HomeCare® Terms & Conditions

Our promise to you

We aim to provide a safe, high-quality service to repair and maintain the equipment included in this agreement. If you have any questions or concerns about your agreement, please contact us on 0845 7 365 100.

Summary of your agreement

What the agreement provides

  • Labour and parts for repairs, depending on the level of service you have chosen.
  • One Safety and Maintenance Inspection in every year of your agreement for Central heating, Boiler and controls, Gas Appliance Care and Gas Appliance Check. Please read the section called ‘Safety and Maintenance Inspection’ for full details.
  • No limit to the number of call-outs to carry out work included in your agreement.
  • Priority service (every day of the year).
  • Getting to your system (where shown).
  • A customer helpline available 24 hours a day, every day.
  • Advice about your system from our engineers.

British Gas HomeCare® options

We base your agreement on the British Gas HomeCare® options you choose (listed and described below). The diagram in this leaflet will give you guidance on what you can expect from each service option.
You should also read the ‘General exclusions’ section in this leaflet.

There are four levels of HomeCare®

HomeCare 400™ – central heating, plumbing, drains and electrics
Includes Central heating, Plumbing and Drains Care and Home Electrical Care
HomeCare 300™ – central heating, plumbing and drains
Includes Central heating and Plumbing and Drains Care
HomeCare 200™ – central heating
See ‘Central heating’
HomeCare 100™ – boiler and controls
See ’Boiler and controls’

Services you may choose

1. Gas services

A. What is included :

1 Central Heating Care
This service is for maintaining and repairing a single wet (using water) or warm-air gas central heating system (or an electric system if we installed it) in your home and includes the following.

  • A Safety and Maintenance Inspection of your boiler and system (except electric boilers and parts of the system that aren’t easy to get to). Please read the section ‘Safety and Maintenance Inspection’ for full details.
  • Labour and parts if your system needs repair
  • If we agree that your boiler is less than seven years old, we will provide a replacement boiler if it is not possible to repair it because, for example, spare parts are not available, or we decide that it would cost more to repair the boiler than to replace it with a suitable new boiler we have approved.
  • If your boiler is seven years old or more, and it is not possible to repair it or you choose to replace it at any time (however old it is), as a central heating customer, you are entitled to a discount on the cost of installing a boiler if you choose us to replace it.
  • All necessary PowerFlush work after your initial PowerFlush (which we charge you for). See the ‘PowerFlush’ section in this leaflet.

If you have not had any repairs carried out and you have had an agreement for more than two years, you will qualify for discounts. This does not apply if you have a specific agreement of two to five years on a new British Gas boiler.
There is no age limit on your boiler and it does not matter who installed it, as long as all the essential working parts are available and we have approved it.

2. Boiler and controls
This is the same as Central heating, except that the labour and parts are for the boiler and controls only

3. Gas Appliance Care
This service is for maintaining and repairing fires, water heaters, wall heaters and cookers in your home.

The service includes:
  • one Safety and Maintenance Inspection of your appliance in every year of your agreement; and
  • labour and parts, if your appliance needs repair.

4. Gas Appliance Check
This service is for maintaining boilers, fires, water heaters, wall heaters and cookers in your home.
The service includes one Safety and Maintenance Inspection of your appliance in every year of your agreement. However, it does not include labour and parts for a repair.
You can choose to have extra work done, but you will have to pay for it.

5. Internal gas supply
We will repair all gas-supply pipework inside your home, between your meter and any appliances as long as you have HomeCare 400™. (You cannot buy the internal gas supply service on its own.)

6. PropertyCare
This service is available to landlords who let out properties for domestic purposes and is the same as HomeCare 200™ plus it includes a Gas Safety Record. You cannot buy the Gas Safety Record without a HomeCare® agreement.

Legal requirements
By law, landlords must have gas appliances in properties they let checked for safety every 12 months. They should also hold a Gas Safety Record as proof.

B. What is not included?

Removing sludge or hard-water scale from the boiler or system (see the ‘PowerFlush’ section under ‘Additional information’).

