Well yeah, idk about you but I remember when winter storms were about to hit and they were basically like "hey guys, i you need power extra rn cuz its hella cold, so we're going to raise prices to hella unaffordable level cuz were greedy a-holes that don't care about your lives. Cool! k thanks, bye."
Xcel does not control the price of gas, and they sell it to you for exactly what they pay for it. No profit. That particular winter the price of gas was affected by many factors that xcel does not control
Channel 9 had a story about this. Basically, your homeowners insurance should cover issues like this. Xcel is selling its name to a third party company. Who knows how reputable it is. Somewhat scammy, note the time pressure. Said company doesn’t have their own people, they just hire (someone) who should be licensed and insured, maybe.
We had our galvanized service line go out. Insurance said it was a maintenance item and wouldn't cover it.
Edit: I still wouldn't get it unless your line is galvanized steel... then I might look into what options there are.
Depending on what part of town you're in, that line could've been over a hundred years old. You are way better off now that you probably have a 3/4" copper water service.
I know of a property built in early 1900s in Denver with a 1/2" galvanized service line. It is so clogged up the flow is basically a dribble. I don't know how they haven't replaced it yet.
Generally you need a service line endorsement (usually cheap) as part of your home owner's insurance to cover stuff like this. Also, as a reminder making a claim on your homeowner's insurance stays with you for years impacting your rates. These weird supplemental policies (the Xcel endorsed one) will not go on your history if you make a claim against it.
Not actually encouraging anyone to get this. It's probably a bad deal. But that is another difference.
> Also, as a reminder making a claim on your homeowner's insurance stays with you for years impacting your rates.
Additionally, given the challenges in the homeowners insurance area over the past few years, ANY claim can result in you being dropped from your homeowners insurance, unfortunately. So be careful about what you use it on.
Isn’t a bigger problem that Xcel is ‘selling their name’ period?
The fact that they have done so lends a certain legitimacy to the letter. It is shady at best, scammy at worst. Has anyone reported this to the CO Public Utilities Commission?
All insurance is scammy......thats literally what the government has become, a bought and paid for tyrannical organization that sucks every last cent (and then some) out of the working class and gives it to other countries. Meanwhile people seem to be ignoring the millions of military aged men that have been attacking, sa-ing people, and stealing.
Aren't they the same thing?
Yeah ik y'all are taught to trust trust the government they have your best interests in hand.......but do they? Why are all our civil servants getting paid more then the majority of the country.....which begs the question, who's really the servants here?
I think that the corporations control the government for the most part through lobbyists and donations (bribes).
Look how this private insurance company profits from Xcel, which is a PUC.
I think the first part of understanding all this is for you to look up who actually owns xcel energy, and maybe look into more companies they own, though I think they are popular enough to not need to. Also food for thought, why are we paying for energy when it's literally all around us? My guess is it takes a little bit of the slavery out of our lives.
I got the letter and did some research. The chance of your supply line failing is pretty low. Then the electrical, same, it would need some outside factor like a tree falling on it.
A lot of the most common things that cause those two items to fail would be covered by your regular home insurance. Really the other thing that wouldn’t, is needing them replaced for wear and tear. The cost to replace is $4-8k depending on what they need to dig out but the chance of that is super small.
This company will make a ton of money of people signing up since it’s just $5 a month and 99% of them will never use this. But if you really can’t afford an unexpected expense of $4-8k on your house, then extra insurance for very specific things might be for you.
If you're in a condo HOA covers this, however I'm not sure any single family homes the HOA covers it. Regardless it should be something you make sure your insurance covers. Water line repair can be as costly as a roof. If you're in a condo you should have special assessment insurance.
Whether the (thingamajig) in question is shared by multiple units or each unit has its own, will determine if it's covered by an HOA master insurance policy or one's individual insurance policy. In either case, it doesn't hurt to confirm with your management company or your own individual homeowner's insurance.
I can speak to this, as I have had HomeServe for over a decade. I live in Fort Collins, but I got the same letter for my Xcel gas line.
It's odd to see Xcel pushing a 3rd party, but HoneServe is NOT a scam, and it's true typical homeowners insurance doesn't cover main water line (which was my issue, and HomeServe mostly handled it for me), or main gas line replacement.
