Section 1
About this agreement
These are the terms on which Fixithomecare Limited (trading as Fix It Homecare) provides appliance cover plans. Our registered office is Bourne House, 23 Hinton Road, Bournemouth BH1 2EF, and our company number is 11687692. In these terms "we", "us" and "our" mean Fixithomecare Limited, and "you" and "your" mean the person named on the plan.
Please read these terms before you take out a plan. They tell you what we will do, what we won't do, what you need to do, and what happens if either of us wants to end the plan. If anything is unclear, ring us before you buy and we'll explain it.
These terms, together with the plan confirmation we send you when you sign up (which lists your covered appliances, your price and your start date), make up the whole agreement between us.
Section 2
What kind of agreement this is
Your plan is a service agreement. Under it, we agree to repair your covered appliances when they suffer a mechanical or electrical breakdown, and to replace them if our engineer decides they can't be economically repaired, in return for the payments set out in section 12.
Your plan is not a contract of insurance and it is not a warranty or guarantee of the appliance itself. We are not the manufacturer or the retailer of your appliances, and we don't promise that they won't break down. What we promise is what we'll do when they do.
Fixithomecare Limited is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and this agreement is not covered by the Financial Ombudsman Service or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. section 20 explains how complaints are handled instead.
Nothing in these terms affects your legal rights as a consumer, including your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 that the services we provide are carried out with reasonable care and skill. You can get free advice about your rights from Citizens Advice.
Section 3
Some words we use
- Plan: the agreement between you and us made up of these terms and your plan confirmation.
- Plan year: each period of 12 months starting on your plan start date, or on each anniversary of it.
- Covered appliance: an appliance listed on your plan confirmation. It must be one of the eight types in section 4.
- Breakdown: a sudden mechanical or electrical failure that stops a covered appliance working as it should. It doesn't include the things listed in section 7.
- Waiting period: the period at the start of cover for each appliance during which you can't book a repair on it. section 5 explains it.
- Engineer: a repair engineer we employ or appoint to attend your home on our behalf.
- Home: the address in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands shown on your plan confirmation.
- Working day: Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays in England and Wales.
Section 4
Who can take out a plan, and which appliances
You can take out a plan if you are 18 or over, you live at the home, and the appliances are used for ordinary domestic purposes in that home. If you're a landlord and want to cover appliances in a property you let out, ring us first; we may be able to agree it, and if we do we'll confirm it in writing on your plan confirmation.
You can put up to nine appliances on one plan. Each must be one of these types: washing machine, oven, fridge freezer (or a separate fridge or freezer), dishwasher, tumble dryer, hob, microwave, or vacuum cleaner. Washer-dryers count as one appliance. Range cookers and built-in double ovens count as one oven.
There is no maximum age for an appliance. What matters is that, on the day you add it to your plan, it is installed, in working order, and not showing any fault. If an appliance is already faulty, noisy, leaking, intermittent or not working, that fault isn't covered (section 7), so please don't add it: book a one-off repair instead (section 17) and add it to the plan once it's working.
We work on all mainstream domestic makes sold in the UK. If your appliance is an unusual make, an import, or a commercial model, ring us with the model number before you add it. If we can't reliably get parts for it we'll tell you, and we won't add it.
If an appliance is still covered by the manufacturer's or retailer's own warranty, you don't need a plan for it yet. You can still add it, but for as long as that warranty lasts we'll ask you to use it for anything it covers.
Section 5
When cover starts, and the waiting period
Your plan starts on the date shown on your plan confirmation, which is the date we take your first payment.
Each covered appliance has a waiting period of 60 days, starting on the day it's added to your plan. During its waiting period you can't book a repair on that appliance under the plan, and a breakdown that happens in that window isn't covered. If it breaks down in that time, ring us anyway: we'll quote you for a one-off repair at our normal rate (section 17), and the plan carries on unaffected.
The waiting period is separate from your 14-day right to cancel (section 14). You can cancel within the first 14 days for a full refund whether or not the waiting period has ended.
The waiting period exists so that nobody can take out cover on a machine that's already broken, which is what keeps the price where it is for everyone. It applies once per appliance, so an appliance you add later has its own waiting period, but appliances already on the plan aren't affected.
Section 6
What the plan includes
Once an appliance's waiting period has passed, for as long as it stays on your plan and your payments are up to date, we will:
- Repair it whenever it suffers a breakdown. You can report as many separate faults as you need to during a plan year; there's no cap on the number of repairs or callouts.
- Cover the whole cost of each repair: the engineer's time, the parts they fit, and the callout. You don't pay anything on the doorstep and you don't get a second bill after the visit.
- Cover both mechanical and electrical breakdown: the moving parts that wear out and the electronics that control them.
