A service contract covers a named item at a named place for a stated period. When the item belongs to a landlord, a co-owner, or a family member, several of the usual terms stop fitting the household. This guide sets out what to check before you buy, so the contract matches the people who will actually use it.
Start with the ownership line
Write down who owns each appliance and system in the home: the refrigerator, cooking range, dishwasher, washer and dryer, water heater, furnace, and central air. Many leases assign some of these items to the owner and others to the tenant, and the split is often set out in a short appliance or maintenance clause rather than in the main rent terms. Read that clause before you look at any contract. A contract on an item you do not own may be unusable if the seller asks for proof of ownership, and a repair the owner is already required to make may be paid twice if the contract does not account for it.
Check whether the contract follows the address or the buyer
Contracts differ on whether coverage is tied to a property address, to the item's serial identifier, or to the named buyer. Ask the seller which one applies. If the contract is tied to the buyer and you move, the coverage may not travel with the item. If it is tied to the address and the owner changes, the new owner may not be the party who paid. Ask what happens to the contract on a move, a sale of the home, or a change of occupant, and whether any transfer must be requested in writing or happens automatically.
Ask who may authorize a repair
Find out who can call for service. Some contracts accept a request only from the named buyer. Others allow any occupant to call. If the owner controls the appliance, a tenant's call may be refused, and an owner's call may be the only one the contract accepts. Put the approval route in writing: who calls, who consents to the work, and who receives the bill. Then compare that route with the lease so that the tenant and the owner are not sending the same repair to different providers.
Check for overlap before you pay
An item may already be covered by a manufacturer warranty, by a service arrangement the owner keeps, or by a home warranty the owner bought. Ask the owner whether any cover is in force, when it started, and when it ends. Buying a second contract on the same item adds cost and can create two claim routes that conflict. Confirm the existing cover first, then decide what gap, if any, the new contract would fill.
Read the item list against the home
A contract usually lists the covered items by type, model, or serial identifier. Compare that list with the appliances actually in the home. Items may be missing, may be listed under a different model name, or may be listed at a previous address. Check the item description in the contract itself, not a summary on a sales page. If the list does not name the appliance in the house, the contract may not respond when that appliance fails.
Questions to put to the seller and the owner
Before you sign, ask each of the following and keep the answers in writing.
Who is the named buyer, and who may request service?
Does coverage follow the address, the item, or the buyer?
What happens if the lease ends early, the home is sold, or the owner replaces the item?
Does the lease or the owner already require the owner to repair this item?
Which items in the home are listed, and by what description?
How do you cancel, and how is any unused term handled? Check the cancellation rules on the state page for your state.
Compare with the published figures
This site's state pages name who regulates service contracts in each state, cite the governing statute or program, say whether the state publishes a roster, and print that roster in full where one exists, with its as-of date. Use them to confirm that a seller you are considering appears where the state says it should. A listing confirms only that registration step. It is not a judgment about the contract's terms or the price, and it does not show whether the contract fits a rented or shared home. Where this edition has not read a state, the state page says so.
Before the signature, you should be able to say who owns the item, who calls for repair, what happens to the contract on a move, and what already covers the same failure.