Exterior Water Service Line Coverage
$7.95/mo
$23.85/qtr
$95.40/yr
When a February windstorm caused a branch to fall on Angel’s electric service line and cause the line to sag, she and her husband and neighbors gathered outside to assess the damage at her Itmann, West Virginia home.
“In a small community like this, one of the first things you do when the power goes out is, everyone pokes their heads out to see if anyone else is without power,” she said.
As the crowd gathered, Angel’s husband worried about the sagging service line.
“My husband looks at it and says, ‘if one of those trucks comes speeding through, they are going to nail [the service line] and rip it right off the side of the house,’” she said. “Almost as soon as he said that, here comes a truck and rips it off the power, rips the meter off the house and rips out two feet of the line that went into the house. It just decimated all of it. My husband was so mad that his cowboy hat went flying. We were just shocked and devastated, looking at that and wondering, ‘how in the world are we going to afford to fix that?’”
Angel and her husband had to essentially camp out in their own home, using a generator a friend loaned them to run their refrigerator and a propane stove to cook. They had no power whatsoever, but their community rallied around them.
“Thank God for our neighbors,” Angel said. “For a while, we had our groceries in the refrigerator of our neighbor across the road, and our friends were just looking everywhere for help for us. They posted on Facebook, called our power utility, and called the Public Utility Commission. Thank God for where we live.”
The local power utility sent a technician to Angel’s home to examine the line, and he confirmed that the line was Angel and her husband’s responsibility, but he also told them about the HomeServe Cares Foundation. The Foundation, HomeServe’s charitable arm, funds repairs impacting safety, sanitation and quality of life for qualifying homeowners who don’t already have a plan from HomeServe.
“We knew the name HomeServe, because we knew they offered coverage which had been introduced by the power company, but we didn’t have it – although we will be getting that protection now!”
“The next day a lady named Tammy reached out to us,” Angel said. “My initial reaction was a little bit of confusion. We knew the name HomeServe, because we knew they offered coverage which had been introduced by the power company, but we didn’t have it – although we will be getting that protection now! Tammy said, ‘no, this is a different program that covers emergency repairs when the homeowner isn’t covered, and they need a helping hand.’ There was still a little bit of wariness that this was going to cost thousands of dollars, but once the contractor started calling us and said, ‘no, this is legitimate, it’s not going to cost you anything,’ I just broke down crying in relief.”
Between the truck striking their service line and the family learning about the Foundation, nearly a month had passed. However, once the Foundation got involved, things began moving quickly as Wallace Wiring, one of HomeServe’s trusted local contractors, was dispatched to assess the damage and make repairs.
“The two gentlemen who were here were amazing,” Angel said. “They were professional, they took their time and if I had a question, they answered it. They were absolutely wonderful.”
The cost to replace the service line and make the necessary repairs to the connection to the house was substantial, $6,750, but Angel and her husband didn’t have to pay a penny, since the Foundation covered the cost for the repair.
“Once HomeServe got involved, it all happened so fast and we got everything back up and running,” Angel said. “I don’t know what we would have done without the Foundation and our friends.”
Published June 18, 2024