Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Consumer Protection Contracts topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council hears vendor presentations on homeowner protection plans; asks for clearer mailers and more information
Summary
Representatives from Service Line Warranty (HomeServe/SLWA) and OnCourse/Encore presented voluntary homeowner protection programs; HomeServe sought a three‑year contract extension and both vendors were asked to provide homeowner-facing materials and contract details before any authorization.
Representatives from two companies that administer voluntary home-protection programs presented to the Montgomery City Council work session and answered council questions about enrollment, consumer protections and whether the city would have any operational role.
Bob Owen, representing SLWA/HomeServe, said the program serves about 2,000 households with roughly 4,300 plans enrolled, and that the partnership has funded about $257,000 in homeowner savings; he said the program has completed 431 repairs and maintains roughly $67,000 in a goodwill/pro-bono fund. Owen said the company would like the mayor to be authorized to sign a three-year extension so funds could be routed directly to the city for community use.
Councilmembers raised concerns that earlier mailers from the vendor looked like they came from the city. One councilmember said the outreach was confusing and misleading; Owen said the vendor had removed the city logo from the front of the mailer and added a cover letter explaining the partnership so materials would not appear to be a city communication.
Later in the session, a representative of OnCourse (presented as Encore/OnCourse in remarks) described a voluntary home-protection product that covers water and sewer service lines and other systems, with enrollment and billing handled by the provider and "no operational role or cost to the city." Jeff Ellis said introductory pricing could be offered (an example of $9.99 for combined water and sewer in year one) and cited coverage examples of $30,000 per type of claim. He said a program structured to Montgomery's demographics could achieve about 10,000 enrollments over three years and generate roughly $300,000 in revenue to the community depending on how a revenue share is arranged.
Council members asked both vendors to provide full homeowner-facing packets and to present to the full council in a later meeting before any contract action. Legal and procurement review were flagged as next steps; no authorization was granted during the work session.
Details cited by vendors during the presentation: SLWA/HomeServe reported 2,000 households enrolled and 4,300 plans, about 431 repairs completed and approximately $67,000 in a pro-bono fund; OnCourse/Encore described sample pricing ($9.99 introductory), $30,000 per-claim limits in example packages, a three-year enrollment model with a projection of 10,000 enrollments and potential community revenue of about $300,000.