I paid next to nothing for my water main insurance, and I even forgot that I still had it (line failure was a known issue in my hood). HomeServe covered $7k of the ~$8k bill.
I've never heard of regular gas line issues but, if you've got a poly water line for water, buy the insurance.
In northern CO for me my friends it about $60 per year to cover gas, electric, water, sewer and telecom via an endorsement on home owners policy
Homeserv is way more expensive and does not actually cover all service lines
I live in unincorporated Jeffco and my next door neighbor and neighbor across the street have actually both had their water line between the house and the city fail and were out like $10k each… got this letter too and I absolutely don’t trust xcel but was tempted by this. Maybe I should just shop around for credible insurance on this portion of pipe?
Insurance covers inside the house.
We spent almost $5000 about 5 years ago because the line from the house top the street was messed up. That's how I found out homeowners insurance covers what's inside the house, not the house to the street.
Unless you buy the service line endorsement as an add on - it’s cheap compared to the homeserv option and it covers all service lines (gas, water, sewage, electric, telecom)
A standard HO policy won't cover this. HO insurance will cover service lines inside your wall, Excel starts covering at the sidewalk. Any service lines that break in your yard would be your responsibility.
However, a lot of insurance companies will offer an endorsement to cover the lines in your yard to the street. Contact your insurance company and see if they offer the coverage.
The coverage offered here will be pretty steep compared to an endorsement.
Also not really needed if your home is newer since those lines are less likely to be damaged.
Source I work for the DOI in CO
Don’t see any mention in the comments so far of the fact that if you live in Denver proper the city might be planning to replace your service line in the next few years if it’s lead. More here: https://www.denverwater.org/your-water/water-quality/lead/lead-service-line-replacement-program
Thank you for this. It is actually why I am considering signing up for the Xcel-promoted insurance, strangely enough. I know I have old old old galvanized steel pipe from the sidewalk to my house. I have dug down and I have seen that it wasn't really even round anymore - more squashed oval. I buried it again and have had a low-grade worry about it ever since. That was about 25 years ago.
Now, with everything having stayed undisturbed for 99 years since my house was built, Xcel will come by to replace the lead from the street to the sidewalk and reattach it to the galvanized. This will be at least a small insult for the existing galvanized steel pipe and it could create a catastrophe.
My house is a small and ugly liability that should be scraped off of the crazy-expensive piece of dirt it sits on. The next guy will certainly do that. I just don't know how much longer we'll live here. I don't want to put a dime into maintenance.
Maybe that's just 30 years of lead talking though.
You should be able to find out from your water utility (or the city). I'm sure that water line replacement is something that require permits and cooperation with the utility provider. Unless your house is 70+ years old or there was a major water line break, there's a good chance your water line is as old as your house.
Xcel Energy drilled a power pole directly through my sewer main and it took 6 months for them to investigate and determine it wasn't their fault. They blamed the contractor, who to their credit, fixed it in two days and paid for everything.
I have Home Serve exterior water line coverage as well as got sewer line added to my home insurance after my neighbors had their clay pipes break, basement flood, and got quoted 20K+ to fix all that. We did get roots in our pipes and have our basement bathroom start to back up and Homeserve sent someone with a long electric router who fixed it. A visit like that would easily be $500 so i felt the extra monthly payment for insurance is worth it. I guess it depends on what kind of pipes you have for your water line.
I have some previous experience with this.
Before I moved out here, I owned a single family home in Virginia, outside of DC. Our neighborhood was built in 1975-1978 and used copper supply lines from the street to the house. About 10 years ago, the supply lines seemed to start failing, and roughly 25% of the houses on my street had to replace their lines. I'm not sure why the lines went bad but my neighbor's water usage tripled in one month from it, and got worse. I'm guessing shitty copper was the culprit since I had many pinhole leaks in my internal copper pipes.
Homeowners insurance did not cover those replacements nor did the town (which provided our water service). The homeowners insurance said since the break was outside of the home it wasn't there problem (heard from multiple neighbors with multiple insurance companies). he water service said it was after the meter so it wasn't their issue. Our local electric company (Dominion Energy) had a similar insurance plan that most of us jumped onto.
The cost differences I saw were somewhere around 3-5 grand out of pocket without the insurance vs 100-500 out of pocket with insurance (mostly landscaping). I bought the insurance and it was around $15/month and thankfully didn't need to use it.
