of insurance that don’t actually pay out or cover in many situations?

RESPONSE: I've never heard of gas line insurance. In every state I've lived the US, the gas company is responsible for their equipment and residential line up to and including the gas meter. Beyond the meter, the homeowner has responsibility for maintenance and repairs.

My approach is to never pay for maintenance/replacement insurance on appliances, electronics, autos, et.al.

In my 40+ years of home ownership(s), only once did I have a gas leak issue with a newly installed cook top. The gas connect was installed by a licensed plumber and pressure tested and approved by the local inspector. Never knew why it leaked but one call to the plumber was all it took. He was out there in about 90 minutes.

[Marq1]

If there was ever something to ensure that had a 99.99% probability of never needing to be replaced, you just found it!

[mouth]

Another Washington Gas customer here. Even more ironic about all of this, my (and all my neighbors!) Washington Gas replaced the main gas line along the main road and our streets, the line to our meters, and the meters themselves, in the last 2 years. So they've paid for all that maintenance. I can only guess maybe they are trying to recoup it with some insura-profit. Double irony, I've been considering converting to heat pump heating and our hot water heater which would allow me to disconnect from the new gas line they just put in . I already switched to an induction cook top and electric oven so I'm using less gas already.

The only thing stopping me is that my furnace and HWH are both only 4yo [sigh]. But oofff would it have been nice to eliminate my flue pipe during my bathroom renovation when I was forced to quickly pay for a new flue pipe that was discovered to be completely pitted like swiss cheese $3k for a quick flue pipe that didn't stop renovations? or many many more $K for a new heatpump, HWH, possibly new electrical panel, and living with one bathroom for however long it took to get the new appliances installed and the flue removed.

That was a harder choice actually than declining the multiple offers for gas line insurance

[rustwood]

I get similar mails for my water line. I live in NJ, here the homeowner is responsible for the section of the utility line that traverses the property boundaries.

I toss those mails into trash bin. Been in this home for a little over 16 years now, and that is $6 per month * 12 months per year * 16 years = $1152 saved, even not counting time value of money or the opportunity cost of it being invested in stocks or bonds or a combination thereof.

FWIW, I felt the same but recently learned it might be a good investment - depending on your situation. We are responsible for the line between our outside shut-off valve (sort of "at the street") and our home. For us, that is a long run. We've owned our home for 20 years and have no reason to believe it had been replaced since it was first installed ~50 years ago. Of course we got a leak a couple of years ago and it cost us about $8K to have it replaced. Once it goes, it isn't the sort of thing you can shop around for much and they definitely know you are stuck. As it was, it took over a week to get it fixed so we limped with very low pressure for part of the time and stayed elsewhere for the rest.

I don't feel compelled to insure the new water line, but I'd definitely consider it if we were to move and had a similar situation. I may also look into what we are responsible for with our gas line. I hope it is only our side of the meter - which is right next to our home. Update: my gas utility says they own and are responsible for everything up to and including the gas meter

[WVRick]

I agree that these are profit centers for the utilities (and their contractor). However, one time it made sense. When my elderly mom was still living at home, we had her sign up for it. The thought process was we did not want her dealing with this if there was a failure as we all lived more than an hour away. It was piece of mind for a small fee.

[hayhayday]

Many homeowners insurers have a service line rider that covers all service lines (gas, electric, water, sewer etc) at a cost similar to this gas line only coverage.

[lakpr]

delete

[TBillT]

NoVA here too Washington Gas, I have the letter sitting here. I am retired Chem Engr from R&D labs where we had lots of nice professional stainless steel tubing, my home nat gas lines look to me more like Mickey Mouse did some of the work. Our house was build in late 70's during nat gas ban so the nat gas lines were added in the 90's by prior owner - not sure who did the work. We had one decent sized has leak outside under our deck, I think the prior owner ran phone lines and gas lines under the deck, which squirrels bit into 50v phone line causing small elec arc to punch a little hole in the gas line. Had a plumber fix that. I have a rusty meter outside with minor leaks and have had some minor fitting leaks inside. I feel gas companies should do better job keeping house piping top notch, but might consider contributing to the cause.

[2cents2]

I just received one of these letters, too.

They are very vague with the terms of coverage--starting out with "Your gas line continues to age and be affected by normal wear and tear."
To which gas line are they referring?

I am going to have to look this up again-maybe it has changed, but it is my understanding that the gas company is responsible for the "gas line" until it reaches the meter. We have a relatively small house and the gas lines that extend from the meter are not that extensive (and there is not a whole lot to go wrong).

Other than the line rusting through, I can't think of what normal wear and tear there is on the interior gas lines. (Hopefully, they aren't moving around) Annual check ups are probably the best way to go. But, I don't think they include this in the coverage.

If I smell a gas leak, I am not going to fool around. I will call 911 or the gas company and evacuate (well, actually, I will evacuate first ). Even if there is a "small" gas leak (is there such a thing?), the gas company is going to turn off the gas to the house. A repair will have to be done and then the gas company has to come back out to make sure there is no more gas leak before they will restore service. I am a little bit squeamish about waiting on a 3rd party to make the repairs in a timely manner, but maybe I'm off base there?