  • Replacing your boiler if it is seven years old or more.
  • Repairing or replacing appliance flues that aren’t part of your boiler.
  • Repairing or replacing parts of your central heating system and controls that are specifically designed for piped or electric underfloor heating (other than warm-air systems).

Please also see the ‘General exclusions’.

2 Plumbing services

A. What is included

1. Plumbing and Drains Care

Part A Plumbing

Under this service, inside your home we will provide materials and labour to repair or replace:

  • hot and cold water pipes from the mains stopcock leading to your taps (including garden taps);
  • your cold water storage tank;
  • leaking overflow pipes;
  • standard ball valves and toilet siphon;
  • pipes that burst as a result of cold weather;
  • central heating water pipes if there is a water leak;
  • radiator valves;
  • hot water cylinders and immersion heaters; and
  • washing-machine and dishwasher hot and cold flexible pipes (as long as they are installed to the manufacturer’s instructions).

This service includes a Maintenance Inspection to check for water leaks on your internal pipework, valves and hot water cylinder once in every continuous two-year period in which you hold this agreement with us.
If you are a HomeCare 300™ or HomeCare 400™ customer, this service includes a check for water leaks on your internal pipework, valves and hot water cylinder every year (at the same time as your Safety and Maintenance Inspection for your central heating system).

Part B Drains
This includes our cost of materials, labour and repair (up to £1,000 including VAT for each job) for:

  • unblocking, repairing and getting to waste drainage pipes, or rainwater drains, inside your home (for example, unblocking sinks) and within the boundary of your property (up to where it is connected to the public or shared drains connection, if you are responsible for this) to restore flow.

2. Plumbing Care

See part A ‘Plumbing’ above.

B What is not included?

  • Repairing or replacing taps and washers in taps.
  • Repairing or replacing the mains cold water stopcock, water softeners, shower pumps and mixer valves, combined overflow and pop up waste mechanism, mechanical pumps, water filters, radiators, swimming pools, decorative garden features, rainwater pipes and guttering, macerators such as Saniflo, and electrical units for toilets.
  • Repairing or replacing manholes, soakaways, septic tanks, cesspits, treatment plants and their outflow pipes.
  • Regularly cleaning your drains.
  • Repairing or unblocking drains shared with another property or properties.
  • Repairing or unblocking drains which are just used for commercial purposes.
  • Repairing or replacing any lead or steel pipes. Please also see the ‘General exclusions’.

3. Electrical services

A. What is included?

1. Home Electrical Care

This service is for maintaining and repairing electrical wiring and electrical fixtures inside your home. It is for:

  • the fixed electrical wiring system (inside your home and inside outbuildings as long as it has been correctly installed); and
  • fuse boxes, light switches, wall sockets, light fixtures, circuit breakers and transformers.

This service includes:

  • labour and parts for repairs;
  • one Maintenance Inspection in every continuous two-year period in which you hold this agreement with us;
  • fitting standard replacement parts, for example, we will replace a brass switch with a standard equivalent such as a white plastic switch.


B. What is not included?

  • Repairing controls, pumps, detectors, timers and programmers.
  • Repairing or replacing the mains supply.
  • Repairing the power supply between your home and the outbuildings on your property.

Please also see the ‘General exclusions’.

2.Kitchen Appliance Care

This service is for maintaining and repairing gas and electrical appliances inside your home. It is for:

  • automatic and tub washing machines;
  • automatic washer-dryers, spin and tumble dryers and dishwashers;
  • fridges, freezers, fridge-freezers; and
  • cookers, ovens, hobs and microwave ovens (but not cooker hoods and extractors).

We can only include your appliance if:

  • it was bought in the United Kingdom; and
  • it is in good working order at the time we process your agreement.

The service includes labour and parts if your appliance needs repair and:

  • one Maintenance Inspection in every continuous two-year period in which you hold this agreement with us (on the appliances on your agreement).

