LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Leaders with the Nevada Division of Insurance urge you to file a complaint if your home warranty company is giving you headaches or excessive delays, as many anxiously await for A/C repairs in the Las Vegas Valley’s excessive heat temperatures.
Las Vegas resident Maria Portillo wanted to know her options, after waiting for repairs for home warranty since June 5. She called FOX5 for help, having already called the Better Business Bureau.
“It stays at 99 all the time,” Portillo said. Though a provider immediately responded to inspect the A/C unit on June 6, she and her family waited for parts to come for weeks. The home warranty company told FOX5 that the part was backordered, causing those delays.
“They said I needed a new condenser and evaporator coil, which I have to pay out of pocket $2,100,” Portillo said.
After temps soared, since late June, the family had been staying in a hotel. Her husband Victor, 86, has cancer, and her daughter Jacqueline is 8-and-a-half months pregnant. “It’s very difficult with one sick person. I have the other ready to deliver,” Portillo said.
After FOX5 called the home warranty company on the 18th, a repair crew came on the 20th, returning the next day to add freon. After the A/C worked for a day, the Portillo family tells FOX5, Monday afternoon, the thermostat cannot get below 80 degrees. The company refunded the Portillos $525 in fees.
The DOI regulates home warranty companies and permits them to operate in the state. Investigators work to make sure that the company is abiding by the terms of your contract that you signed, and investigates every complaint that comes into their office.
“We review all complaints to make sure that, one, the consumers’ rights are not being mistreated. We make sure that the company is registered in the state of Nevada to do this business. Second, we then look at the contract and and look at the complaint that the consumer has made. If those if those aren’t in line, we then follow up with the company,” said Insurance Commissioner Scott Kipper.
Though state law doesn’t explicitly dictate a timeline for home warranty repairs to be completed, your contract might spell out a timeframe.
Once a complaint is initiated state officials want to ensure that your provider fulfills their terms and actually does the repairs. That inquiry, Kipper said, sparks a timeline that demands a response.
“A home warranty company has an obligation to react within a certain timeframe, especially in a period of emergency which we would consider now, when temperatures are 105 or greater to be an emergency. They have three days to notify the consumer to the actions they intend to take. They have three days in which to reach out to a contractor to to initiate the work on their unit. And then they’re also required to notify the Division of Insurance to have those actions,” Kipper said.
You can file a complaint here: Nevada Division of Insurance
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