Legal
Boiler Coverplan Agreement
Terms & Conditions
V.1.4 2023
This agreement explains exactly what products in your Service and Maintenance Contract are or are not covered, what to do if you need to report a repair, make changes to your agreement and how to make a complaint. It is important that you read and understand these terms and conditions.
If you need assistance or have any questions, please do not hesitate to give us a call on 01823 661144 or visit our support page here
Coverplan Options
All of our coveprlan options include:
Unlimited call-outs every year
Parts and labour included, up to a value of £1000.
The option to phone us, night and day, if you have an emergency.
Full Cover
Annual Service
Boiler Repair & Maintenance
Controls
Central Heating
Somerset Gas Terms & Conditions
1. Product Requirements
In order to enter in to this contract, you must meet each of the following requirements:
• Your home must be located in the United Kingdom (including the Isle of Man and the Isle of Wight); and
• You must be the legal owner of the home.
2. General Conditions
UK Law – Your agreement is bound by the laws of whichever country the property that is included in the agreement is in – England, Wales or Scotland.
English Language – Everything we write to you, including terms and conditions will be in English.
3. Words in Bold
Some of the words and phrases we have used have a particular meaning. We have highlighted these words in bold and have explained what they mean, below.
4. Definitions
Coverplan – Boiler service and Maintenance products provided by The Somerset Gas Company Ltd.
“We or Us” – meaning Somerset Gas.
By “You” or “Your” – we mean the person(s) named on your agreement, plus the people who normally live within your home, including any tenants. Only the person(s) named on the agreement can amend or cancel the agreement.
Contract – means the terms and conditions of your agreement.
Contract Price – means the price you must pay for the Coverplan option that you have chosen.
Contract Year – means the period of twelve months commencing on the start date of your contract of if you elect to renew your contract, the period of twelve months commencing on the renewal date.
Emergency – means:
1. With regard to Boiler Care, a loss of heating and/or hot water, an uncontrollable leak from inside the boiler appliance or loss of electricity to the appliance (only) which if left until our engineers visited within normal working hours would cause extensive damage to your home or would expose you to a health risk, or if you are considered as a vulnerable customer, any loss of heating or hot water and an uncontrollable leak.
2. With regard to Controls and Central Heating Care, an uncontrollable leak from the system itself which if left until our engineers visited within normal working hours would cause extensive damage to your home or would expose you to a health risk, or if you are considered as a vulnerable customer, any uncontrollable leak.
Access and Making Good – getting to your boiler, appliance or system to fix or service it and then repairing any damage we may have caused in the process of obtaining access to your boiler, appliance or system such as: replacing items (cabinets or cupboards) that we have removed and by filling holes that we have made. We will not replace or restore the original surface or covering, for example, tiles, floor covering, decoration, grass or plants.
Accidental Damage – when you do something that stops your boiler or system from working properly without meaning to.
Agreement – all of the products that you have with us.
Annual Service – a check, each year to ensure that your gas appliance, or central heating system is working properly.
Approved List – Boilers, appliances or parts that we can repair or replace.
Boiler and Controls – a single natural gas boiler that is on your property and designed for home use and has the capacity of up to 70KW – as well as the flue and wired or wireless controls that make it work, including the programmer, thermostats, motorised valves and central heating pump.
Central Heating – the heat and hot water system that is on your property, including your expansion tank, radiators, bypass and radiator valves, warm-air vents, cylinders, any immersion heater and it’s wired in timer switch and the pipes that connect them.
Cylinder – a tank that stores hot water.
First Service – first service is due, at the start of your agreement in order to confirm the make and model of your appliance and that it is in working order so as to confirm whether we can provide you with an agreement.
Gas Supply Pipe – the pipe that connects your gas meter to your boiler and other gas appliances that you have on your property.
Home – the building, including any attached garage or conservatory where you live or a home that you own, including holiday homes or rental properties.
Maximum Cost – means:
1. In relation to Boiler and Controls Care, £1,000 (including parts, labour and VAT) for boiler and controls repairs during any contract year;
2. In relation to Central Heating System Care, £1000 (including parts, labour and VAT) for any central heating system repairs in any contract year and £1000 (including parts, labour and VAT) for any one repair.