If it is not possible to repair your appliance, for example, because spare parts are no longer available to carry out the repair, we will give you a refund as follows:

  • If your agreement relates to one appliance, we will refund the actual amount you have paid to us under this agreement for the appliance we are not able to repair (up to 12 months’ payments).
  • If your agreement relates to more than one appliance, we will refund the amount you have paid to us under this agreement for the appliance we are not able to repair (up to 12 months’ payments). For details of the refund value for each type of appliance, please call 08457 365100.

If you have paid us in advance for 12 months but the affected appliance has been part of the
contract for less than 12 months, we will refund your 12 months’ payments relating to that particular appliance as set out above.

General exclusions
Your British Gas HomeCare® agreement does not include the following.

Design or existing faults
We will not include the cost of repairs needed because of design faults (unless we are responsible), or faults which existed before you entered into the agreement and which we could not identify on our first inspection of that particular system or appliance using reasonable care and skill.

Third-party or accidental damage
We will not include the cost of repairs relating to damage caused by you or someone else.

Consequential loss
Unless we are responsible for it, we will not include loss or damage to property (including any cleaning needed) caused by the appliance, boiler or system breaking down or leaking (for example, damage to furniture caused by water leaks).
If we have to dig on your property, we will fill in any holes and leave the surface level but we will not necessarily replace the original surface or construction. Any redecoration that may be needed following our work is your responsibility, unless we have been negligent.

Normal insured risks
We will not include the cost of repairing faults, or damage caused by freezing weather conditions (except certain repairs included in ‘Plumbing and Drains Care’), subsidence, structural repairs, accident, fire, lightning, explosion, flood or storm. You should check your household insurance to make sure you have enough cover for these risks.

Under all British Gas HomeCare® options

We will not include the following.

  • Replacing appliances, bathroom fixtures, showers and sanitaryware (apart from boilers as described earlier).
  • Improvements including work that is needed to bring your system up to current standards. Examples of improvements include system upgrades, such as adding thermostatic radiator valves, replacing parts such as flues or vents which do not meet current standards, and replacing working radiators with improved models. (These are examples only, not a complete list.) You may need to have improvements carried out before we are able to complete other repairs to your system.
  • Replacing or repairing parts which do not affect how the system or appliance works or decorative or specialist parts.
  • Resetting controls (for example, thermostats and programmers following changes due to winter or summer).
  • Repairing faults or clearing physical blockages (blockages such as rubble, sludge and scale, but not air locks) if we have told you permanent repairs or improvements are needed to make sure your appliance or system works properly. We will only tell you this if, in our expert opinion, it is necessary.
  • Removing asbestos associated with repairing the appliance or 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.
  • Cash alternatives for repair or maintenance.
  • Repairing any damage caused by our work or redecorating, unless we or our agents have been negligent or broken this agreement.
  • Repairing or replacing any lead, steel or central heating iron pipes (other than for internal-gas-supply customers where the gas-supply pipe from your meter to the appliance is included).
  • The cost of repairing damage or breakdowns caused by changes to, or problems with, the gas, electricity or water services.

About your agreement:

Domestic use
British Gas HomeCare® agreements are only available for appliances used inside your home for domestic purposes. If you own a domestic property which you let out, we will offer you a PropertyCare agreement.
Service coverage
There are a few areas of Great Britain where we do not provide British Gas HomeCare® agreements. If this affects you, we will tell you when you apply.
Period of agreement
Your agreement runs until you tell us that you would like to cancel, or if we cancel the agreement (see ‘Cancellation’). You may cancel the agreement at any time. We will write to you to tell you about any changes to the terms and conditions or prices.
Please read the section ‘Minimum charges’ below.
Start date and payment
Your agreement begins when we process your application. Following your first payment, payments for your agreement will fall due monthly.
Initial safety inspection
If you choose HomeCare 100™ to HomeCare 400™, we will inspect your gas central heating system or gas appliance (or both) to make sure they are safe and in good working order. Your British Gas service engineer will fill in a safety inspection checklist to show you what he or she has checked. We will normally do this inspection within 28 days of the beginning of your agreement where possible. However, as we give priority to breakdowns, it can be later if there is a lot of demand for our services. If the inspection reveals a problem, we may:

  • tell you what work is needed and what it will cost you for that work to be done;
  • offer you an agreement from the section ‘Gas services’, which will not include the parts causing the problem; or
  • cancel the agreement and refund your money.