This is what I found:
"Gas Pipe Maintenance
Washington Gas owns and maintains all natural gas
pipes up to and including the gas meter. Our primary
focus is to provide safe, reliable service while ensuring
that the gas pipe owned by the company is properly
maintained. We make these efforts to avoid potentially
damaging effects of leaks and corrosion.
Each customer is responsible for the maintenance
and monitoring of all above ground and underground
piping on the customer’s side of the meter. If this piping
is not maintained, it may corrode or leak. Gas piping
located on your side of the meter should periodically
be inspected for leaks and corrosion and if necessary,
repaired by a licensed natural gas contractor if any
unsafe condition is detected. If at any time you smell
natural gas, immediately evacuate the premises and
then call 911 and then 844-WASHGAS from a safe
location"
https://www.washingtongas.com/-/media/0 ... b540aa.pdf

[neilpilot]

I just received one of these letters, too.

They are very vague with the terms of coverage--starting out with "Your gas line continues to age and be affected by normal wear and tear."
To which gas line are they referring?

I am going to have to look this up again-maybe it has changed, but it is my understanding that the gas company is responsible for the "gas line" until it reaches the meter. We have a relatively small house and the gas lines that extend from the meter are not that extensive (and there is not a whole lot to go wrong).

Other than the line rusting through, I can't think of what normal wear and tear there is on the interior gas lines. (Hopefully, they aren't moving around) Annual check ups are probably the best way to go. But, I don't think they include this in the coverage.

If I smell a gas leak, I am not going to fool around. I will call 911 or the gas company and evacuate (well, actually, I will evacuate first ). Even if there is a "small" gas leak (is there such a thing?), the gas company is going to turn off the gas to the house. A repair will have to be done and then the gas company has to come back out to make sure there is no more gas leak before they will restore service. I am a little bit squeamish about waiting on a 3rd party to make the repairs in a timely manner, but maybe I'm off base there?

This is what I found:
"Gas Pipe Maintenance
Washington Gas owns and maintains all natural gas
pipes up to and including the gas meter. Our primary
focus is to provide safe, reliable service while ensuring
that the gas pipe owned by the company is properly
maintained. We make these efforts to avoid potentially
damaging effects of leaks and corrosion.
Each customer is responsible for the maintenance
and monitoring of all above ground and underground
piping on the customer’s side of the meter. If this piping
is not maintained, it may corrode or leak. Gas piping
located on your side of the meter should periodically
be inspected for leaks and corrosion and if necessary,
repaired by a licensed natural gas contractor if any
unsafe condition is detected. If at any time you smell
natural gas, immediately evacuate the premises and
then call 911 and then 844-WASHGAS from a safe
location"
https://www.washingtongas.com/-/media/0 ... b540aa.pdf

We keep an old wrench wired to our gas meter. If we evacuate we shutoff. Don't want to wait for the gas company.

[bucky6225]

Related to this and mentioned by others is water line insurance. My understanding is that unlike gas lines, the homeowner in northern VA is responsible for water supply piping between their home and the water meter, which includes piping that runs through the yard.

Our real estate agent emphasized a number of times that we should get the water line insurance, which we did. Not sure if others agree, especially those in this region, but that’s what we’ve been doing.

[2cents2]

Related to this and mentioned by others is water line insurance. My understanding is that unlike gas lines, the homeowner in northern VA is responsible for water supply piping between their home and the water meter, which includes piping that runs through the yard.

Our real estate agent emphasized a number of times that we should get the water line insurance, which we did. Not sure if others agree, especially those in this region, but that’s what we’ve been doing.

The meter for our water line is at the street--so, we are definitely at risk is something goes wrong between the street and our house.

[bucky6225]

Related to this and mentioned by others is water line insurance. My understanding is that unlike gas lines, the homeowner in northern VA is responsible for water supply piping between their home and the water meter, which includes piping that runs through the yard.

Our real estate agent emphasized a number of times that we should get the water line insurance, which we did. Not sure if others agree, especially those in this region, but that’s what we’ve been doing.

The meter for our water line is at the street--so, we are definitely at risk is something goes wrong between the street and our house.

Also, I think the cost of have to repair/replace a water pipe underground is significantly more expensive than a gas pipe in your home.

[Fungible]

Related to this and mentioned by others is water line insurance. My understanding is that unlike gas lines, the homeowner in northern VA is responsible for water supply piping between their home and the water meter, which includes piping that runs through the yard.

Our real estate agent emphasized a number of times that we should get the water line insurance, which we did. Not sure if others agree, especially those in this region, but that’s what we’ve been doing.

I live in a community in Northern Virginia that is approximately 25 years old. So in a relative sense... not that old.

I had my main water line go bad. At the time, I was astounded that neither the water authority nor my home insurance would assist.

I was just 'out there' and 'alone' dealing with this issue (and not having running water). Good times.

As I solicited estimates to repair, I learned the term "Big Blue Poly." That was a nickname for a type of water line often used in the 90's.

Well.... it turns out that Big Blue Poly is defective. Virtually all of it will fail at some point. Nice that nobody told us.

Estimates to repair the water line started at $11K and went over $50K.

I recommend water line insurance.