Monthly Payment – means that the part of the contract price which you must pay each calendar month.
Powerflush – a process carried out where we remove the sludge from your central heating system.
Period of Agreement – the day we accept your application until your agreement runs out, as detailed on your agreement.
Product(s) – cover or service for certain appliance(s) or system(s).
Property – a home and all of the land, up to your boundary – including any detached outbuilding.
Renewal Date – means if you elect to renew your contract, the date on which your renewed contract starts, which will normally be the anniversary of your start date.
Repair(s)/Repairing/Replacing – where we replace your boiler, appliance or parts with an approved standard alternative. We will provide replacements with similar functionality but not necessarily an identical make and model or type or fitting.
Start Date – means the date on which your contract will start as set out in your schedule.
Sludge – the natural build-up of deposits in your boiler or central heating system, and your pipes, radiator and heat exchanger corrode over time.
Schedule – the document that shows the products you have with us, the period of agreement and how much you are paying.
System – all parts of your central heating system.
Upgrades – improvements that make your boiler, appliance or system safer or more efficient.
Warm-air – where your home is heated by warm air flowing through vents, not hot water flowing through radiators.
Beyond Economic Repair (BER) – means that it would cost more to repair the boiler, appliance or central heating system than to replace it.
Normal Working Hours – for our engineers, between 0800 hours to 1700 hours (8am to 5pm) (Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays).
Emergency Out of Hours – means the hours outside of normal working hours.
Vulnerable Customers – means any person who:
• Is residing at the home and is aged over 70; or
• Has a child residing at the home who is under 3 years old; or
• Has a medical condition that would mean that to wait for our engineers visit during ‘normal working hours’ would endanger the life of that person.
5. Our Coverplan Contracts
5.1 Annual Service
What's covered:
Annual Boiler services, including paperwork and certification.
What's not covered:
• Parts or repair
• Damage caused by lime-scale or sludge.
5.2 Boiler Only
What's covered:
All repairs and replacements:
• Up to a value of £1000 on boiler repairs – unless the boiler is BER.
• A single natural gas boiler on your property that is;
• Designed for home use and has a heat output capacity of up to 70KW.
• The flue, including the flue termination, up to one meter in length.
What's not covered:
• Boilers that still work, but may emit a noise.
• Venting and airing radiators.
• Underfloor heating, pipework or controls.
• Damage caused by lime-scale, sludge or other debris. If we have notified you previously that you need to carry out repairs, improvements or a powerflush, or a similar process but this has not yet been completed.
• Repairing or replacing the flue, including the terminal if it’s over 1 meter in length.
• Repairing or replacing the flue, including the flue terminal for any open flue appliances. Somerset Gas Boiler Cover Agreement V.1.1 Page 7 of 18
• Replacing or topping up central heating inhibitor unless we have removed it.
• Any parts of your boiler and/or controls which directly supply a swimming pool.
• Resetting your controls or replacing the batteries.
• Repairing or replacing your central heating system.
• Accidental damage.
• Repair and replacement include wired or wireless controls that operate your boiler, including the programmer or any thermostats, motorised zone valves and/or central heating pumps.
5.3 Controls & Central Heating System
What's covered:
All repairs to the heat and hot water system up to a value of £1000, on your property including:
• Expansion tanks, radiators, thermostatic radiator valves, automatic air vent and bypass valves.
• Warm-air vents.
• Cylinders – and any immersion heater and its wired timer switch.
• The central heating pipes that connect the central heating system.
• A replacement of parts of your central heating system and gas supply pipe if we cannot repair them.
• Repair and replacement include wired or wireless controls that operate your boiler, including the programmer or any thermostats, motorised zone valves and/or central heating pumps.
• This contract includes unlimited call-outs unless the repair of replacement, including parts, labour and VAT exceeds the maximum cost within the contract year, or in our reasonable opinion, will exceed the relevant maximum cost.
What's not covered:
• Damaged caused by lime-scale, sludge or other debris.
• If we have notified you previously that you need to carry out repairs, improvements or a powerflush, or a similar process but this has not yet been completed.
• Fixing showers, shower pumps and all types of taps.