We will not carry out an initial inspection if we have already carried out a Safety and Maintenance Inspection at the property within the last 12 months.

Safety and Maintenance Inspections
We will normally carry out the first Safety and Maintenance Inspection for gas options at the same time as the initial inspection. If we do not carry out an initial inspection because we have already carried out a Safety and Maintenance Inspection at the property within the last 12 months, we will normally arrange for your first Safety and Maintenance Inspection 12 months from the date we last inspected the system or appliance.
After that, for the gas options, we will carry out a Safety and Maintenance Inspection once in every year of your agreement. We will aim to carry out the Safety and Maintenance Inspection around the same time each year where possible. This will depend on our workload and your preference for an appointment. As long as we can get into your home, we will always make sure we check that your system or appliance is safe. You can also call us at any time to arrange or rearrange your Safety and Maintenance Inspection.
For electrical and plumbing options we will aim to carry out a Maintenance Inspection once in every continuous two-year period of your agreement. This will depend on our workload and your preference for an appointment.

Landlord’s safety records
We can carry out the inspections that are needed at the same time as the Safety and Maintenance Inspection. We will only check and issue a Gas Safety Record for the appliances that are included on either your HomeCare 100™ or HomeCare 200™, Gas Appliance Care, or Gas Appliance Check (whichever applies) agreement. We can inspect for safety or service any other gas appliances in the rented property for an extra cost. After the inspections on the gas appliances, we will then give you a Gas Safety Record showing that we have done a safety inspection, which will include details of any faults we have found and any repairs that are needed. (You will need to pay a small fee for this unless you have PropertyCare.) If you or we cancel your agreement after we have provided a Gas Safety Record, we will not refund our fee for providing the Gas Safety Record.
Gaining access to your property
We will let you know when it is time to carry out an inspection. It is your responsibility to arrange appointments and to let us into your property. If we cannot gain access to your property, we will be unable to carry out the necessary work. If this happens, we will tell you so that you may arrange another appointment. If you do not arrange an appointment or we cannot gain access, your agreement will continue even though we have been unable to carry out the inspection. If, after several attempts, you have not made an appointment or we still cannot gain access, we may cancel your agreement. We will tell you in writing if this is the case.

Cancellation
We may cancel your agreement in the following circumstances:

  • If you have given false information.
  • If you do not make an agreed payment.
  • For gas options, if:
  • – we find something wrong at the initial safety inspection; or
  • – we have advised you that permanent repairs or improvements are needed to make sure your appliance or system works properly, and you do not follow our advice within a reasonable period. This advice may include replacing your boiler or system.
  • If we are not reasonably able to find parts to keep your system or appliance working safely.
  • If circumstances arise (including health and safety issues) which make it inappropriate for the contract to continue.
  • If we give you reasonable notice that we are going to cancel.

If we cancel your agreement, we will:

  • for gas options, give you a full refund if we find something wrong at the initial safety inspection; or
  • give you a refund based on how long is left of any 12-month cash, cheque, credit card or debit card payment you have already made.

If we cancel your agreement because we have told you that permanent repairs or improvements are needed, we may offer you another agreement with us, for example one which will not include the parts causing the problem, or does not include the cost of repairs to your system or boiler.
You may cancel your agreement in the following circumstances.

  • If it is within seven working days starting from the day after you receive written confirmation of your agreement with us and you will receive a full refund of any money paid (unless we have carried out an inspection or repair, in which case minimum charges will apply. Please read the section ‘Minimum charges’ below).
  • If it is within one month after us letting you know about changes in prices or terms and conditions or if we fail to do something which we should have done. In this case, you will receive a refund based on how much time is left of the relevant 12-month period or, if you agree, we will put things right and continue the contract. If you cancel in these circumstances, the ‘Minimum charges’ below do not apply.

