I’ll never forget the moment when my husband and I finally got the keys to our new home. We were ecstatic. We finally had some security and a house big enough to start a family. Fast forward 10 years, we have 2 kids and a dog, and it’s been the perfect home…well, mostly.

One of our must-haves when looking for a house was a big yard with lots of room for trees that the kids could play in. About 4 years ago, we had a disaster when our septic line broke down. While the garden, climbable trees, and shrubs were pretty to look at, the plants ended up causing some serious damage. and caused our pipes to eventually give out, and the sewage to come to the surface. (Who knew that sewer septic line damage can be caused by tree roots, simple wear and tear, or the line getting blocked, causing wastewater to back up into your home?!) I’ll spare you the gory details, but let’s just say it was a total mess. Yuck!

During the repair, it was hard to keep the kids inside, and keeping the dog in was even more stressful. The whole experience was horrendous, and the smell wasn’t even the worst part! Finding out that the repair wasn’t covered by our home insurance freaked us out. Turns out, most basic home insurance policies typically don’t cover damages to the septic line caused by wear and tear, so it ended up being a very expensive repair.

The technician who repaired the damage explained that when it comes to your septic line, there are never any warning signs or ways to prevent it because it’s buried underground. So after that, we knew we had to look into making sure we were covered if it ever happened again. So we found home warranty plans for the sewer line from HomeServe.

HomeServe offers an Exterior Sewer/Septic Line Coverage plan that costs $12.98 a month. The plan from HomeServe covers things like the following, up to the plan’s benefit amount: locating the blockage or collapse; excavation to expose pipes; pipe replacement or repair; repair or replacement of seals and joints; unblocking; fusing; fitting external valves; welding; and pipe cutting.

Is a $12.98 per month payment worth it? For peace of mind, my answer is yes! To know that should we have a sewer septic line breakdown again from just normal wear and tear, the pipe would now be covered allowing me to sleep better each night.

Incredibly we recently woke up one morning to that familiar scent of bubbling sewage. Only this time it was coming from our basement. My husband investigated and we were shocked to find that the line under our house had cracked, flooding our basement.

The difference was this time we didn’t panic. We knew exactly who to call. With a plan from HomeServe in place, I was able to call HomeServe and they scheduled the appointment with a local, licensed and insured technician. Before we knew it, he was at our house inspecting what needed to be done.

Assuming we’d need to vacate our home for a while, we packed up the kids and the dog and headed to my sister’s house. But it was a short visit. Thanks to HomeServe, we were settled back home in no time.

HomeServe is like having roadside assistance for your home systems. They have a 24/7 repair service hotline. That’s why over 4.5 million customers look to plans from HomeServe. The Do-It-For-You Experts®.

Plans from HomeServe can also offer peace of mind for your water heater and water line too. We are planning to sign up for those plans as well. Not only did having a plan from HomeServe save us money the second time, but it meant we had someone to rely on. So less stress. You never know when something similar might happen to you, so we’d recommend checking out plans from HomeServe.