• Underfloor heating, pipework and controls.
• Supply of curved, vertical, designer and non-standard radiators.
• Repair and replacement of electrical elements in radiators.
• Replacing or topping up central heating inhibitor unless we have removed it.
• Any parts of your central heating which directly supplies a swimming pool.
• Accidental damage.
6. General Exclusions
• Any incidents that require maintenance or repair within the first 28 days of your start date.
• Our products do not include cover for any faults that:
1. Were already there when your boiler, appliance or system was installed or were caused by anybody other than us when any change or additions were made to your boiler, appliance or system.
2. We’ve told you about before and you have not fixed.
3. We couldn’t reasonably have been expected to know about before. For example, faulty pipes that don’t have the correct protection, which are buried under concrete floors.
4. Or prevent access because a part of your system has been permanently built over.
• Any damage due to the failure of water, gas or electricity supply.
• Any work including de-scaling that may arise due to hard water scale deposits or aggressive water supply.
• Mechanical breakdowns due to sludge build-up within the system, removal of products or corrosion from within the system should the heat exchanger or heat bank fail, this will deem the boiler to be BER.
• Any damage or defect caused by lightening, frost, explosion, war, flood, storm, tempest, fire, impact, alien invasion, or other extraneous causes or any other risk normally insured under household or other insurances.
• Any defect caused through accidental damage, intentional risk taking, negligence, misuse, third party interference or malicious or wilful action.
• The replacement of decorative parts.
• Any adjustment of time and temperature controls, bleeding radiators or pressurising sealed systems and relighting pilot lights.
• The fabric of the building and any pipework including flues buried in it.
• Any faults present at the time of signing the initial contract, any call-outs deemed to have been pre-existing to the commencement date of the boiler service and maintenance product and within the first 28 days of the contract will not be covered and may incur a charge for the call-out and any parts required, at the current Somerset Gas rates, variable to the day and time of the call-out.
• Replacement of flues.
• Consumables (e.g. batteries, filters, fuses, and igniter’s).
• Asbestos associated with repairing the central heating appliance/system. When you have had, any asbestos removed, you must give us a clean-air certificate before we will do any further work at your property. By law, the person who removes the asbestos must give you a clean-air certificate.
• Commencing and/or continuing services where we reasonably consider that there is a health and safety risk including the presence of hazardous materials; infestations; or harassment of our personnel, including verbal or physical abuse. We will not recommence work until the health and safety risk has been rectified to our satisfaction and we reserve the right to cancel your contract immediately.
• Noisy boilers as boilers become older, for various reasons they may become noisy. Where age is the sole reason for noise, The Somerset Gas Company Ltd do not consider this as a fault and it is not therefore covered under the Somerset Gas Coverplan Agreement. A charge will be made for any recurring call-outs relating to the exclusions mentioned, chargeable at Somerset Gas’s current ‘Normal Working Hours’ and Emergency Out of Hours.
• Parts of a central heating system or controls that are specifically designed for underfloor heating.
• Lead and steel pipework.
• Parts of a central heating system controls designed to incorporate any other heat source, for example solar water heating or solid fuel heating, ground, air and water heat pumps.
• Combined cooking and heating appliances.
• Replacement of bespoke or designer radiators, and their components, other than with standard parts.
• Fan assisted convector heaters or immersion heaters.
7. The Contract
This section sets out the general terms and conditions which apply to your contract.
• This contract is between you and us for the safety and maintenance inspections and repairs, included in your selected Coverplan option. We will provide these safety and maintenance inspections and repairs to you in accordance with this contract.
• Nothing in this contract will affect either our or your statutory rights.
• If we offer renewal of your contract, we may vary the terms and conditions of this contract, effective as of your renewal date. In such an event, we will write to you at your address detailed in the schedule.
• This contract is specific to you and to your home. The rights and obligations of this contract cannot be transferred to another priority or party without our written consent.
• We may transfer all our rights and obligations under this contract to another company. If we do so, neither your rights nor our obligations and liabilities under this contract will be affected by any transfer.
• We reserve the right to utilise carefully selected partner services in order to help us provide safety and maintenance inspections and repairs.