If you pay each year in advance (by cash, cheque, credit card or debit card) instead of by monthly direct debit and cancel the agreement during that year, we will give you a refund based on how long is left of any 12-month advance payment. This will depend on any deduction we may make under the ‘Minimum charges’ below. If you pay by monthly direct debit, you will not receive a refund of any payment you have made, and your agreement will run until your payment runs out. If we have given you a Gas Safety Record, we will not refund our charges for this record.

Minimum charges
Unless you cancel your agreement as described in the ‘Cancellation’ section above, if you cancel your agreement, we may charge you an amount to bring your payments, in the last 12 months, up to the amount set out in the table. This will depend on when you cancel. The minimum charge covers the costs we have had to pay but which we have not yet reclaimed at the point you cancel. It includes things such as our costs of carrying out inspections, dealing with breakdowns, our organisational costs or the costs of dealing with your agreement with us

(or all the above).
For HomeCare 100™- HomeCare 400™ customers Minimum charge
If you are in the first year of your agreement, and we have carried out an initial repair at the beginning of your agreement.

Up to £207

If you are a customer in the first year of your agreement.

Up to £143

Safety advice
We may advise you that permanent repairs or improvements are needed to make sure your appliance or system works safely (for example, to comply with gas safety regulations). If you do not follow our advice, it may mean that we are unable to fulfill all of our obligations under your agreement. In this case, your agreement will continue to run unless you tell us you would like to cancel or if we cancel the agreement (see ‘Cancellation’).

Spare parts
If we do not carry the spare parts your repair work needs on the day, we use a central stock of 30,000 parts. This means we can get hold of most items the following working day. Otherwise, we will do all we reasonably can to find parts from our suppliers. We may use other approved parts or parts that have been reconditioned by the original manufacturer.
Labour
One of our engineers will usually carry out the work. In some cases we may authorise a suitably qualified contractor to carry out the work.
Approved equipment
We provide service options for appliances, energy-management systems and plastic pipes which are on our approved list.
Getting to your system – all British Gas HomeCare® options and internal gas supply in your home
We include our cost of getting to your system (materials and labour) up to £1,000 (including VAT) for each job, for example, pipes or wiring buried in walls or ‘built-in’ appliances. (This does not include work on drains where this also includes any inspection or repair costs.)
Using personal information
Information you provide or we hold about you (whether or not under our contract or contracts with you) may be used by us or our agents to:
  • identify you when you contact us;
  • help identify accounts, services and products which you could have from us from time to time (we may do this using an automatic scoring system, which uses the information you have provided, any information we hold about you and information from other agencies, including credit-reference agencies);
  • help run, and contact you about the improved running of, any accounts, services and products we have provided before, or provide now or in the future (we may contact you by email or text message if you have given us these contact details);
  • create statistical and testing information and carry out marketing analysis and customer profiling (including using information about what you buy from us and how you pay for it, for example usage rates and any discounts we have offered you – these are examples only and not a complete list);
  • help to prevent and detect fraud or loss.
  • contact you in any way (including mail, e-mail, phone, visit, text or multimedia messages) about products and services offered by us and selected partners.

We may allow other people and organisations to use information we hold about you:

  • to provide services you have asked for;
  • as part of the process of selling one or more of our businesses;
  • if you have failed to pay us, in which case we may transfer your debt to another organisation and provide them with details about you and that debt;
  • if we have been asked to provide information for legal or regulatory purposes; or
  • as part of current or future legal proceedings.