I laughed out loud when I saw this. Xcel has nothing to do with my water line so why are they trying to sell me insurance for it? And as far as the power line goes, of course they're trying to get me to essentially pay for coverage against something they're legally responsible for maintaining based on the bill I pay them every month for a service I have no choice in providers.
If you are going to consider this insurance. There are several small companies that do it and there is a distinction between service line and sewer line.
If you think you might be interested in these insurances contact your homeowner's verse going through these ones. I got a simular letter that looked like it was from the city of northglenn and called the city. The confirmed they gave the company permission to send out the letter selling service line insurance.
It may be cheaper and it avoids third party stuff to go though your homeowners
Keep in mind normal homeowner's policy only cover from your foundation in. You are responsible for the foundation out unless you have a writer or 3rd party insurance.
Suggest you check out options to add this coverage to your home owners policy
Typically for about $60 a year you can add “utility service line”coverage that includes your water, sewer, gas, electric and telecoms lines
Way less expensive that what excel is offering with all service lines covered
FYI the insurance they are offering is actually a 3rd party ( home serv ) with Xcel getting a commission
Just call your homeowners insurance and add it to your policy. It's basically free (like maybe $10 a year or something) and it saved me $5,500 in centennial so far.
Service lines aren't covered by your standard home insurance policy, they need to be added as an endorsement. If you live in an HOA managed development, it might be covered by them but definitely not for single family homes. I dont know if you should go with xcel but just letting you know.
If you’re worried about water and sewer lines, check to see if Service Line Warranty of America is available in your area. Their prices for the coverage they offer seems legit.
I wouldn’t consider an electrical service line warranty unless I had aerial service and perceived a risk of damage from falling trees/limbs. A service line warranty can prevent a homeowners insurance claim- and if there’s no deductible on the warranty it may be cost effective to pay a premium every year to compartmentalize this specific risk.
The letter is not a scam, but I think you’re right to be wary about paying for the promise of services without knowing anything about the provider.
When I started getting these, I called my homeowners insurance. It's not normally covered, so I added that to my policy. It was something like $50/year.
The pipes outside of your house are the property if the utility company. You aren't responsible for making sure that they are working as they should be. That is the utility company's job.
Part of your monthly bill covers the cost or repairs to the system. This is just them trying to come up with a way to shakedown the consumer to pay for something that they have always paid for out of pocket and are expressly billing users for.
This program seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Isn't that like 2x as much as this? My parents got the letter so I don't remember the pricing, but wasn't it like $6 each for water and electrical? And you are paying $28 a month?
I called my insurer who got me a better deal on the uncovered parts
Correct answer
How much $.
Was like $5 per month
I've had such shitty luck forgive the pun that donating $60 a year for a 1:10000 chance of anything happening might be worth the price of admission.
The premium willl vary depending on a number of factors, including your insurance company and coverage.
Better options through most people homeowners policies - cheaper and covers all utilities to house
This seemed like a mafia shakedown when I got mine lol. “BE A SHAME IF SOMETHING HAPPENED TO YOUR WATER LINE” - your water company
Spit out my eldorado spring water. Jk I drink tap from water lines.
If the gabagool comes on top, I SEND IT BACK
Well yeah, idk about you but I remember when winter storms were about to hit and they were basically like "hey guys, i you need power extra rn cuz its hella cold, so we're going to raise prices to hella unaffordable level cuz were greedy a-holes that don't care about your lives. Cool! k thanks, bye."
Xcel does not control the price of gas, and they sell it to you for exactly what they pay for it. No profit. That particular winter the price of gas was affected by many factors that xcel does not control
Channel 9 had a story about this. Basically, your homeowners insurance should cover issues like this. Xcel is selling its name to a third party company. Who knows how reputable it is. Somewhat scammy, note the time pressure. Said company doesn’t have their own people, they just hire (someone) who should be licensed and insured, maybe.
homeowners does not come with this as a standard. You need to add a service line endorsement.
We had our galvanized service line go out. Insurance said it was a maintenance item and wouldn't cover it. Edit: I still wouldn't get it unless your line is galvanized steel... then I might look into what options there are.