- Replace the appliance if our engineer decides it can't be economically repaired, or if the parts needed are no longer obtainable. section 9 sets out how.
- Give you a UK-based helpdesk to book repairs and ask questions, open Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm. We are not a 24-hour service.
- If you decide to replace an appliance yourself rather than have it repaired, put our trade discount towards the new one. The size of the discount depends on the appliance and what our suppliers can offer, and we'll tell you the figure before you commit to anything.
There is no limit on what a single repair or replacement can cost us, and no limit on the total we'll spend on an appliance in a plan year.
Section 7
What the plan does not cover
This is the complete list. It's the same list we publish on our what-we-don't-cover page, and it's the only list. If a fault isn't described here, it's covered.
EXC-WAIT
Anything that breaks in your first 60 days
Each appliance has a 60-day waiting period from the day it's added to your plan before you can book a repair on it, and a breakdown in that window isn't covered. It stops people signing up with a machine that's already broken, which is what keeps the price where it is. If something fails during those 60 days, call us anyway, and we'll quote you for a one-off repair at our normal rate. This is separate from your 14-day right to cancel.
EXC-PREX
A fault that was already there
If the appliance was faulty, noisy, leaking or intermittent before you took cover out, that fault isn't covered. Cover is for things that go wrong after you're on the plan, not things that already have.
EXC-COSM
Scratches, dents and marks
Cosmetic damage isn't covered. If the door is scuffed but the machine works, that's not a breakdown. Handles, trims and fascias are only covered when the appliance won't function without them.
EXC-ACC
Accidental damage and misuse
Dropping it, overloading it, running it without water, putting the wrong thing through it. If the failure was caused rather than worn, it isn't a breakdown.
EXC-INST
Bad installation
Transit bolts left in, no earth, an unvented dryer in a sealed cupboard, a waste pipe plumbed uphill. If the appliance failed because of how it was fitted, that's a job for whoever fitted it.
EXC-CONS
Consumables and routine maintenance
Filters, bags, belts on vacuum brush bars, bulbs, shelves, seals you're meant to wipe, descaling, cleaning a blocked pump of coins and hair grips. Wear items and upkeep are yours.
EXC-WARR
Anything still under manufacturer's warranty
If the maker will fix it for free, we'll tell you to use them. We won't take your money for something you're already entitled to have done at no cost.
EXC-EXT
Fire, flood, theft and power surges
The plan is for breakdowns: things that wear out or fail on their own. Damage from something outside the appliance, like a fire, a flood, a lightning strike or a power surge, a burglary, or a pest getting into it, isn't a breakdown, and it isn't something the plan does.
EXC-SOFT
Apps, wifi and software
Smart features not connecting, an app that won't pair, a firmware update that went wrong. We fix appliances, not networks.
EXC-COMM
Commercial and business use
Cover is for domestic appliances in a home. Launderettes, holiday lets run as a business, salons, cafés and commercial kitchens aren't covered.
EXC-GEO
Outside the UK
We cover appliances at a UK address. That includes the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. It doesn't extend beyond that.
If you report a fault and it turns out to be one of these, we'll tell you before any work starts. You can then decide whether you'd like us to do the work as a one-off repair at our normal rate (section 17). You won't be charged for the engineer's visit or diagnosis.
Section 8
Booking a repair, and what happens next
To report a breakdown, ring the helpdesk on 0203 606 0916 during opening hours, or use the form on our website. We'll ask for the make, model and serial number of the appliance and a description of what it's doing. Please tell us as soon as you reasonably can after you notice the fault, and stop using the appliance if it's leaking, sparking, smoking or tripping your electrics.
We'll first try to sort it over the phone. Some faults (a blocked filter, a tripped switch, a door that isn't latching) can be fixed in a couple of minutes, and if that's the case we'll talk you through it rather than send someone out. If it needs an engineer, we'll book a visit and tell you the date and the time window when we book.
Someone aged 18 or over needs to be at the home for the visit, and the engineer needs clear, safe access to the appliance, including the space to pull it out where necessary. If nobody's in when the engineer arrives, we'll rebook for the next available date.
The engineer will diagnose the fault on site and carry the parts that fail most often. If a part has to be ordered, we'll tell you the expected date and book the return visit at the same time. We'll keep you informed if that date changes.
Repairs are carried out by us or by engineers we appoint. We don't reimburse the cost of repairs you arrange yourself, or work carried out by the manufacturer or anyone else, unless we've agreed it with you in writing beforehand. If you're ever unsure, ring us before letting anyone else work on a covered appliance.
We'll aim to repair every breakdown as quickly as we reasonably can, but we can't promise a fixed timescale, because it depends on parts availability and where you live. If a repair is taking longer than it should, ring us and we'll tell you honestly where it's up to.