7.1 The Duration of the Contract
• Your contract with us is for the period of 12 months unless ended prematurely by either you or us in accordance with section 7.9.
• We will write to you to advise you of your renewal date in accordance with section 7.6. Unless you tell us prior to your renewal date that you do not wish to renew your contract, we will assume that you wish to renew contract a further 12 months.
• If we do renew your contract for a further 12 months, you will be responsible for paying the applicable charges for your chosen Somerset Gas Coverplan Product.
7.2 Provisions of the Safety and Maintenance Inspections and Repairs
• We will provide you with the safety and maintenance and repairs included in your chosen Somerset Gas Coverplan product, in accordance with this contract.
7.2.1 Appointment Times
• Safety and maintenance inspections and repairs will be arranged during Somerset Gas engineers normal working hours, unless it is deemed by us to be an emergency. If we deem it an emergency or that you are a vulnerable customer or those residing at your home are considered vulnerable, you will be given priority call-out.
• Less urgent appointments may have to be rescheduled at times of high demand.
• If prior to the appointment, you declare to us that you are (i) a vulnerable customer and/or (ii) your maintenance or repair is an emergency, but upon arrival at your home our engineer discovers that these statement(s) were untrue, we reserve the right to charge you at emergency call-out rates.
7.2.2 Gaining Access to your Home
• You are responsible for arranging appointments with us.
• You are responsible for providing us access to your home at the time of the appointment.
• We cannot carry out the work if we are unable to gain access to your home. In the event that we cannot gain access, we will notify you by letter or email. If you wish to arrange another appointment, it is your responsibility to do so and to provide us access to your home at an agreed time and date.
• If you fail to give us access to your home on two consecutive occasions, we reserve the right to charge you for each and every subsequent visit that relates to this particular fault or service.
• If you fail to give us access to your home on two consecutive occasions to conduct a safety and maintenance inspection, we reserve the right to charge you for any subsequent visits in relation to this service and/or cancel your contract. In the event that your contract is cancelled for failure to provide us access, you will not be entitled for a refund for any payments made to us.
7.3 Conditions at your home and Treatment of our Representatives
• It is your responsibility to ensure that the conditions in your home are suitable for our engineers to complete the work.
• If the conditions are not suitable for our engineers to complete the work, we will tell you what you need to do before we can perform the required works. For example, the removal of asbestos.
• If you have had asbestos removed, you must provide us with a clean-air certificate prior to us arranging an appointment to complete the work. The person who removes the asbestos is required by law to give you a clean-air certificate.
• You must not physically or verbally abuse our engineers under any circumstances and you must behave appropriately at all times.
7.4 Payment of the Contract
• The contract price payable by you is set out in your schedule that will be sent to you at the time of taking out your selected Somerset Gas Coverplan Agreement or at the point in which you choose to renew your contract.
• You must pay the contract price in monthly instalments during the contract year as set out in your schedule, or in full as a one-off payment, prior to the agreement commencing.
• Your monthly payments must be made by Direct Debit. No other forms of payment will be accepted.
• Where there is any cost for a repair, this must be paid by credit or debit card prior to the work being carried out.
• Late monthly payments may incur an additional charge of 0.05% of the outstanding balance for every day that the monthly payment is late.
• Until full payment is made, we retain all ownership of parts and equipment fitted by us. If you do not pay us, we may recover these parts and equipment from you. Any outstanding payments must be made before any further works will be carried out.
• If two or more people have entered this contract with us, each person will be joining and severally responsible for any money owed. This means that we can claim all of the money owed from any person.
7.5 Contract Price Review
• You contract price is fixed for 12 months with exception for any changes in VAT or any other applicable taxes.
• Your contract price may be adjusted prior to your renewal date, in accordance with section 7.6.
• Where we can reasonably do so, you will be informed in writing prior to the start date of any changes to the contract price which is due to a change in VAT or any other applicable tax or duty.
7.6 Annual Renewal Process
• We will write to you at least 28 days prior to your renewal date, to inform you that your contract is due to renew along with the contract price that you must pay, if you elect to renew your contract with us.