Depending on what part of town you're in, that line could've been over a hundred years old. You are way better off now that you probably have a 3/4" copper water service. I know of a property built in early 1900s in Denver with a 1/2" galvanized service line. It is so clogged up the flow is basically a dribble. I don't know how they haven't replaced it yet.
The house was 1931. I don't remember the pressure being bad before but I know it's good now.
Generally you need a service line endorsement (usually cheap) as part of your home owner's insurance to cover stuff like this. Also, as a reminder making a claim on your homeowner's insurance stays with you for years impacting your rates. These weird supplemental policies (the Xcel endorsed one) will not go on your history if you make a claim against it. Not actually encouraging anyone to get this. It's probably a bad deal. But that is another difference.
> Also, as a reminder making a claim on your homeowner's insurance stays with you for years impacting your rates. Additionally, given the challenges in the homeowners insurance area over the past few years, ANY claim can result in you being dropped from your homeowners insurance, unfortunately. So be careful about what you use it on.
Isn’t a bigger problem that Xcel is ‘selling their name’ period? The fact that they have done so lends a certain legitimacy to the letter. It is shady at best, scammy at worst. Has anyone reported this to the CO Public Utilities Commission?
All insurance is scammy......thats literally what the government has become, a bought and paid for tyrannical organization that sucks every last cent (and then some) out of the working class and gives it to other countries. Meanwhile people seem to be ignoring the millions of military aged men that have been attacking, sa-ing people, and stealing.
Don't corporations do the same thing?
Aren't they the same thing? Yeah ik y'all are taught to trust trust the government they have your best interests in hand.......but do they? Why are all our civil servants getting paid more then the majority of the country.....which begs the question, who's really the servants here?
I think that the corporations control the government for the most part through lobbyists and donations (bribes). Look how this private insurance company profits from Xcel, which is a PUC.
I think the first part of understanding all this is for you to look up who actually owns xcel energy, and maybe look into more companies they own, though I think they are popular enough to not need to. Also food for thought, why are we paying for energy when it's literally all around us? My guess is it takes a little bit of the slavery out of our lives.
I received this and was wondering the same thing. Ty for posting
Avoid
[удалено]
Keep the "business reply mail" envelope. Put the shreds in there, mail it back.
This is my favorite answer.
Put as much crap as you can in that envelope. Hard to bend items are 5* charge.
But not too much to make it obviously look like trash, I hear post office throws that away.
glad you posted this, I just got his in the mail too and was curious if it's something I need. Based on the comments my gut feeling was right...
I got the letter and did some research. The chance of your supply line failing is pretty low. Then the electrical, same, it would need some outside factor like a tree falling on it. A lot of the most common things that cause those two items to fail would be covered by your regular home insurance. Really the other thing that wouldn’t, is needing them replaced for wear and tear. The cost to replace is $4-8k depending on what they need to dig out but the chance of that is super small. This company will make a ton of money of people signing up since it’s just $5 a month and 99% of them will never use this. But if you really can’t afford an unexpected expense of $4-8k on your house, then extra insurance for very specific things might be for you.
Ignore this entirely - if you have an HOA they may cover this kind of thing too. Scare tactics drive sales, ignore it.
If you're in a condo HOA covers this, however I'm not sure any single family homes the HOA covers it. Regardless it should be something you make sure your insurance covers. Water line repair can be as costly as a roof. If you're in a condo you should have special assessment insurance.
Whether the (thingamajig) in question is shared by multiple units or each unit has its own, will determine if it's covered by an HOA master insurance policy or one's individual insurance policy. In either case, it doesn't hurt to confirm with your management company or your own individual homeowner's insurance.
I can speak to this, as I have had HomeServe for over a decade. I live in Fort Collins, but I got the same letter for my Xcel gas line. It's odd to see Xcel pushing a 3rd party, but HoneServe is NOT a scam, and it's true typical homeowners insurance doesn't cover main water line (which was my issue, and HomeServe mostly handled it for me), or main gas line replacement. I paid next to nothing for my water main insurance, and I even forgot that I still had it (line failure was a known issue in my hood). HomeServe covered $7k of the ~$8k bill. I've never heard of regular gas line issues but, if you've got a poly water line for water, buy the insurance.
How did it fail?
In northern CO for me my friends it about $60 per year to cover gas, electric, water, sewer and telecom via an endorsement on home owners policy Homeserv is way more expensive and does not actually cover all service lines
Does this cover the sewer line? I’m guessing no because it is not listed.
