A Home Warranty for Mom's House: Check the Exclusions, the Service Fee, and the Exit Before You Sign

A home warranty looks like insurance for the house, and it is sold like one, which is why it is worth reading before anyone signs. Most of what matters sits in the exclusions, the fees, and the exit terms, not in the list of covered appliances on the front page.

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Who is on the contract

Find out whose name goes on the agreement and whose permission is needed to sign it. If your mother is still making her own decisions, she should be part of the decision and ask the questions herself. If someone else will sign for her, the Missouri Bar public pages explain the general rules, and Sources lists the public pages we lean on. If the answer is still unclear, that is a question for a lawyer, not for the salesperson.

Read the exclusions first

The covered list is the sales pitch. The exclusions are the contract. Look for systems that were already failing when the plan started, older equipment the plan will not cover, and any repair that needs a permit or a code upgrade before it can happen. Ask the salesperson to read the exclusion section aloud, and mark each item you do not understand.

Check the cost of each visit

Many plans charge a service fee each time a contractor comes out, whether or not the repair is covered. Multiply that fee by the number of visits a house like your mother's might need in a year, then compare the total with what one repair would cost her out of pocket. Run the math the other way too: a house that rarely breaks may not need the plan at all.

Who comes out, and whether you can choose

Ask whether the plan sends its own contractor or lets you pick one. Ask how long the company has to respond, what happens if its contractor cannot fix the item, and what the claim limit is per appliance or per year. Write each answer down next to the line of the contract it came from.

The exit route

Ask how cancellation works, whether the plan renews on its own, how much notice you must give, and whether any unused part of a paid term comes back to you. Get the cancellation terms in writing before the first payment, not after the first repair call.

When the family sits down to decide, bring the exclusions, the fees, and the exit terms to the table. A short list of what the plan leaves out is the most useful thing the group can read together.