From time to time, these other people and organisations may be outside the European Economic Area in countries that do not have the same standards of protection for personal data as the UK.
We may also allow your information to be used by other Centrica Group companies (including those using the British Gas, British Gas, and Dyno Group brands) for them to carry out any of the above purposes.
We may pass your address, property and postcode, and details of your gas appliances, flue, hot water cylinder, system controls and electrical installations (including details of any repairs or removals), to organisations that supervise these activities including CORGI (Council of Registered Gas Installers) and the ECA (Electrical Contractors Association). These organisations may pass this information to local authorities to meet building regulations. They may also use this information to contact you to inspect appliances or systems, recall faulty products and carry out audits, and for health and safety purposes. Where appropriate, we will give you or the property owner (or both) a certificate to show that your appliances and so on meet building regulations.
We may monitor and record communications with you (including phone conversations and e-mails) for quality assurance and to make sure that we are meeting our legal and regulatory requirements.
We will check your details with one or more credit-reference and fraud-prevention agencies to help us make decisions about your ability to make payments and the goods and services we can offer you. We have given a brief guide to how we, the credit-reference and fraud-prevention agencies will use your information below. If you would like more information about this, you can find the full version at www.CIFAS.org.uk or phone us on 020 8734 8220 and we will send you a leaflet.
We will search at credit-reference and fraud-prevention agencies for information about you and all the people you are applying with – if you are providing information about others on a joint application, you must make sure they agree that we can use their information to do this. If you provide false or inaccurate information and we suspect fraud, we will pass your details to credit-reference and fraud-prevention agencies. Law enforcement agencies (for example, the Police and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) may use this information.

We will use the information provided to us by credit-reference and fraud-prevention agencies to;

  • help make decisions about credit or credit-related services for you and anyone applying with you;
  • check your identity;
  • prevent and detect fraud and money laundering; andmanage your account.

When credit-reference agencies receive a search from us they will record this on your credit file whether your application is successful or not.

We and other organisations may also use this information to prevent fraud and money laundering, for example when:

  • checking details on applications for credit and credit-related services;
  • managing credit and credit-related accounts and services;
  • recovering debt;
  • checking details on applications and claims for insurance; and
  • checking details of employees and people applying for jobs.

Organisations from other countries may use the information recorded by fraud-prevention agencies.

If you want to see what information credit-reference agencies hold about you, you can contact the following three credit-reference agencies currently operating in the UK. The information they hold may not be the same, so it is worth contacting them all. They will charge you a small fee.
Call Credit
Consumer Services Team PO Box 491, Leeds LS3 1WZ Phone: 0870 0601414
Equifax PLC
Credit File Advice Centre, PO Box 3001, Bradford BD1 5US Phone: 0870 010 0583 Website: www.myequifax.co.uk
Experian
Consumer Help Service PO Box 8000, Nottingham NG80 7WF Phone: 0870 241 6212 Website: www.experian.co.uk
Third-party rights
Nobody other than you will be able to benefit from this agreement, which cannot be passed to someone else without our agreement.
Our responsibilities
We will meet our responsibilities under this agreement within a reasonable time unless it is impossible for us to do this because of circumstances outside our reasonable control.

Summary of changes

If you’re an existing customer, this section summarises the changes to the terms and conditions since last year.

For all British Gas HomeCare® agreements
We have updated the section in these terms and conditions headed ‘Cancellation’ as the minimum payment has increased to reflect our costs.
You are now entitled to a discount off the full cost of a replacement boiler we install. Our technical sales advisor will explain this when they visit. This replaces the fixed 5% discount.
We have updated the section ‘Gaining access to your property’ to clarify that it is your responsibility to arrange appointments and to let us into your property.
We have added a new section ‘Safety advice’. If you do not follow our safety advice (for example, to comply with gas safety regulations), it may mean we are unable to fulfil all of our obligations under your agreement.
For HomeCare 300™ and HomeCare 400™
From now on, HomeCare 300™ and HomeCare 400™ customers are entitled to a check each year for water leaks on your internal pipework, valves and hot water cylinder to help identify any problems. We will carry this out at the time of your Safety and Maintenance Inspection on your central heating system.
For HomeCare 100™ and HomeCare 400™
We have replaced our low-usage discount with a no-usage bonus for customers who have HomeCare 100™ to HomeCare 400™, or PropertyCare. There are now discounts for one, two and three repair-free years, after a two-year qualifying period.
For HomeCare 100™
From now on, HomeCare 100™ customers are entitled to an extra customer discount on the cost of installing a boiler, on top of any offer available at the time.