• If, for any reason, you do not wish to renew your contract, you must inform us in writing or by telephone, at least thirty days prior to the date on which your contract expires. Our address and telephone number can be found in section 7.10.
• If you do not inform us that you do not wish to renew your contract before the date on which your contract expires, your contract will be renewed for a further 12 months and you will be responsible for paying, at our sole discretion, the contract price for that 12-month period.
• We have no obligation to renew your contract.
7.7 Moving Home
• You must inform us if you move home and if we are able to offer the services of your selected Somerset Gas Coverplan product in your new home, we will transfer the contract. This is subject to a boiler service at your new home. Any repairs that are necessary and required will be chargeable.
7.8 Our Responsibility
• We are responsible for any direct loss that is a foreseeable consequence of our breaching, of this contract. Our negligence or our breach of statutory duty. We are not responsible for any other loss including:
• We are not responsible for any losses caused by an event or circumstance beyond our reasonable control.
• We are not responsible for any business losses.
• We are not responsible for remedial work arising from structural or renovation work carried out in your home or property by you or a third party, for example the removal of radiators in addition to new equipment or extensions.
• We are not responsible for any cost associated with rehousing the occupants of the property or any personal costs associated with alternate heating methods.
• We are not responsible for the cost of any reinstatement or redecoration required as a result of the work that we undertake unless the reinstatement or redecoration is required because we have been negligent or we are in breach of this contract or statutory duty.
7.9 Cancelling your Contract
7.9.1 Cancellation by us, we may choose to Cancel this Contract if;
•The information that you give us is false or inaccurate or;
• You cancel your direct debit in circumstances where you are not entitled to cancel your contract or;
• Your monthly payments as set out in the schedule are not made or;
• A health and safety issue arises for which you are responsible; which makes it inappropriate for the contract to continue;
• You are physically violent or verbally abusive towards any of our staff employed by us to provide you with services;
• You fail to allow us access to your property on two consecutive safety and maintenance inspections or repair appointments. In these circumstances, you will not be entitled to a refund of the monthly payments you have paid and you must also pay to us, the minimum call-out charge.
7.9.2 Cancellation by you;
• Cancellation within the first 14 calendar days – you may cancel this contract within 14 calendar days of receiving your schedule by either notifying The Somerset Gas Company Ltd in writing (at the address or telephone number set out in section 7.10) or by completing the cancellation form enclosed and;
• If we have not carried out any work, we will provide you with a full refund or any monthly or annual payment that you have made in that contract year.
• If we have carried out any work, you must pay the minimum charge to cover our costs including parts, labour and VAT.
• Cancellation after the first 14 calendar days – you may cancel this contract at any time if we fail to provide safety and maintenance inspections or repairs upon your request in any material respect by either notifying The Somerset Gas Company Ltd in writing or by using the telephone number set out in section 7.10 or by completing the cancellation form enclosed.
If you cancel this contract after the first 14 calendar days for any other reason, you will not be entitled to a refund of any monthly payments that you have paid and you must also pay to us, the minimum charge.
7.10 Our Contact Details
If you wish to write to us, our address is:
Customer Services
Somerset Gas
Crypton Technology Business Centre
Bristol Road
Bridgwater
Somerset
TA6 4SY
We also are happy to receive emails from you at hello@somersetgas.co.uk.
If you wish to telephone us, our telephone number is 01823661144
8. Complaints
Occasionally, circumstances arise where problems can occur, giving rise to complaints. If you wish to make a complaint to us, concerning our performance and failure of our obligations under the terms of this contract, you must write to us at the address below, setting out details of the complaint and we will reply with a written response within 14 days or sooner, by email.
8.1 How to Complain
We would like to resolve any complaint as soon as possible. Most can be resolved informally. In the first instance, contact us on 01823 661144 and we will try to sort the matter out.
We would strongly advise you to do this if the matter is urgent and where any delay could lead to further damage. If you make contact in person or by phone, please ensure that you take the details of the person that you speak with and if a solution is offered at this point, make a note of this as well.
If you are not satisfied or do not wish to resolve matters informally, you may pursue a formal complaint.