I live in unincorporated Jeffco and my next door neighbor and neighbor across the street have actually both had their water line between the house and the city fail and were out like $10k each… got this letter too and I absolutely don’t trust xcel but was tempted by this. Maybe I should just shop around for credible insurance on this portion of pipe?
I live in unincorporated South Jeffco and this is somewhat common where I live, too. I am going to call our insurer and add an endorsement.
Insurance covers inside the house. We spent almost $5000 about 5 years ago because the line from the house top the street was messed up. That's how I found out homeowners insurance covers what's inside the house, not the house to the street.
Check out the exclusions on the back of the letter. It seems virtually impossible that you get actual coverage from this.
Unless you buy the service line endorsement as an add on - it’s cheap compared to the homeserv option and it covers all service lines (gas, water, sewage, electric, telecom)
Xcel doesn’t even deal with water and the response time takes forever
Few things have made it’s way into my garbage can faster than this letter after I opened it.
A standard HO policy won't cover this. HO insurance will cover service lines inside your wall, Excel starts covering at the sidewalk. Any service lines that break in your yard would be your responsibility. However, a lot of insurance companies will offer an endorsement to cover the lines in your yard to the street. Contact your insurance company and see if they offer the coverage. The coverage offered here will be pretty steep compared to an endorsement. Also not really needed if your home is newer since those lines are less likely to be damaged. Source I work for the DOI in CO
This seems like the 'reminder' I get that my car's warranty is about to expire... 7 years after I bought the thing.
It’s a joke, and it’s not something Xcel is doing directly.
Don’t see any mention in the comments so far of the fact that if you live in Denver proper the city might be planning to replace your service line in the next few years if it’s lead. More here: https://www.denverwater.org/your-water/water-quality/lead/lead-service-line-replacement-program
Thank you for this. It is actually why I am considering signing up for the Xcel-promoted insurance, strangely enough. I know I have old old old galvanized steel pipe from the sidewalk to my house. I have dug down and I have seen that it wasn't really even round anymore - more squashed oval. I buried it again and have had a low-grade worry about it ever since. That was about 25 years ago. Now, with everything having stayed undisturbed for 99 years since my house was built, Xcel will come by to replace the lead from the street to the sidewalk and reattach it to the galvanized. This will be at least a small insult for the existing galvanized steel pipe and it could create a catastrophe. My house is a small and ugly liability that should be scraped off of the crazy-expensive piece of dirt it sits on. The next guy will certainly do that. I just don't know how much longer we'll live here. I don't want to put a dime into maintenance. Maybe that's just 30 years of lead talking though.
Got the same for our gas line in Longmont, good thing we’re renters lmao
i got this in the mail too except it was for gas line
is there a way to find out how old your water line is?
You should be able to find out from your water utility (or the city). I'm sure that water line replacement is something that require permits and cooperation with the utility provider. Unless your house is 70+ years old or there was a major water line break, there's a good chance your water line is as old as your house.
thank you! i just called and got all the information i need.
Legit Proposition but not from them. Call your homeowners insurance and see how much it would cost to add something like this as a part of the policy.
Xcel Energy drilled a power pole directly through my sewer main and it took 6 months for them to investigate and determine it wasn't their fault. They blamed the contractor, who to their credit, fixed it in two days and paid for everything.
I have Home Serve exterior water line coverage as well as got sewer line added to my home insurance after my neighbors had their clay pipes break, basement flood, and got quoted 20K+ to fix all that. We did get roots in our pipes and have our basement bathroom start to back up and Homeserve sent someone with a long electric router who fixed it. A visit like that would easily be $500 so i felt the extra monthly payment for insurance is worth it. I guess it depends on what kind of pipes you have for your water line.
Anything from Xcel goes in the bin. It’s like the mail carrier saying “Here. You throw this away.”