Section 9
If it can't be repaired
Our engineer decides whether an appliance can be economically repaired. If the cost of the repair would be more than the appliance is worth putting right, or if the parts needed are no longer available, we'll replace it. We'll tell you the decision and the reason.
A replacement is a new appliance of the same type, with a similar capacity, function and specification to the one it replaces. It may not be the same brand. We'll talk you through what we're proposing before it's ordered, and we'll listen if you'd rather have something different: if you choose a more expensive model, you pay the difference; if you'd like a cheaper one, that's fine too. We don't offer cash instead of a replacement unless we've agreed it with you in writing.
We don't reduce the replacement for the age or condition of your old appliance, and there's no upper limit on what the replacement can cost us.
A replacement is arranged on a like-for-like basis. We pay for it to be delivered to your home and installed, and we take the old appliance away and dispose of it, all at no cost to you. If installing the replacement needs work beyond a standard like-for-like fit (for example new pipework, wiring or building work), we'll tell you before the delivery and agree with you who does that work.
The replacement appliance stays on your plan in place of the old one, with no new waiting period. It will come with the manufacturer's own warranty, and for as long as that lasts we'll ask you to use it for anything it covers (see section 7). We're still here for anything it doesn't.
Replacing an appliance doesn't change your price, your plan year or your right to cancel (section 14).
Section 10
Our guarantee on the work
We carry out all repairs with reasonable care and skill, using new or manufacturer-approved parts wherever they're available. If the same fault comes back after we've repaired it, ring us and we'll put it right. While the appliance is on your plan that's covered anyway, because there's no limit on repairs.
If an appliance leaves your plan and the same fault comes back within 12 months of a repair we carried out, we'll still put it right at no charge.
Section 11
What we need from you
- Give us accurate information when you sign up and when you report a fault, and tell us if anything changes (for example if you move house, or replace an appliance yourself).
- Use your appliances as the manufacturer intended, and follow the instructions that came with them.
- Do the routine upkeep that's yours to do: emptying filters, cleaning seals, descaling in hard-water areas, and replacing consumables. section 7 lists what counts as upkeep.
- Tell us about faults promptly, and stop using an appliance that's unsafe.
- Give our engineer safe access to the appliance at the agreed time.
- Don't let anyone else work on a covered appliance without asking us first.
- Keep your payments up to date (section 12).
If you don't do these things and it causes a fault or makes a repair impossible, that fault may not be covered. We'll always tell you why.
Section 12
Your price and how you pay
Your price depends on how many appliances are on your plan and how often you pay. The full ladder is below, and it's the same one published on our website. All prices include VAT.
Plan prices by number of appliances and payment frequency| Appliances | Monthly | Quarterly | Annual |
|---|
| 1 | £9.99 | £27.99 | £99.00 |
| 2 | £15.99 | £45.99 | £164.00 |
| 3 | £21.99 | £62.99 | £229.00 |
| 4 | £27.99 | £80.99 | £294.00 |
| 5 | £34.99 | £98.99 | £359.00 |
| 6 | £40.99 | £116.99 | £424.00 |
| 7 | £46.99 | £134.99 | £489.00 |
| 8 | £52.99 | £152.99 | £554.00 |
| 9 | £59.99 | £170.99 | £619.00 |
You can pay monthly, quarterly or annually, in advance, by Direct Debit or by card. Your first payment is taken when you sign up, and later payments on the same day of each month, quarter or year.
Your price is fixed for each plan year. We won't change it during a plan year. If the price is going to change at your next renewal, we'll write to you at least 30 days before the renewal date to tell you the new price, and you can cancel at any point before or after it takes effect (section 14). We won't apply a change quietly.
If a payment fails, we'll let you know and try again within 7 days. While a payment is overdue we can't book repairs on your plan, though anything already booked will go ahead. If a payment is still outstanding 30 days after it was due, we may end your plan by writing to you (section 15).
Section 13
Adding or removing appliances
You can add appliances to your plan or take them off at any time by ringing us. If you add an appliance, your price moves to the tier for the new number of appliances from your next payment, and the new appliance has its own waiting period (section 5). If you remove one, your price moves down from your next payment; if you've paid ahead, we'll refund the difference for the whole months remaining.
You can't swap an appliance that's just broken down for a different one to avoid a repair being excluded; the waiting period and the pre-existing fault rule in section 7 apply to any appliance you add.
Section 14
Cancelling your plan
Changing your mind. You can cancel within 14 days of your plan start date (or of receiving your plan confirmation, if that's later) for a full refund, for any reason. Just ring us or email us. Because of the waiting period, we won't have carried out any work in that time, so there's nothing to deduct.
After the first 14 days. You can cancel at any time by ringing or emailing us. There's no cancellation fee and no minimum term. If you pay monthly, your plan ends at the end of the month you've paid for. If you've paid quarterly or annually, your plan ends on the day you tell us and we refund you for each whole month you've paid for but not used.
