A single lot can hold two households: a main house with a rented unit, a duplex, or a home with a small addition for a family member. The equipment is often shared in ways a buyer does not notice until a repair is needed. A contract written around one household's appliances may not say which unit they serve, and it may not say what happens when the other household calls.
Map the equipment by unit before you compare terms
Make a written list of every item you want covered and mark which unit it serves. Include the furnace or heat pump, the water heater, the cooking range, the laundry, the refrigerator, and any spare appliance in either space. Then mark anything the two units share: a single meter, a common well, a septic line, a boiler that feeds both sides, or a roof-mounted system with one control panel. Shared items are the first thing to raise with a seller, because the answer decides which unit the contract actually protects.
Ask who may call for service
The named buyer usually holds the paper, but the people who report a breakdown are often the occupants. Ask whether the terms let an occupant of the other unit make a claim, whether the contract needs the buyer's approval first, and how a change of occupant affects coverage. If the second unit is rented, ask whether the contract treats the tenant as an authorized caller and whether the lease needs to mention the contract at all. Get the answers in the contract itself, not only in a sales conversation.
Check the dwelling definition
Contracts describe the covered property in a definitions section. Some name a single dwelling at an address. Others refer to a home by its unit count. Read the definition word by word. If it describes a single dwelling and the parcel holds two, ask in writing how the contract treats the second unit, including whether that unit's equipment is covered at all.
Compare the exclusions for secondary space
Look for limits tied to a rented or secondary unit, such as exclusions for equipment used for business, for a tenant's own appliances, or for systems outside the named dwelling. These lines often decide more than the headline list of covered parts. Ask the seller to point to each exclusion that touches the second unit.
Questions to take to the seller
- Which unit does each covered item serve, and where does the contract say so?
- Can an occupant of the other unit request service, and how?
- Does a change of occupant or a change of ownership alter coverage?
- How does the contract define the dwelling, and does that match the parcel?
- Which shared systems are covered, and which are excluded?
Check the state rules
State rules for service contracts differ, and each state page names the statute or program that governs contracts in that state. The Georgia page at statecoverageindex.com/georgia.html shows how a state page is laid out. Read the state page for your own state, then read the contract. The state page does not replace the paper you are offered.