Write down your complaint and send it to:
Customer Services
Somerset Gas
Crypton House
Crypton Technology Business Park
Bristol Road
Bridgwater
Somerset
TA6 4SY
Please provide us with as much details as possible so as to help us address your complaint more effectively and efficiently.
If you wish to write to us, our address is:
Customer Care Team
Somerset Gas
Crypton Technology Business Centre
Bristol Road
Bridgwater
Somerset
TA6 4SY
8.2 What happens next?
We will provide acknowledgement of your complaint within five working days of receipt. You may be contacted by us, to make sure that we have fully understood your complaint properly and to clarify any issues.
Our customer service team will investigate your complaint thoroughly and may engage in written correspondence with you, throughout the investigation process.
We will endeavour to send a final response to you within 30 days of the receipt of your complaint, although most complaints will usually be resolved much sooner.
Our final response will indicate an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) body that you can contact, if you are not satisfied with our response. In all cases, a complaint will be given full and fair consideration. If, as a result of your complaint, disciplinary proceedings are taken against a member of staff, an internal procedure will apply. As these proceedings are confidential, we will unfortunately not be able to inform you of the outcome of these proceedings.
9. Privacy Policy
How We use and protect our information about You.
This section explains how We (Somerset Gas) use the information We collect about You in Your dealings with us some of which will be classified as sensitive under the Data Protection Act.
We will meet the standards set out in this policy, whether or not You become a customer.
We will collect information about You in a number of ways. For example, You might give to Us, We might collect it through our dealings with You, or it might be collected through equipment. We might also get it from companies that offer databases of information, or other third parties.
If We significantly change any terms of the privacy policy we will, if applicable, advise You of such.
9.1 How we use your Information
We can use your information to do the following:
• Give you the services you have asked for, which can include loyalty and incentive programmes.
• Offer you services, accounts and products, again including loyalty and incentive programmes. We can use automated scoring system to help us choose what we offer you.
• Contact you to ask how we can improve the way we manage Your account and provide You with services.
• Create statistics, test computer system and do analysis. The information and analysis can include the way You use energy. We can use our analysis to create profiles and marketing opportunities.
• Help prevent and detect debt, fraud and loss.
• Help us keep you, your family and your household healthy, safe and secure.
• Help us train staff.
• We may contact you in any way about products and services we (and our selected partners) are offering. This can include by email, phone and text message.
• We can monitor and record any of your communications with us, including telephone conversations and emails, to make sure we are giving you a good service and meeting our regulatory and legal responsibilities. If we contact you to tell you about offers, when possible we will try to do it the way you have required you will prefer it get marketing information.
9.2 Sharing your Information with other Organisations
We can let other people and selected partner organisations use information about you. We and those other people and organisations can use information about you for the following purpose:
• To provide services that you have requested, this can mean giving information to members of your family or household.
• It could also mean giving information to anyone acting on your behalf or those who introduced you to us, such as a landlord or letting agent.
• To help prevent debt, fraud or loss this can include giving information about you to credit reference agencies. We will seek your written permission before doing so.
• To transfer some or all of your debt that you have with Somerset Gas to another organisation.
• To provide information for legal or regulatory purpose (for example, if another regulator or lawyer asks for it). In any current or future legal action.
• To help manage loyalty or reward programmes.
If you give us information on behalf of someone else, you confirm that you have given them the information in these documents. You also confirm that they have given permission for us to use their personal information as we have described here. If you give us sensitive information about yourself or other people, you agree that we can use that information as we have described in this policy.
9.3 How can you see the Information that we have about you?
You are entitled to a copy of the information that we hold about you and to ask us to correct any inaccurate information. We can charge you a small fee for providing a copy of the information we hold, which must be paid up front. For more information, please contact our customer service team, by writing to them at:
Customer Care Team
Somerset Gas
Crypton Technology Business Centre
Bristol Road
Bridgwater
Somerset
TA6 4SY
10. Reporting a Fault
How to contact us:
Report a fault via email:
During opening hours:
Report an Emergency Fault:
Our emergency line is open 24/7, 365 days a year.
If you can smell gas, please call 0800 111 999 immediately.
Cancellation Form
This form needs to be completed by the account holder only. Once completed, a member of our team will confirm that your account and agreement has been cancelled.