We don't claw back the cost of repairs or replacements we've carried out if you cancel afterwards. Once we've done the work, it's done.
Renewal. Your plan renews automatically at the end of each plan year on the same terms, at the price we've told you. You don't need to do anything to keep it going, and you can cancel at any time, so a renewal never locks you in.
Section 15
When we can end your plan
We can end your plan straight away, by writing to you, if you give us false information to get the plan or a repair, if your appliances are being used commercially, or if you or anyone at the home is abusive or threatening to our staff or engineers.
We can end your plan by giving you 30 days' written notice if a payment is still outstanding 30 days after it was due (section 12), or if we're no longer able to get parts for the appliances on your plan and can't offer you a replacement.
We can also end your plan, or stop offering plans altogether, by giving you at least 30 days' written notice before the end of your current plan year. If we do that, cover continues to the end of the plan year you've paid for.
If we end your plan for any reason other than false information, we'll refund you for each whole month you've paid for but not used.
Section 16
What we're responsible for
If we fail to keep to these terms, or we're negligent, we're responsible for the loss or damage you suffer as a foreseeable result. Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law says we can't limit.
The plan covers repairing and replacing the appliance itself. It doesn't cover the contents of an appliance (for example food in a fridge freezer, or laundry in a washing machine) or losses that follow from a breakdown, such as the cost of eating out or using a launderette while you wait for a repair. It also doesn't cover loss of income or business losses, because the plan is for domestic use only.
We're not responsible for damage that was already there when our engineer arrived, or for damage caused by a fault you didn't report to us.
Section 17
One-off repairs
If you're not on a plan, or your appliance is within its waiting period, or the fault is one the plan doesn't cover, you can book a one-off repair. This section applies to those.
Ring us or use the form with the make, model and fault. We'll give you a price for the visit and the likely parts before an engineer is booked, and nothing is payable until you accept it. Advice over the phone is free, and if we think the appliance isn't worth repairing we'll say so before you spend anything.
If the diagnosis on site is different from what we expected, the engineer will tell you the revised price before doing any further work, and you can decline. Payment is due on completion of the work, by card.
One-off repairs are carried out with reasonable care and skill. Parts we fit are guaranteed for 12 months, and our labour for 90 days from the date of the repair; if the same fault comes back within that time, we'll put it right at no charge. This doesn't cover a different fault, or a fault caused by any of the things in section 7.
Section 18
Things outside our control
Occasionally something outside our reasonable control stops us doing what we've promised when we've promised it: severe weather, a parts shortage, a supplier failing, or an engineer being unable to reach you safely. If that happens we'll tell you as soon as we can, and we'll do what we've promised as soon as the problem is over. If a delay caused by something outside our control goes on for more than 60 days, you can cancel and we'll refund you for any whole months you've paid for and not used.
Section 19
Your information
We use the personal information you give us to run your plan, book repairs and contact you about it. Our privacy policy explains what we collect, why, how long we keep it and your rights. We don't pass your details to anyone for marketing, and nobody will ring you to sell you something.
Section 20
If something goes wrong
If you're unhappy with anything we've done, please tell us. Ring 0203 606 0916, email info@fixithomecare.co.uk, or write to us at Bourne House, 23 Hinton Road, Bournemouth BH1 2EF. We'll acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days, tell you who's looking into it, and give you our final answer within 28 days. If we need longer, we'll tell you why and when you'll hear from us.
If you're not satisfied with our final answer, or you haven't had one within 8 weeks, you can take your complaint further. Because your plan isn't insurance, the Financial Ombudsman Service can't look at it. Instead, our final answer will tell you about an approved alternative dispute resolution provider you can use, and you can get free, independent advice at any point from the Citizens Advice consumer service. Nothing here stops you taking a complaint to court.
Section 21
Changes to these terms
We can change these terms to reflect a change in the law, or to improve or clarify them. If a change would reduce what your plan covers or affect your price, we'll only make it from your next renewal, and we'll write to you at least 30 days beforehand so you can cancel if you'd rather. Any other change takes effect when we publish it on our website, and we'll email you a copy. The version and date at the top of this page tell you which terms apply.
Section 22
The legal bits
- Your plan is between you and us. Nobody else can enforce it, and the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 doesn't apply.
- You can't transfer your plan to someone else without our written agreement. If you move house within the UK, ring us and we'll move the plan with you.
- If a court decides any part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies.
- If we don't enforce something straight away, that doesn't mean we've given up the right to.
- These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and you can bring legal proceedings in the courts of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland you can also bring proceedings in Scotland, and if you live in Northern Ireland you can also bring proceedings in Northern Ireland.
Questions about these terms: ring 0203 606 0916 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm) or email info@fixithomecare.co.uk.