United Water Leak Guard and sewer repair plans are something most of us don’t know about but we should.
Are you buying a home in Bergen County? Perhaps in Tenafly or in Edgewater or in Ridgewood? Chances are that your Bergen County home gets it’s water from United Water. If it does you’ll also know that this utility is a bit of an old lady.
You can set up your gas and electric service through the PSEG website for most of us. Go to Orange & Rockland for the northern end of Bergen County. United Water requires a phone call at 800-422-5987.
This does seem pretty old fashioned these days. However, United Water has some great programs for homeowners that you should not overlook.
One of the beautiful aspects of living here are the older homes we have. Many Bergen County homes were built in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. Drive down our streets and you’ll often see beautiful vintage and turn of the century homes.
There was also a construction boom right after World War II. A lot of homes are over, at or close to 100 years old here. A lot of infrastructure was built then and it’s beginning to show it’s age.
It’s not glamorous to talk about water pipes and sewer lines but they’re important. If they break and need to be replaced it can be very expensive. At an Englewood East Hill home inspection recently the inspector told my customers that replacing the water pipe would be around $8,000. My guess is that the sewer pipe would be at least this much.
United Water offers 2 programs to insure you against this from it’s vendor, Home Serve – exterior sewer line repair protection and Leak Guard
It’s best to call United Water to check this out when you contact them for water service at your new Bergen County home before closing. My advice is to get this. While nothing is perfect, the United Water Leak Guard and sewer repair program can be a big help in warding off very expensive bills.
Janet Covert
I am looking for leak protection for city water if there is leak on my property snd not the towns. Town is Manchester township Ocean,County
Bergen County Real Estate Agent
Hi Janet. Sorry to be late in getting back to you on this. I had a small surgery and yesterday I had to do a few real estate things (inspections, CCO etc) so I was totally exhausted, came home and looked at nothing. Here’s the answer for you –
First call up your homeowner insurance rep. Some plans include water and sewer pipe insurance. If not, go to https://www.homeserve.com/en-us/ because that’s the company working with utility companies. When you go to their website, you’ll enter your zip code and from there you’ll see if you go through a utility company or just directly to HomeServe. I know that HomeServe is who partners with our Bergen County water utility company (Veolia). One of my best friends had a pipe leak and they did a good job fixing it. Good luck and let me know if there’s anything else you need. AND you might want to shop around for house insurance every year to see if you can get a better deal. It never hurts to try, right? I am a former Marine Corps wife and went to USAA when they allowed anyone who was a family member to get insurance with them. Huge difference. Let me know how you make out with this. Barbara
Bergen County Real Estate Agent
Forgot to tell you – Veolia bought United Water a few months ago. But United Water used HomeServe as well.