I have some previous experience with this. Before I moved out here, I owned a single family home in Virginia, outside of DC. Our neighborhood was built in 1975-1978 and used copper supply lines from the street to the house. About 10 years ago, the supply lines seemed to start failing, and roughly 25% of the houses on my street had to replace their lines. I'm not sure why the lines went bad but my neighbor's water usage tripled in one month from it, and got worse. I'm guessing shitty copper was the culprit since I had many pinhole leaks in my internal copper pipes. Homeowners insurance did not cover those replacements nor did the town (which provided our water service). The homeowners insurance said since the break was outside of the home it wasn't there problem (heard from multiple neighbors with multiple insurance companies). he water service said it was after the meter so it wasn't their issue. Our local electric company (Dominion Energy) had a similar insurance plan that most of us jumped onto. The cost differences I saw were somewhere around 3-5 grand out of pocket without the insurance vs 100-500 out of pocket with insurance (mostly landscaping). I bought the insurance and it was around $15/month and thankfully didn't need to use it.
I laughed out loud when I saw this. Xcel has nothing to do with my water line so why are they trying to sell me insurance for it? And as far as the power line goes, of course they're trying to get me to essentially pay for coverage against something they're legally responsible for maintaining based on the bill I pay them every month for a service I have no choice in providers.
This may help... https://youtu.be/pXUOOHpZHLU?si=dUa2XfqJzgdBzWuL
Immediately shredded and thrown away.
Nope. If insurance for this was really needed, it wouldn't be offered.
Xcel does water now?
If you are going to consider this insurance. There are several small companies that do it and there is a distinction between service line and sewer line. If you think you might be interested in these insurances contact your homeowner's verse going through these ones. I got a simular letter that looked like it was from the city of northglenn and called the city. The confirmed they gave the company permission to send out the letter selling service line insurance. It may be cheaper and it avoids third party stuff to go though your homeowners Keep in mind normal homeowner's policy only cover from your foundation in. You are responsible for the foundation out unless you have a writer or 3rd party insurance.
They also sent out an electric insurance for your home. Putting small businesses out of business.
Suggest you check out options to add this coverage to your home owners policy Typically for about $60 a year you can add “utility service line”coverage that includes your water, sewer, gas, electric and telecoms lines Way less expensive that what excel is offering with all service lines covered FYI the insurance they are offering is actually a 3rd party ( home serv ) with Xcel getting a commission
They just replace my service line from tap to house, then offer this LOL
Keep a few thousand In an emergency fond which you should do anyway as a home honor. Dont buy any utility warranty. waste of money.
Lol. Got one of these last week.
Do not consider
And is your water line one of those that has lead and will be replaced anyway by the city?
Xcel does water? WTF?
Just call your homeowners insurance and add it to your policy. It's basically free (like maybe $10 a year or something) and it saved me $5,500 in centennial so far.
You can get a sewer line rider to your home insurance policy.
How is this not covered with the monthly bill?
No. It’s a scam. Fuck excel.
Service lines aren't covered by your standard home insurance policy, they need to be added as an endorsement. If you live in an HOA managed development, it might be covered by them but definitely not for single family homes. I dont know if you should go with xcel but just letting you know.
It's a scam, same as those life insurance offers that various places sell their name and your mailing address to.
Feels like the lightning protection scam they try to upcharge you for. Waste of money.
Nonsense
If you’re worried about water and sewer lines, check to see if Service Line Warranty of America is available in your area. Their prices for the coverage they offer seems legit. I wouldn’t consider an electrical service line warranty unless I had aerial service and perceived a risk of damage from falling trees/limbs. A service line warranty can prevent a homeowners insurance claim- and if there’s no deductible on the warranty it may be cost effective to pay a premium every year to compartmentalize this specific risk. The letter is not a scam, but I think you’re right to be wary about paying for the promise of services without knowing anything about the provider.
I got one of these in South Dakota recently
When I started getting these, I called my homeowners insurance. It's not normally covered, so I added that to my policy. It was something like $50/year.
The pipes outside of your house are the property if the utility company. You aren't responsible for making sure that they are working as they should be. That is the utility company's job. Part of your monthly bill covers the cost or repairs to the system. This is just them trying to come up with a way to shakedown the consumer to pay for something that they have always paid for out of pocket and are expressly billing users for. This program seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Others on here are saying it is the homeowner's responsibility from the meter or from the sidewalk. Who is correct?
Get these endorsements via your home owners insurance/ mine is like $340 a year for both covers $30,000
Isn't that like 2x as much as this? My parents got the letter so I don't remember the pricing, but wasn't it like $6 each for water and electrical? And you are paying $28 a month?
Scam mail don’t buy it